Sprong has been great. Would rather let them take V V than give Sprong up w assets to dump Schultz who is actually solid. Most simple solution is to trade V V or Sammy gain assets. Trade Jensen to Dallas or AZ for a 3rd and let TVR play. Capitals wouldn’t be looking to trade RHD... we have too many LHD and Alexeyev and Fehevary are ready to play in the NHL. Dillon should be traded also or unprotected for Seattle

I don't like any of those trades for Washington. You're giving up way too many assets in order to protect a back-up goaltender and Rakell is a downgrade on Sprong when you consider salary implications. Laviolette is really high on his 4th line as it is currently constructed so i doubt Hagelin gets moved and Sheary and Eller have good chemistry and they already re-signed Sheary for 2 more years so doubtful that he would play 4th line even if Hagelin were moved.

Adding Sprong as a sweetener for Seattle to select a solid Justin Schultz is penny wise and pound foolish. Sprong is on a cheap contract, provides insane depth scoring abilities (13 goals and 20 points in 41 games where his average TOI is 11:40), and has proven immensely valuable with goal scorers out of the lineup. Sprong is going to be even more important as Ovechkin ages, since he's not going to recover from injuries as quickly as he has in the past.

As the Caps, you're probably protecting 7F, 3D, 1G, and leaving Ovechkin exposed so you can protect another player. The protection list will probably look like:

Backstrom
Kuznetsov
Oshie
Wilson
Eller
Sheary
Mantha
Carlson
Orlov
One of Schultz/Dillon
Samsonov

If Seattle wants to take Vanecek, so be it. He's been pretty good, but at the end of the day, he's a .907 sv% guy. Seattle has said that they'll value veteran goalies as well. If the Caps don't protect Sprong, I feel like Seattle will take him instead of Vanecek. It was the same thing back in 2017 when Vegas entered the league - everyone thought that Vegas would select Grubauer, and then GMGM goes and takes Schmidt, leaving a huge hole on the left side of the defense that was later filled on a gamble on Kempny near the trade deadline.