Caps - Moving Holtby is the best way to clear cap room

i think the Sens have a goalie

really smart, trade a franchise goalie in his peak years and roll with two backup type goalie...yeah, no GM would trade Holtby...not one of them.

No they don't. Anderson and Condon have been horrendous this year. The only thing worse then them is this trade. Holtby is arguably the best goalie in the NHL right now (Maybe Andersen, Vaselivsky, Hellebuyk) but still a top netminder and you want to get rid of him? Poor man

Trading Holtby only makes the slightest amount of sense during the offseason, and the circumstances would have to be very specific. For one, the Caps would need to have the ability to completely pimp out the roster with the freed up cap space. This means moving Orpik (which frees up more cap space), as well as signing someone like JVR. Second, we have to be 100000% confident in Grubauer's ability to be a high end starter. Third, he must be traded to the Western Conference. I don't want to risk him beating us in the playoffs until the Finals. Fourth, we better be getting one helluva return. A top young player, first round pick, plus a top four defenseman. Probably taking Orpik in the process as well.

Even if all this is true, I'd have to take a long, hard look at the deal. For example, this is something I'd consider doing.


Braden Holtby
Brooks Orpik



Mikko Rantanen
Nicholas Meloche
2018 1st round pick (COL)
Erik Johnson ($3M retained)

This team would score five goals most games, but give up eight.

Also, Holtby does not waive his no movement clause to suffer through a rebuild for the rest of his prime. Ottawa's a lovely town, but the state of the franchise just isn't that enticing this winter.

I think you've got to get more back for Carlson and Orpik. Schmidt is an upgrade over Orpik (plays two minutes, is a decade younger, similar zone starts, but slightly better corsi) but you're creating cap space with the trade do add Green and Karlsson who are each worse than Carlson at each end of the ice.

Still, props for thinking outside the box enough to consider that, in order to getsomething from other teams, one must give up something they value.

I suppose it's not impossible, given how solid the Caps were the last couple years with better defensemen, that adding some defensemen who are doing pretty well elsewhere will make them suddenly look great, but, then, that's not really what happened with Shattenkirk.

So while I would totally trade Holtby to open cap space to improvethe Caps, I don't think that's quitehappened here. Carlson>Karlsson and Bowey>Green, so... you've opened cap space and then wasted it.