If somebody adds a pick on that deal its Jersey. Kempny is younger and has incredible fit next to Carlson.

Ok, but would NJ move him? I think his experience and shut down ability would be just what the Caps could use come April. Kemps slow to come back from injury it seems.

Kempny's breaking out as a top offensive defenseman this year, league-wide. He's top 30 in even strength points, on either side. Kempny's puck movement could resurrect Subban. Yeah, they'd include Greene, along with Coleman.

edit: to clarify, I'm assuming NJ is out of the playoffs and don't care if Kempny's playing at 80% with whatever he's going through, for the rest of this year. I'm assuming they don't want to sell low and retain on Subban, and would rather have a legit top pair of Kempny and Subban next year to carry them into the playoffs as their forwards keep improving. Since they traded for Subban thinking long term value and not "how did this guy look in his last five games," I think they can see the value of buying low on Kempny. Greene is defensively solid, but doesn't move the puck and is almost a decade older than Kempny, at a 2M higher cap hit. While player value might be Kempny for Greene plus a forward, WSH is going to have to add that 3rd to get some retention and fit under the cap.

Retain more of Greene, but not giving Coleman, we have no reason. Keep the third too.

Plus I try to look ahead to next year. This could be seen as a salary dump also in a sense, especially if Seigs keeps improving and Fehrevary makes the team next year. Would actually rather move Jensen but we have no RHD...

I guess, if the cap doesn't keep going up, that could make sense.... to say nothing of Djoos or Johansen winning a spot out of camp.

But with Kempny just five even strength points behind Heman, I mean, I could also see just keeping him, and putting him on LTIR if he's hurt.

edit: I think it's great that Victor HeDDDDman gets autocorrected to He-Man.

Yes I see that. He could rebound as soon as this year.

The D or goaltending or both are just too leaky for a serious Stanley Cup run to me. I think Bmac needs to address this. They also need to cut down on the penalties, that's an obvious problem that I think will improve as they play on this year.

That could help. I think fixing the penalty kill already made penalties much less of an issue, but if they can stay tough and not take quite as many penalties, then yeah, that could help, too. It might be something coaching can address, but the team is still top-five in penalties taken, so clearing spots for a couple of nice guys might work out pretty well.

I like Andy Greene's style, but his puck possession numbers are unspectacular and he'd be the Caps' oldest player unless they re-sign Orpik.

There was a Toronto thread yesterday talking about trading Kapanen for a top pairing defenseman. They nixed my suggestion of Gudas, but they also just don't like me. You could try to sell them on Kempny for any one of their half dozen middle six wings. I mean, this year, sure, it's easire to face Kempny with NJ than TOR, but NJ has four legit centers under 24 years old. Next year, they're gonna be good. Might as well just get full value.

Wouldn't mind getting Kap or Johannson but we have essentially a #1 RHD and two #3 RHD's in our starting lineup with no replacement ready and I think they need an RHD, so we have to add etc...

The Leafs? They just re-signed Holl. They're letting Ceci walk. Right side is Barrie, Holl, Liljegren/Schmaltz/Dermott on his offside. Left side stays the same depending on how much Muzzin wants to get paid. If he leaves, it's a little rougher, with Rielly, Dermott, Sandin, Marincin. If Sandin's not ready and Muzzin walks, they might consider Kempny or Djoos over the summer. With LIljegren having a big year in the AHL, and Holl developing in the NHL, they're okay at RHD. Of course, it could be argued that Holl in the top four is not ideal, but Jensen's plus minus is weak this year, and if the Caps don't have cap space to re-sign Gudas the Leafs probably don't either.

I think Gudas and Jensen were both solid in top four roles last year, and are alternating as #4/5 this year just fine. They're not flashy. As Caps fans we're used to seeing "bottom four" defensemen like Niskanen, Shattenkirk, and Green who are #2-3 D on other teams, and show flashes of game-breaking skill. That's not what most teams have on their second pair.