Quoting: jspenc40
Neither Leipsic nor Stephenson are going to be taking anywhere near enough faceoffs to matter. Panik and Hathaway can kill penalties, so Stephenson is pretty much rendered redundant at this point.
The Caps were 24th in PK% last year, down from 15th, the year before. On average, teams playing against the Caps did exactly as well as St. Louis (21.1%).
Their top two defensemen by SHTOI both left, this summer, after they lost their second leading forward, the summer before.
They fell to 31st in faceoffs last year, from 13th the year before. Most of that is also from losing Beagle, but a third of it is from new coaches deciding Kuznetsov should take copious defensive zone draws, even when he fell to about 42% efficiency, just to keep him out on the ice more.
Kuznetsov was a good sport about it, even sharing the coaching staff's optimistic hope that faceoffs don't matter if you can get the puck back later, with the press. But the real test of a new strategy is whether it wins in the playoffs, and that idea didn't get the defending champs out of the first round, so it's time to burn it, bury the ashes pretty deep, and get back to what works.
Do the Caps need a left shot checking center when they have Eller? Not really. But if Stephenson sticks around at a low cap hit, it gives the coaches more freedom to keep Eller rested and maximize his effectiveness.