Why would you trade your prized offseason signing? Haha. The Leafs will trade you the Blues Jays famous popcorn and Josh Donaldson barber for Kempny

Lol.

I accept! Thank you. That popcorn looks delicious. The Caps have good popcorn, but you can never have too much good popcorn, or haircuts. Awesome.

Anybody else want him?

2.5M isn’t really that terrible if Kempny only turns out to be able to consistently play 3rd pair minutes, but I expect him to continue to flourish next to Carlson. I was hoping for 2-3 years, but he’ll likely get a 2nd or 3rd rounder out of a trade in a couple years. With Orlov, Djoos, Johansen, Siegenthaler, and Alexyev on the left side, he really won’t be necessary all 4 years of that contract.

Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price was quoted on several occasions as saying the Blue Jays have the best popcorn of any ballpark, so you can definitely take that to the bank :P Perhaps there will be some secret recipe/kernels in it for the Capitals, so that they can have the best popcorn in the NHL. I really want Donaldson's barber to take a crack at Ovechkin's hair style hahahahaha

Whoa. Slow down. Popcorn is a great return for Kempny, but if that's what's happening with the barber, you're going to have to replace him with the 3rd round pick Kempny rode in on, as per Brady's suggestion. Improving concessions is a great move for any sports venue, but Ovechkin is simply not giving up his ad endorsement opportunities with Hair Cuttery, "where a good haircut is still $12."

uhhhhh
Coburn, Callahan and rights to Sustr?

Lol, okay, as long as you're sending rights, and you buy them all out, first. Except Sustr. He can come sit in the press box.


Edit: But thank you for pointing out that it could always be worse. I just feel like so many Caps fans were so excited to clear up 5.5M of cap space a week ago, at a cost of a 2nd round pick, and then the team signs a spare part for twice as much and twice as long as he's earned. Here's hoping he has a great year and gets traded for a 2nd and a 3rd.

If not, I guess they can always send him west for Alec Marti;nez.

What are you talking about?! It's an amazing deal! Caps just got a 2nd pair guy for $2.5M! You're insane.

We seem to toss around psychological diagnosis as a random epithet a lot on here.

This contract, small as it is, will lead to Kempny getting deployed as a top four defenseman next year instead of Djoos or Bowey who need the ice time to keep developing. It will make it harder to resign Djoos or Burakovsky, who at about five years younger also helped win the Cup, and should be part of the Caps' plans for another decade at least.

Kempny played 2nd pair at evens, but no power play, and 2nd penalty killing unit. His 17 minutes a night were indeed 4th among Caps defensemen but they were a career high, they lowered his plus/minus to even, and they're still #5 territory most years. He's a capable puck-moving, shot-blocking guy who made one great play for an assist on teh cup winning goal. He could have gotten more on the open market, and I sure wish he would have.

Wrong on so many things:

1) His contract will literally have ZERO effect on Djoos or Bura or anyone else's contract. There is so much room for them. $2.5M is amazing.

2) His contract does not block Bowey or Djoos from playing more minutes.

3) WHO GIVES A F*CK ABOUT +/- IT IS THE STUPIDEST STAT IN HOCKEY IF YOU CAN'T SEE THAT THEN STOP WATCHING HOCKEY

4) He made so many more great plays than just 1 in the playoffs. He single handedly saved our season. After he showed up we were a completely different team. You know why? Because that got one of the worst defensemen in the league, Orpik, out of top 4 where every night he was getting destroyed. And after that he was still getting destroyed but in less minutes.

stupidest isn't a word

1. Hooray! Go Caps!

2. Hooray! Go Caps!

3. Previous years' Caps seasons have appeared to turn around when they traded the guys doing the worst on the team in plus/minus. Crag Lalor, for instance. It was the main stat people pointed to in suggesting that Brooks Orpik had finally started aging when he played the first half of the season on a top pair with Carlson and got burned a lot. Then at the halfway mark, Carlson started playing more with Christian Djoos? And Orpik played more with Bowey? So....

4. Nope.. Not entirely what happened. And Orpik, by plus/minus, was the best defenseman in the playoffs, but admittedly, he and Kempny had just about swapped TOI, so their swapping plus/minus indicates to me that they are about equal, defensively, with a difference of about 100% of Kempny's hits between them. But still.... Goooooooo CAAAAAAAAPS!!!!

5. The whole team picked up at the trade deadline, as they all ramped up their fitness routines after a late-season lull and got into playoff shape. They all started finishing more checks and playing with more energy. the NBC announcers repeatedly pointed out the uptick in their regular season record after acquiring Kemny, but they never mentioned the change in their regular season record after acquiring Jerabek, which was exactly the same record until the playoffs, and I thought Jerabek looked at least as good, and I definitely wouldn't pay him two million a year.

I haven't checked out the numbers, but I think one of the biggest late season lineup changes was putting Oshie back in the top six and back with BAckstrom, who set him up for goals, instead of with Eller, whom he was constantly trying to set up for goals.

Wdym? This is a great offer for Kempny. People tend to base contracts off the past such as you saying he was scratched in Chicago, that’s because Chicago didn’t use him right. I’d rather have him than Ryan Murray if they were the same age but you would value Murray 10x Moreno just because he was drafted 2nd overall. Same with Yakupov. Overall great deal

Well, Sam, if you read the other comments, I"m comparing my predictions for Kempny's future to my predictions for the futures of Djoos, Johansen, and Bowey. But thanks for playing?


It's not because he was a #7 in Chicago that I want Kempny paid like a #5, it's because his actual on ice performance, measured by points and time on ice were in #5 territory through the playoffs, and that is the best he has shown in the NHL. Can he continue to develop at 27, the age when most players reach their peak? Yes. Orpik seems to keep improving every year. Would I bet $10M that he keeps improving every single year, and more so than Djoos, Bowey, Johanson and Alexeyev? No. No, I would not. And if you read the comment thread before posting your own preconception about what we all need to hear, you might hear that other Caps fans taking this signing in stride do see a potential conflict for playing time coming pretty soon.

http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20172018&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=3&position=D&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=timeOnIcePerGame

16 teams times four top four defensemen per team equals sixtyfour top four playoff defensemen. Kempny was 69th in time on ice per game, so he earned the paycheck of a top #5, plus a million dollar, one time signing bonus for the assist on the Cup winning goal.

Of course, he was 45th in plus minus, at plus one. http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20172018&seasonTo=20172018&gameType=3&position=D&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=plusMinus

But I hear that's "stupid."

He was 65th in hits per game played, which is almost playoff top four territory.

He was 39th in shots blocked per game played, which is his best claim to be a #3 defenseman in these playoffs.


You could argue that those are meaningful stats. But then you'd be stuck looking at who else did well in them, and calling them good defensemen.

Orpik was 1st, 7th, and 23rd in those stats, making him a #1, #1, and #2 defensive defenseman in the playoffs and got bought out. It is reasonable to assume Kempny will be about as good next year as Orpik, if Orpik keeps aging, but the year after that, I'd rather have Schenn, Siegenthaler, Johansen, or Lewington than either of them, so giving Kempny a long term deal and paying him like a weak #4 defenseman is, at best, really optimistic and sentimental. At worst, it's passing on a chance to sign Kevin Connauton, who scored 11 goals last year in Arizona (21st among defensemen on 31 teams, so #1 territory, but his only claim to be a top pairing guy that I've noticed, meaning he might sign around 3M a year, and keep developing that offense). At worst it's keeping the Caps from signing Burakovsky next summer.

At best he's the next Calle Johanson--decent skater who's okay defensively, can make quick passes, and will get a lot of assists as long as he's paired with one of the best goal scoring defensemen in the game. But Carlson's 15 goals this past season were his career high, and he played more of the year with Orpik than Kempny. I really would have been fine to just ride out the last year of Orpik's contract and then bring up Lucas Johansen for that spot.

Is my post above a slight hyperbole? Yes. Would I trade Kempny for a bag of popcorn? No. But would I have greatly preferred to see him offered 2Mx3years so he had much more positive trade value next summer? Yes. That is the point that I am making.

I look at time on ice a lot with defensemen. Murray can play 20 minutes a night across an NHL season. Yes, I would absolutely rather have Ryan Murray. No comparison. But let's also look at total experience. Kempny has played 1500 minutes in the NHL. Murray has played 5300. He played over 1800 in just 2015-16. If you're looking for a defensive defenseman, you want a track record of not getting torched, and Murray's got one. Kempny got three points after the trade deadline in Washington, for a pace of twelve on the year. He has 18 regular season points over 100 odd games. Murray has two seasons with twenty or more. Yes, I would totally rather have Ryan Murray if they were the same age. Kempny hits a tiny bit more, but Murray blocks a ton more shots. Murray's career two poitns in two playoff series are a lucky bounce away from Kempny's five points in four playoff series (but Murray didn't have Carlson to pass to), but Murray's 30 shots blocked in 11 career playoff games put him on a pace for sixty on a run to the finals. Kemny was near the top of the league with like 40.

I think pretty much everybody would rather have Ryan Murray than Kempny, but if you're trying to point out that Murray wasn't the best use of a 2nd overall pick, I can dig it.

I think it's entirely possible that the Caps end up trading one of Djoos or Johansen next summer when both are up for new deals, if Kempny underperforms this contract. I'd rather have Orpik back, overpaid, for one year, and then have cap space to play Djoos and Johansen the next year, because Djoos and Carlson are already as good as Kempny and Carlson, and Djoos is young and improving.

It's also possible that, because of this contract, Kempny and Carlson become a default pair for the next four years, and one of Djoos/Johansen gets traded really cheaply, which would be a shame, since they are both quite talented. Djoos was picked in the 7th round, so I don't really agree with the point that you are making about my own personal biases towards draft position, but you do you, okay? If Kempny sets Carlson up to break Kevin Hatcher's 34 goal team record for a defenseman, I will probably shrug and say that Djoos could have done the same thing, just as well, at the same price, and on a longer term contract that ended with him at about the same age Kempny's will. Meh, I say. Meh.