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Created by: capsfan26

Team: 2022-23 Washington Capitals

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 6, 2022

Published: Jul. 6, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Description

Sounds like the Caps are planning on Backstrom attempting to come back this season. So they can't use his cap hit for a replacement. That means a chance for the younger guys to make an impression and not much else. No chance of trading Eller now unless you think you can find an upgrade elsewhere either.

So about the only moves likely now are a bottom-pair defenseman, sorting out the goalie situation and a middle-six winger that they can get on the cheaper side via trade (last of the three positions they'll look to address).

Unfortunately with Wilson and Backstrom out long term but needing to keep cap space for them, I don't know if the Caps can hold serve and stay in playoff contention until Wilson and then potentially Backstrom comes back. However, by the time the trade deadline arrives next season, they should have a good sense of where Backstrom is regarding rehab.

Here's a guess for the opening-night lineup...

Free Agent Signings

RESERVE LIST		YEARS	CAP HIT
Hugo Has, Martin		3	$750,000
Maass, Benton		2	$750,000

RFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Johansen, Lucas	2	$755,000
Samsonov, Ilya	2	$2,250,000
Vanecek, Vitek	2	$1,500,000

UFA	YEARS	CAP HIT
Larsson, Johan	2	$1,800,000
Pinho, Brian	1	$750,000
Gersich, Shane	1	$750,000
Kulak, Brett	3	$3,000,000
Holtby, Braden	1	$1,750,000

Trades

WSH

2022 2nd round pick (NJD)

NJD

Vanecek, Vitek

Additional Details:

Not necessarily New Jersey, but any team in the market for a 1B goalie who can start 35-40 games.

WSH

2022 2nd round pick (BUF)
2022 3rd round pick (BUF)

BUF

2022 1st round pick (WSH)

Additional Details:

Caps trade down and out of the first round to acquire an additional pick. Maybe not Buffalo but a team high in the second round jumps up to the Caps spot at No. 20 overall and the Caps collect early second and early third round picks.

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2022
2023
2024

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$82,500,000	$70,230,834	$100,000	$82,500	$12,269,166

Roster

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Ovechkin, Alex $9,500,000$9,500,000 LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 4	Kuznetsov, Evgeny $3,900,000$3,900,000 C M-NTC UFA - 3	Mantha, Anthony $2,850,000$2,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 2
Snively, Joe $800,000$800,000 LW UFA - 2	McMichael, Connor $863,333$863,333 LW, C RFA - 2	Oshie, T.J. $5,750,000$5,750,000 RW M-NTC UFA - 3
Sheary, Conor $1,500,000$1,500,000 LW, RW UFA - 1	Eller, Lars $2,415,000$2,415,000 C UFA - 1	Leason, Brett $775,000$775,000 RW RFA - 2
Larsson, Johan $1,800,000$1,800,000 C, LW UFA	Dowd, Nic $1,300,000$1,300,000 C UFA - 3	Hathaway, Garnet $1,500,000$1,500,000 RW, LW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Fehérváry, Martin $791,667$791,667 LD/RD RFA - 1	Carlson, John $8,000,000$8,000,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 4	Samsonov, Ilya $2,250,000$2,250,000 G UFA - 1
Orlov, Dmitry $1,275,000$1,275,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 1	Jensen, Nick $2,500,000$2,500,000 RD UFA - 1
	van Riemsdyk, Trevor $950,000$950,000 RD UFA - 1	Holtby, Braden $1,750,000$1,750,000 G UFA
Kulak, Brett $3,000,000$3,000,000 LD/RD UFA - 4

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
Protas, Aliaksei $789,167$789,167 ($82,500$82K) RW, LW, C UFA - 2	Wilson, Tom $5,166,667$5,166,667 RW M-NTC UFA - 2	Hagelin, Carl $2,750,000$2,750,000 LW UFA - 1
Johansen, Lucas $755,000$755,000 LD UFA - 2	Bäckström, Nicklas $9,200,000$9,200,000 C NMC UFA - 3
Jonsson-Fjällby, Axel $750,000$750,000 LW UFA - 1

Special Teams

Power Play 1
Sheary, C.		Kuznetsov, E.		Oshie, T.
	Carlson, J.		Ovechkin, A.

Power Play 2
Snively, J.		McMichael, C.		Mantha, A.
	Orlov, D.		Ovechkin, A.

Penalty Kill 1
	Dowd, N.	Hathaway, G.
	Orlov, D.	Jensen, N.

Penalty Kill 2
	Larsson, J.	Eller, L.
	Kulak, B.	van Riemsdyk, T.

Jul. 6, 2022 at 12:29 p.m.

qc14

Joined: Sep. 2020

Posts: 3,254

Likes: 1,863

Not opposed to trading down or even out of the first, but would want a little more than 74 as a sweetener to move down from 20 to 41. Everything else looks good though. Would be really scared about that forward depth if I were mac but its not my job on the line!

Jul. 6, 2022 at 12:35 p.m.

All_Knowing

Joined: Aug. 2020

Posts: 1,662

Likes: 1,041

No disrespect to you because I believe this is where the Caps are moving towards, but if this is the team the Caps put out, they will be mediocre AT BEST. I love Backy, but I really wish he was going to take the year to rehab. And Hags - great determination to come back and you never like to see injuries, but the dude is waiting until mid August to make a decision. That is $2.75mil just hanging out there a MONTH after free agency. Bad timing.

Kalopsia liked this.

Jul. 6, 2022 at 12:42 p.m.

Scoob1978

Joined: May 2017

Posts: 1,127

Likes: 448

VV isn't the worst back up plan for the Devils but it sounds like they are making a push for Campbell (Public Service announcement: his UFA rights have 0 value regardless of what Larry Brooks says and is certainly not worth the 2oa, Blackwood or Wood) or Husso so if they trade anything for him it would be after the draft and free agency so a 2022 won't work.

Jul. 6, 2022 at 1:09 p.m.

sabresparaavida

Joined: Aug. 2020

Posts: 1,048

Likes: 847

I’d accept as a Sabres fan

Jul. 6, 2022 at 2:36 p.m.

capsfan26

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 33

Likes: 5

Quoting: Scoob1978

Appreciate the insight. That makes sense. I could see the Caps waiting until after the big UFA goalies sign and trading either Vanecek or Samsonov for a 2023 pick to a team that misses out on the higher end UFAs.

Scoob1978 liked this.

Jul. 6, 2022 at 2:39 p.m.

capsfan26

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 33

Likes: 5

Quoting: All_Knowing

I agree - this is not a good situation for the offseason. Uncertainty about Backstrom's future, but he says he wants to play this season. One guy had to retire after similar surgery. Another came back a year later and couldn't even last a full season. I'm not hopeful. It's unfortunate but with Backstrom's injury, Wilson out probably half the season and Hagelin's contract potentially not headed to LTIR for the full season, GMBM won't be able to do much at all except let the prospects get experience this year. There is definitely a scenario where I see the Caps not being close to a playoff spot come the trade deadline and shipping out expiring contracts or useful pieces before trying to reload next offseason once they have a better grasp of Backstrom's recovery, Wilson's health and get contracts like Eller's off the books.

Jul. 6, 2022 at 11:47 p.m.

Kalopsia

Joined: Jun. 2018

Posts: 630

Likes: 297

Quoting: All_Knowing

All I can hope at this point is that it's a smokescreen and they're really planning to "Kucherov" Backstrom. Nick's gotta know that he torpedos the team's chances this year by insisting he'll be back in-season, right? They said after the season that things have to change, they can't just immediately decide to do the exact same thing as last year, right? Ugh.

All_Knowing liked this.

Jul. 7, 2022 at 8:56 a.m.

capsfan26

Thread Starter

Joined: Jul. 2021

Posts: 33

Likes: 5

Quoting: Kalopsia

Hopefully it is a smokescreen. But GMBM tends to talk straight and not dance around things. So it does sound like they have to keep that cap space available for Backstrom even though no one has come back from this type of surgery same season (and best I can tell only one player has come back a year later and he didn't even last a full season). If - and it's a big if - they know Backstrom is on LTIR until the end of the season they could go get a JT Miller type player who has one year left on his contract and then assess after the season if Backstrom is coming back or if they can re-sign that center long term. Either way, they are absolutely out of getting major player (Forsberg, Kadri, etc.) on a long-term deal. There's no chance they can commit to that if they have to assume Backstrom's cap hit comes back even if it isn't until next season. It could be a rough year for the Caps this year, which is too bad.

All_Knowing liked this.

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