Edited Jul. 13, 2019 at 10:14 a.m.
I feel bad because I was down on Shumakov on this board, the day before he quit Hershey, so maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better, which is silly, because Shumakov has earned more from hockey already than I will likely earn in my whole life, but still....
the Caps have three terrific Russian-speaking players and we'd all love to see them add a couple more and build on a strength to make their team even better. We're getting distracted talking about Gusev, but the salary cap would require moving Eller, who we know is a terrific two-way NHL center, making him more valuable than I'd predict Gusev is, this year.
So should the Caps focus on lower risk options like Shumakov, Nikushkin, Scherbak, or Goldobin? If I had to guess, only Goldobin earns more than a million this year. Woul the other three want to play together as a scoring line in Hershey, to salvage their NHL hopes, and help each other rekindle what once looked like promising offensive careers? No idea who plays center, but between two former first round picks and a guy who was top-20 in the KHL in points a couple years ago, they should really get something going. Hopefully they earn their way back to the NHL for next year, and hopefully one or two stick around with Washington, when they do?