2019 Caps off-season, some things stay the same, some things change.
My first attempt at constructing a roster, so be gentle.
Bura - Resign for a 1 year, 3.25 million dollar deal. Trade him if need be.
Conno - I think he gets offered too much term/AAV for the Caps to keep him, perhaps from Edmonton (who needs more scoring), so the Niskanen trade off-sets that to some degree hopefully with Cogliano. The Caps have a few promising defenseman in the pipeline, so Niskanen can hopefully be replaced by them soon.
Hagelin - I like his play a lot. He's very fast and high energy, with good shot suppression, forechecking and great PK skills. He's a keeper, IMO, if the Caps can get him for the right price. I think he'll be cheaper than his current 4 mill salary, as he's going to be on the wrong side of 30 this off season and his scoring is down. He doesn't need to score to be highly effective for the Caps though, as the Caps have enough scoring in the top 6 as it is (generally). He fits in really nicely for the Caps in the short sample we've seen. If he accepts a shorter term deal with the Caps, I'd absolutely do it. I'm skeptical he takes such a deal though (2x2.2), as I suspect some other team in need of his skills will pay him more.
Holtby - I'm keeping him for another run at the Cup. Next off-season he'll either demand more money and the Caps shell it out, or he walks and the Caps hope Samsonov can take the reigns with Copley in a backup role. The bigger priority, in my mind, is securing Backstrom.
Dowd - Resign Dowd to a 1 year 750k prove it again deal. He's been quite good overall. Far exceeded my expectations, but let's see if he can do it again before giving him a multi year deal. I think he takes this deal, since it seems like he likes it here and has fit in fairly well on that rotating 4th line.
Barber - Barber has done extremely well by the numbers in the AHL for Hershey this year. He's a PPG player this year, and I think it's time to finally give him a shot on the 4th line for the Caps. I'd give him a 1 year prove it deal and see if he can be a high speed/high energy scoring threat in limited minutes.
The Caps can roll with a very high shot suppressing third line with Hagelin-Eller-Cogliano, that doesn't need to score a lot, or they can put Bura up with Eller-Cogliano and hopefully get a bit more scoring. Hagelin helping suppress shots and up the energy on either line, so he fits well either way.
I'd let Stephenson walk and replace him with Boyd, as Boyd has slightly better possession numbers and seems to have more finish, plus he's still under contract.
Dallas has 3 UFA and 2 RFA defenseman coming up in the 2019 off-season. A move like this by them wouldn't surprise me to sure up a defenseman in a trade if they feel they cannot resign all of their defenseman.
Niskanen gets to finish his career in Dallas. The Caps get a decent forward that can slot in most anywhere in the bottom 6.
Admittedly, this trade was made a bit tricky due to Dallas trading away so many draft picks.
Trading Niskane makes perfect sense, especially to DAL who needs him, but Caps desperately needs good picks in return for Nisky, not an actual roster player. Issue is, as you pointed out, that Zuc trade took their picks away, but it depends if they re-sign him or not. I like Cogliano but we can replace that with our own guys or just use it to sign Con.
Second...Cogs is an overpay and the Caps can do a lot better with higher picks or better (cheaper) players if they're going to trade Niskanen.
Third...If you're going to spend over $3M on Cogliano, why not spend $3.75 x 4 years on Conno...who would take that deal to stay in DC, where he said he wants to be. We've seen too many times that guys take the money and run (Alzner in MTL, Neal in Calgary when he left Vegas, etc. etc) and they end up unhappy because they should have stayed where they were effective and appreciated. Maybe Alzner was not in the long term plans with the Caps, but plenty of times a guy is presented money and they take it...
Honestly I think if Hagelin willtake $2-$2.5M you keep him...and Bura you trade while his stock is recovering and start to develop Gersich at 3LW.
I'd prefer Connolly this off-season, but I suspect a team is going to way overpay him like Vancouver did with Beagle last off-season. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets $5 mill from a team like Edmonton. Would he turn down a huge $5 mill payday to stay with the Capitals for $3 to $3.5 mill? This I wouldn't bet my season on. We'll see though.
I would LOVE to have Hagelin back, but again I think the Capitals get outbid by someone. I suppose my deal is optimistic.
I considered a trade of Bura to Edmonton as well, get the picks the Caps need, and use that $3.25 mill to keep Connolly. The Niskanen trade can still happen as it is above. Perhaps if I were to do this again, I might try that instead!
McDavid, Connor
250 000 $)
netminder71 et Kylonetic8 a aimé ceci.
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