I would not commit to B Dizzy and Namest for 6 years. The rest are some nice bargain prices for sure.

Those might not stay great deals forever, sure, but Dillon plays well with Carlson, and I'm optimistic that Namestnikov might find good linemates in WSH.

I'm guessing you think the only major problem with the Caps was the coaching with this lineup? Losing Holtby might be a net positive, Sammy/Vanacek do better overall I suspect.

I don't know. I'm kinda meh on Dillion now, won't cry if he signs somewhere else to be honest. Plus, he might not fit what the new coach wants so I won't mind if they look elsewhere. I like Namestnikov as a 3rd, sometimes 2nd liner. He could go to the left wing which could bump Hags to the 4th line where he belongs.

Kind of. Every team has a lot of things it could improve.

The team won the division last year with basically the above lineup, plus a week or two of Kovalchuk.

Are Samsonov and Vanecek as good as Holtby by save percentage behind similar defenses? Probably. Samsonov's stats looked better than Holtby's last year with both on WSH. The year before, Vanecek's stats looked better than Samsonov's with both in Hershey. But the NHL season is long and opponents are rough on goalies. Holtby has the endurance to lead a team through a season and the playoffs. Samsonov might not, yet.

I created a player for a $1M post-buyout Marc-Andre Fleury, above, as a backup option if Holtby gets a big UFA offer, but then I deleted it because it was beside the point.



Dillon played some tough minutes in WSH and got some great corsi, but not much personal offense. He's a big guy who stays in position and plays the body, not the puck. That's the classic type of guy you pair with a puck carrier like Carlson. On the other hand, Carlson didn't get many points playing with Dillon, and didn't win a playoff series. So maybe Carlson and Kempny play pretty well together, just based on points and series wins, even if nothing about Kempny's pre-Carlson stats or style said "top pairing D?"

I'd love to see Namestnikov center Ovechkin and Kuznetsov, so Kuznetsov doesn't have to backcheck as much, and has more energy in his legs to create rushes. That's the way the above contract turns out very good. Otherwise, it turns out to be just slightly a bad deal for the team, but for a very long time. The only things Namestnikov brings that Hagelin doesn't are right-handed faceoffs and speaking Russian.

Tarik's article in the Athletic yesterday made it seem like getting Dillon signed was the top priority right now, so I'd assume they've talked with Lavi and he's on board with it.

In the regular season when they were paired together, I think they just had really bad puck luck. They had a 0.946 PDO together, which is by far the lowest Carlson had with anyone he played at least 100 minutes with. That suggests the lack of offense from Carlson is just an artifact of the small sample size. In the playoffs, Carlson got hurt right away and I don't think he was ever 100% after that, so it's pretty hard to grade the pairing for that stretch. The early results were promising enough that I want to see more of Dillon and Carlson together, personally.

You guys are right about the sample size. If they sign him fine. I won't hate it. I like his size and the fact that he punched Malkin in the face several times.

I'm scared of seeing Kuz on the wing. I don't think he can handle getting creamed to the boards as many times as wingers do. He's gotten his hand and shoulder hurt a few times I've seen him driven into the boards over the years, don't think he's durable enough but what do i know?

Good point. But I'm just as scared when I see Kuznetsov heading into the faceoff dot to give the puck away. There's probably a compromise, like having them each take strong side draws, having Kuznetsov play center ahead of the red line, so he's not banging around in the corners, and having any right handed center, even if it's just Boyd, play RW in the offensive zone, banging in the corners, and center in the defensive zone, banging in front of his own net. Detroit used to have guys cover the corners for Lidstrom so he could focus on carrying the puck, and not get hurt. Kuznetsov is worth the same special treatment, but that's no reason for him to start 55% of shifts without the puck.