It'd suck to lose Djoos but this would be the easiest option with sending Stephenson to Hershey

Yeah, I'm not super happy about trading him, but looking at the roster as constructed, I think he's the contract to move. You could potentially send Boyd down, but you'd have to bring up another forward anyways. I'm a bit more comfortable moving out Djoos with Alexeyev and Fehervary being pretty close to NHL ready. If there's a long term injury, we can bring one of them up.

Agreed. I think Siegs has passed him on the depth chart anyway, but I'd like to see a healthy Djoos back in action and see what he can do. It's not every day you can have a cheap young defensemen who was a part of your top-6 in a Stanley Cup run.

Further to your point about AA and Fehervary being ready soon, Siegenthaler is already completely capable of taking Djoos' place on the bottom pair. Djoos has the higher offensive upside imo, but Siegs is much stronger defensively. Bottom line is that the Caps have at least 7 NHL D on the roster and plenty of guys who could play at least a game or two in a pinch, so moving Djoos to clear cap is a perfectly reasonable move.

Easiest and best cap fix is sending Copley down and brining Vanecek up.

That's definitely another option. Only question for me is if Vanecek can take 25-30 starts.

True but I think it's worth trying at least and I think Vanecek has a higher ceiling than Copley. So maybe we can get even better backup play.

I think that's true, but I'm not sure Vanecek is better than Copley right now. At least Copley is a known quantity. We know we're going to have a backup that's going to be around .905 SV% that can play 25 games. I'd prefer to have a backup that can play 30-35 games and ensure Holtby is rested for the playoffs.

Calgary's Valimaki is hurt until February or Early March. The Caps might give a call and see if the Flames would be interested in Djoos? I think there was an article on Sportsnet a day or three ago about his injury and how Calgary is short on D men now.