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FMRU

Created by: Eli
Team: 2018-19 Washington Capitals
Initial Creation Date: Jul. 5, 2018
Published: Jul. 5, 2018
Salary Cap Mode: Basic
Description
New assistant coaches:

Brooks Orpik
Peter Bondra

Team sports are about synergy and communication. If three of your best players speak a different language, and you play five guys at a time, you make a trade that gives up some cap flexibility to gain a big linguistic advantage. Half the time everybody still practices together, but in half the practices, Bondra runs the Russians, and they develop different skills and set plays, making the team as a whole maddening to defend against.

Important note: Zadorov hits more and scores more points than Zaitsev and is younger and cheaper. If anyone can convince Colorado to part with him, that'd be great. A couple Avs fans ignored my latest offer of Connolly, Siegenthaler, O'Brien, and Boyd..... but at least they didn't complain half as much about it as they did about my first offer of Burakovsky and Kempny. :) What can you do?
Free Agent Signings
RFAYEARSCAP HIT
7$3,501,202
3$1,001,001
UFAYEARSCAP HIT
Galiev, Stanislav
3$1,001,001
3$1,001,001
1$1,001,001
Trades
WSH
  1. Zaitsev, Nikita
Additional Details:
Zaitsev hits almost as much as Orpik, and speaks Russian, but earns 4.5M per year, for the next 6 years. He had only 13 points in the regular season, but I'm betting that part of that was due to a language barrier.
TOR
  1. Boyd, Travis
  2. Kempný, Michal
Additional Details:
Kempny was 5th in the playoffs in shot blocks, fourth on the Caps in minutes, and his five points included an assist on the Cup winning goal. Boyd got into a couple playoff games as a 24 year old rookie. Kempny earns 2.5M for four years. Boyd earns 800k. Maybe a Leafs fan could build out this team for them. It throws off each side in terms of right shots and left shots, but the Leafs get a top four defenseman with a Cup ring at about half off.
DraftRound 1Round 2Round 3Round 4Round 5Round 6Round 7
2019
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2020
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2021
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ROSTER SIZESALARY CAPCAP HITOVERAGES TooltipBONUSESCAP SPACE
23$79,500,000$70,479,501$82,500$600,000$9,020,499
Left WingCentreRight Wing
$9,538,462$9,538,462
LW
M-NTC
UFA - 3
$3,900,000$3,900,000
C
UFA - 7
Galiev, Stanislav
$1,001,001$1,001,001
$3,000,000$3,000,000
RW, LW
UFA - 1
$6,700,000$6,700,000
C
M-NTC
UFA - 2
$5,750,000$5,750,000
RW
M-NTC
UFA - 7
$863,333$863,333 (Performance Bonus$600,000$600K)
LW
UFA - 1
$2,415,000$2,415,000
C
UFA - 5
$1,500,000$1,500,000
RW, LW
UFA - 1
$650,000$650,000
C
UFA - 1
$3,501,202$3,501,202
RW
UFA - 6
$650,000$650,000
LW
UFA - 1
$650,000$650,000
C, LW
UFA - 1
$1,000,000$1,000,000
RW, LW
UFA - 1
Left DefenseRight DefenseGoaltender
$1,275,000$1,275,000
LD
UFA - 5
$4,500,000$4,500,000
RD
UFA - 6
$6,100,000$6,100,000
G
M-NTC
UFA - 2
$1,001,001$1,001,001
RD
UFA - 2
$8,000,000$8,000,000
RD
M-NTC
UFA - 8
$650,000$650,000
LD
UFA - 1
$5,750,000$5,750,000
RD
M-NTC
UFA - 3
$1,001,001$1,001,001
G
UFA
$1,001,001$1,001,001
RD
UFA - 2

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Jul. 5, 2018 at 5:28 p.m.
#1
Maple Leafs
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Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 58
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If Leafs than trade Jake to the Jets of Tyler.... that could work.... but they still be short a RD.... but they are now so lol
Eli liked this.
Jul. 5, 2018 at 5:33 p.m.
#2
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IF Zaitsev is better than Kempny (debatable) then it isn't by much. But Kempny is on a great contract while Zaitsev is on a bad one. And no way in hell Zaitsev plays on the 1st pair over Carlson and Niskanen who are far better.

Also: STOP TALKING ABOUT HITS LIKE IT'S IMPORTANT. IT ISN'T.
Eli liked this.
Jul. 5, 2018 at 5:38 p.m.
#3
Maple Leafs
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Posts: 58
Likes: 14
Quoting: ClockReads2113
IF Zaitsev is better than Kempny (debatable) then it isn't by much. But Kempny is on a great contract while Zaitsev is on a bad one. And no way in hell Zaitsev plays on the 1st pair over Carlson and Niskanen who are far better.

Also: STOP TALKING ABOUT HITS LIKE IT'S IMPORTANT. IT ISN'T.


Im not sure Id call his contract bad... but he is a second pair RD....
Eli liked this.
Jul. 5, 2018 at 6:27 p.m.
#4
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Who adds what?
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Quoting: NewfieQuilty
Im not sure Id call his contract bad... but he is a second pair RD....


Definitely. Eats a few minutes, but didn't do much with them, this year.

Quoting: ClockReads2113
1 IF Zaitsev is better than Kempny (debatable) then it isn't by much. 2 But Kempny is on a great contract while Zaitsev is on a bad one. 3 And no way in hell Zaitsev plays on the 1st pair over Carlson and Niskanen who are far better.

4 Also: STOP TALKING ABOUT HITS LIKE IT'S IMPORTANT. IT ISN'T.


1. Agree. 2. Agree. 3. Agree. 4. Slightly disagree, but no reason to shout...

A lot of teams don't seem to value hits. Most of them, even. Then wherever Lamoriello goes, he signs a couple guys who put up 200 or so hits a year, and the teams do okay. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but it's one strategy for building an affordable team to compete in the salary cap era. Zaitsev is massively underperforming his contract, which is supposed to compensate him for a level of offense he never reached, but I think maybe 1M or 2M of it are for hits? He comes through on that part. Last year as an older rookie he got over 30 points, with over 20 at evens. This past year he played tougher minutes and stopped getting power plays and only got 13 points, all but one at evens. He still had as many even strength points as Djoos, who took shifts with Carlson or Orlov this year, without anybody getting angry enough to shout about it.

But I don't have a first pair, so Zaitsev can't be on it.

The Caps have three NHL #1 defensemen, and I almost always put one on each pair. Caps fans each have their favorite guy, but I just like to pair a strong defenseman with a weak one. I get this comment a lot of, "why isn't so and so on this rank of pair." I think it's as funny as when parents complain to the principal that their kid isn't in the advanced reading group in Kindergarten. First of all, no one in Kindergarten needs to be reading. It's not developmentally appropriate because half of the kids aren't ready for it yet, and they get bored and act up, and no one learns much. Kindergarteners do better at singing songs and playing games and dancing and learning to clean up. But back on the hockey pairings, I like the way the Caps put them together in 1998, with a veteran teaching someone not as good on each pair. And yeah, I definitely didn't put Zaitsev on that Russian pair to teach Orlov anything, but the reasons I put him there do have a lot to do with language and educational development. If I had to learn new hockey plays in my second language, of Spanish, I would be bad at them. Zaitsev has been asked to do that in Toronto and has not developed as expected. My hypothesis here is that this could be part of why he has underperformed his contract, so far.

So, like it says in the description, I built a five man Russian unit coached by Peter Bondra. They're going to practice together half the time, and with the whole team the other half. They'll work on different skills, drills, and set plays, and be hell to defend against. Now, do you think Carlson or Niskanen speaks better Russian? Which one of them do you want on that "top pair?" My guess is that if you make learning plays and strategies easy for Zaitsev and Galiev, they can play up to their potential. As evidence, I would point to Galiev, who was perpetually a healthy scratch under Barry Trotz, ranking fourth in playoff points this year, in the KHL. https://en.khl.ru/stat/

The Caps have already drafted and developed him once, but they didn't quite get it right. With better leadership and better communication, I think Bondra, Galiev, and Zaitsev could help Ovechkin and Kuznetsov play the best hockey of their careers.

Obviously, I'd rather get Zadorov from Colorado than Zaitsev, because someone trending upward appears more valuable, but all the trades I've suggested have been shouted down on both sides, even when I offered Kempny and Burakovsky, Colorado fans were uninterested. Zaitsev had a good rookie year with average top four level even strength offense. Toronto paid him like he would keep improving and turn into Erik Karlsson. Instead, he is their Orpik, at the same price, but over a decade younger, and Russian-speaking, with three more points last year (although Orpik, like Kempny, got ahead in the playoffs), but with potentially great chemistry with Orlov, Ovechkin, and Kuznetsov, because they all grew up speaking Russian, and when the arena is quiet enough, they can just yell out exactly what they're going to do on the ice, in Russian, and 90% of the defenders against them in the NHL would have no clue. Like, "I'm going to fake a pass to you but shoot low and to the left! Go in for the rebound and pass it across to Stan while I hit the guy covering him!" And nobody knows. How easy is that? It's like being invisible.

I am confident that Toronto can afford a right handed defenseman elsewhere. What should Toronto throw in to this trade get that cap space, and make up for the chance that Zaitsev does not build back up to his rookie numbers , but just becomes another Orpik. How big is that chance and how much are $2M of cap space worth to the team that just signed Tavares and has four huge RFA deals to work out in the next year with Matthews, Nylander, Kapanen, and.... who is it again?
Jul. 5, 2018 at 6:43 p.m.
#5
Thread Starter
Who adds what?
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Joined: Jul. 2017
Posts: 13,677
Likes: 2,703
Quoting: ClockReads2113
IF Zaitsev is better than Kempny (debatable) then it isn't by much. But Kempny is on a great contract while Zaitsev is on a bad one. And no way in hell Zaitsev plays on the 1st pair over Carlson and Niskanen who are far better.

Also: STOP TALKING ABOUT HITS LIKE IT'S IMPORTANT. IT ISN'T.

1. Read the description.
2. Don't shout.
3. You posted a whole other team to show off how bad you didn't read the description.
4. Read the description, and maybe the answer to your panicked, shouting comment.
Jul. 5, 2018 at 6:55 p.m.
#6
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Who adds what?
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Quoting: NewfieQuilty
If Leafs than trade Jake to the Jets of Tyler.... that could work.... but they still be short a RD.... but they are now so lol


If you want to trade Jake Gardiner for Kempny, that could work, too. I was thinking about adding another Russian speaker with some toughness, but just upgrading the offense a bit could be worth giving some cap help to the enemy. Alexeyev will come along soon enough.
Jul. 5, 2018 at 9:03 p.m.
#7
Thread Starter
Who adds what?
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Joined: Jul. 2017
Posts: 13,677
Likes: 2,703
Quoting: ClockReads2113
Also: STOP TALKING ABOUT HITS LIKE IT'S IMPORTANT. IT ISN'T.


(scenes from Liam O'Brien's upcoming arbitration hearing)
 
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