Think they just need to move Eller out. At worst they'll just have to roll with 20 players for a little.

U think they try to move Mantha and get back some value?

Actually, the Caps aren't in "big trouble".

Hags is out for year. Brown is out for year.

Technically, they have enough space for Backy and Wilson to come back AND can keep Eller (not sure what the point would be but it could work).

Send Snively, Irwin, and one other down (probably Kubel). They can have 2 healthy scratches (Alexeyev and Protas) and be cap compliant.

But what I think they will do is bring Backy back, see how he feels (while Wilson is on LTIR). If he feels good enough to paly out the season, they will look to trade Eller. If he doesn't, they will put him back on LTIR until playoffs.

And no, I do not think they consider moving Mantha. He has been really good (especially recently) despite not producing (goals wise).

not in big trouble at all lol

Next season they are in MASSIVE trouble. Ovechkin, Backstrom, Oshie, Carlson, Kuemper and Orlov have trade protection and aren't going anywhere. If they don't re-sign Orlov during the season he'll get priced out by the UFA market. They still have to sign Strome, Fehervary and Alexeyev. Sheary, Milano, Eller, Johansson, Hathaway, Aube-Kubel, Jensen, Gustafsson, Van Riemsdyk and Irwin are all UFA in addition to Orlov. All of the free agents are worth more than they are currently under contract for. Big changes are coming before next season.

they are going to have around 22m to fill 8 or 9 roster spots, not the best but certainly not in trouble. strome and fehervary will definitively be re-signed. you are right that all of the ufas (except for eller) are worth more than they are getting paid right now, but besides Orlov and maybe Jensen none of them are irreplacable.

big changes are coming before next season, but they're not in trouble. this acgm was about this year and activating backstrom anyways, for which they are definitively not in trouble