It's not Wilson's fault that Sundqvist put himself in a bad spot. One of the first things you learn in hockey is to keep your head up, if Sundqvist had his head up this hit could've been avoided.

thats obviously your opinion but comparing wilson to Clarkson is just silly. assuming you're talking about David Clarkson? his career high was 46 points ? but his defensive numbers are terrible. wilson offers way more outside of scoresheet/ boxsores. hes more comparable to a lucic in his abilities. hes physical frees up space for his superstar line mates by retrieving to puck and forechecking. hes also one of the capitals best pk guys, but again you seem to have your made up on wilson even if he was able to score 40-50 points you seem like you would still hate on him so this conversation seems pointless right?

yeah I said the same thing... he seems to not like wilson but the highest form of praise is jealously and hate

I guess my major point is that the hit was avoidable and wilson didn't need to kill him.

This is such a worn-out take. Initial contact to the head is a suspension. Nobody is arguing that Sundqvist did the right thing. Wilson should've cleaned his clock with a legal check if he wants to police the middle of the ice (in a meaningless preseason game).

A repeat offender injuries a player and of course that repeat offenders fan base again says it was the other guys fault. The league must be against Wilson, they just don't want him to succeed. Come on dude, Wilson isn't a safe player, which is why this suspension has come down. Since his #1 skill is questionable hits that "intimidate" the opposition, this is what you can expect from him. I can't wait for whoever steps up to the top line in his absence to take his job by playing just okay enough to move Wilson down. Listening to cap fans explain why their prized 5 million dollar man is still worth that much while playing 10 mins a night on the 4th line will be amazing.

So you shouldnt hit anyone in preseason? Wilson doesn't even get him in the head he gets him in the back of the right shoulder, if Sundqvist kept his head up and didnt turn his body right before impact Wilson would've gone right through the middle of his chest.

He will play 1RW for at least the next 3 years, I wont be surprised if he sees some PP time too, I see him getting 40-50 points this year. He opens up space for Ovi and Kuzy on the top line and he can eat minutes playing against top competition. This is Wilson Derangement Syndrome at its finest.

Are you sure you want to go down this line of thinking?

Wilson is way better defensively than Clarkson.

Clarkson was a bottom 6 defensive specialist and penalty killer who had 1 good season were he scored 30 goals.

Wilson was a bottom 6 grinder/enforcer who killed penalties sometimes (He was usually the one sitting in the box for the caps) and had 1 biggish year when he got to play on the top line.

They are the same.

But since you want to go down a different route, let's see where that leads us.

Lucic was never a bottom 6 winger, he scored 40+ points in his second year and in his 4th and 5th seasons he scored 60+ points.

Wilson's career high prior to last season was 23 points in a season. And then he exploded for an overwhelming 35 points last season!

Okay so already we've established that Lucic was a scoring top 6 player while Wilson has no record beyond a small sample size last season.

Now let's look at things from another perspective. If you are suggesting the 5 million dollar contract is okay because he is like Lucic and he makes 6 million, then I'll ask you this. Does Lucic deserve 6 million a year? Ask Edmonton fans how happy they are to be spending 6 million a year on a bottom 6 slow winger who can't do anything except take bad penalties and hit guys every once in a while. Lucic shouldn't be getting 3 million. So now we are comparing Wilson to a player who is better than him, but is also making more than double what he is worth.

Wilson is the same player as Matt Martin, the only difference is Matt Martin hasn't been given any time playing with elite superstars.

Please. Take your homer goggles off, put your reading glasses on, watch the hit again and convince me that he didnt hit him in the head. https://youtu.be/qGUJ9dtEf1I

I just watched the hit, he totally blindsided him. He hit him in the head from behind. This is very close to Matt Cooke's hit on Savard that ended his career. Dirty, dirty play by a guy who's trying to justify his terrible contract.

again I said his playing style is like lucic and I also stated a lot of what he does doesn't show up on the boxscore/ scoresheet. obviously you didn't read that but I don't mind holding your hand. wilson at 24 could possibly put up the same if not close to lucic numbers at 24. thats what us as capital fans are hoping for. its not that unthinkable if you actually think about it hes playing with kuzy and ovi which if you look who lucic played with is a more fair comparison. now you are comparing lucic making 6 million towards the end of his carer yeah thats dumb. if they had lucic at 24 years old at 6 million they would be going crazy right now.

https://twitter.com/jthom1/status/1046835153060986881

Yeah, must've hit his shoulder eh.

Not true... Wilson will loose $27,778 per day of his suspension... not per game... this will be a huge hit to him.

You know it's okay to not like a move your GM makes, that is allowed. "He will play 1RW for at least the next 3 years" didn't he sign for 6 years? LOL. Even if he gets 40 points, far better players could be had for less than half the cost and would easily score far more points. Everything that you guys claim makes Wilson a 5 million dollar man, other players out there do the same for far less and contribute more. For example, Zach Hyman. He is a terrific forechecker, offers some sand paper and also is the best PK guy on the team. The difference between him and Wilson? Less than half the paycheck for 1, and also he is a far better scorer, far better penalty killer and doesn't spend nearly 200 minutes in the box each year.

This is why everyone craps all over Wilson and his contract. No matter how you slice it, Wilson's contract is bad. He'll have to score 60 points before people start agreeing with you. And starting the season suspended is setting the stage for exactly what everyone who isn't a crazed caps fan has been saying from the start. You will regret this contract so badly. He is untradeable and will cost you so much in the coming years.

Oh I read it all, its completely helping my arguement. His game is closer to Lucic than Clarkson, (Clarkson was considered a poor man's Lucic when he signed that big contract), that still makes it extremely overpriced. Lucic had 2 seasons of 60 plus points and then had 27 in 46 games in his 24 year old season, so yeah Wilson can totally reach those 27 points.

You really need to just listen to your self, your whole defense of Wilson is essentially this. "Its not a bad contract, what if he does all these things he's never done before? Then it'll totally be worth while."

Basically you are saying its good........as long as he proves to be better than he has ever been able to do. Your GM put 5 million on double zero on the craps table and took a spin. And the results so far? A 12 game suspension.

I dont like everything our GM does, the Oshie contract is god awful. Zach Hyman was the most hit player in the NHL last year and brings way less to the table than Wilson. Wilson has great chemistry with Ovi and Kuzy and creates space for them on the ice. He is a physical force and a strong skater. Wilson's contract takes him until he's 30 so its really not that bad. it's not good but I wouldnt say it's bad, more of a not great. Matt Cooke launched into Savard's head way after he passed the puck, the hit is not comparable. It's not a dirty hit, just because it was violent doesn't mean it is dirty.

wilson might have got a slight overpayment but who hasnt? and wilson playing with ovechkin and kuzy put up great numbers? what evidence do you have that will support his numbers going down playing on that line? or are you just talking out of your ass and being negative? and yeah averaging .75 ppg in the playoffs would lead me to believe he can stay consistent but again no one knows if this contract is bad or not its too early to attack it or defend it. best argument I have is he played a major role in winning a cup in a city that has never won one

edit: also lucic played with more skilled players from the beginnin. Wilson has the opportunity this season

He put his shoulder into the back of the guys head when he was looking towards the net. Wilson came from his blindspot and lowered himself to make the hit. It served no purpose by to injure the player. It was gutless and dirty and he has a record of doing exactly that. Zach Hyman has 30 less points in his career than Wilson in 211 less games. You're right Hyman and his 2.25 million dollar deal isn't even close to as valuable as Wilson's 5+million dollar deal. Hyman's value is that he gets the puck back while forechecking better than most other players in the NHL. He goes in, grinds the defence and gets the puck to the good players and they score. That is essentially what Wilson's value is, isn't it? "He creates space for his linemates", isn't that the Wilson charm?

According to you guys, Wilson is way better than Hyman. Why? He hits more? Its hard to hit people when you're suspended. He's an amazing forechecker? So is Hyman. He scores more than Hyman? There is 100% zero evidence that is the case (Please read my remark on their career points). The only way you can argue that Wilson is better value than Hyman would be if you could say, "Well at least Wilson doesn't have a bad contract." We both know that isn't the case. No matter how you slice it, everything that makes Wilson worth 5 million in your eyes, there are many other players who are better at whatever aspect you want to use and they all make way less money.

if you want to compare caps vs leafs then lets go.....

Matthews will make 11-12 million and Kuznetsov is better and makes 7.8 million.? lets jump into this one? Matthews might get paid 12 million making him the 2nd highest paid player nhl and he's never broke 70 points? now that will be the worst contract in the nhl right?

wilson averaged .75 ppg in the playoffs. won a cup. and much like Hyman raised him game when playing with talent. compare wilson playing with kuzy not with he played with beagle or eller. also Hyman is on his bridge deal after this contract he'll get close to wilson money. kind of like Carlson did with the capitals.

Lucic is a skilled player, he was in junior and the moment he played in the NHL. Wilson wasn't and isn't a skill player and moved up to the top line after they tried several other options that failed, it doesn't mean he was secretly an awesome player.

Here is the thing, the NHL operates on a hard cap and with it you have to make the smartest moves as a Gm to make sure you can navigate the cap situation all the time. That isn't happening in Washington and the team is going to get worse and worse over the next number of years because of players aging and some really bad contracts. Wilson making 5+ million is terrible, the term on Oshie's deal is terrible, Carlsson's contract will be really bad within 3 years, he's 28 and his best hockey is in the rearview mirror (he'll be good for a few more years but then he'll be a 2nd pair guy making 8 million, then a bottom pair guy making 8 million.) Giving huge term or cap hits to depth guys is bailing water out of the boat by punching holes in the hull.

I'll use TO as an example to explain how it should go. They have a young core of very good young players (Marner, Matthews, Nylander) and have some really good pieces signed to good contracts (Rielly, Kadri, Hyman, etc). Many people are claiming if they sign the big 3 to big contracts (7+ for Nylander, 8+ for Marner, and 11+ for Matthews, I am being conservative on the guesses), they will have zero chance of being competitive because they won't be able to afford to surround them with good players. That is looking at things backwards. You don't pay your stars less (guys who make those around them better, for Washington that means Ovie, Backstrom, Kuznetsov etc), just so you can overpay your support guys (Wilson) way more.

Depth guys are easily replaceable, and shouldn't make big bucks. So what I am getting at here is, Wilson's contract is terrible.

Matthews has played 2 season's in the NHL, by the same age, Kuznetsov hadn't played in the NHL. Kuznetsov scored a whopping 37 points in his rookie season in the NHL, Matthews scored 40 goals (while playing with 2 other rookies on a team that iced up to 9 rookies a night on some nights). Kuznetsov is not better than Matthews, everyone outside of Washington agrees with this.

Hyman has 3 more seasons on this deal and if he wants 5+ on his next deal, he will be traded. Because TO understands that certain rolls on the team are worth only so much money, Hyman's roll is not worth 5+ million, he can't do enough on his own to make that. If he did make 5 Million, I would be outraged, because what he offers should never be paid more than 2.5 million a season.

12 million for a guy who isn't a top 10 player is crazy bad......

Matthews is better based off what? scoring? winning? oh yeah he had more goals..... youre a hypocrite. if Matthews has another 60-70 points season you'd still pay him 12 million bc he does doesn't stuff that doesn't show up on the scoresheet that would make you feel 12 million is okay.

and kuzy is better more points and a cup to >70 points and a 1st round out but your a leafs fan and think Matthews is close to mcdcvid in skill

I suppose you were one the idiots who thought he shouldn't have been suspended in the playoffs for not one, not two, but THREE suspendable hits

Ridiculously primitive response lol !!! Psycho Head Hunter should get 20! Set an example already.