Don’t think it works like that. LTIR makes Hagelin’s cap hit invisible, so to speak, but adding it on the top to “add more” cap doesn’t really work because any team spending to the limit has already used his invisible space. They certainly look like they’re spending more money but the only way it cheats the system is if they decided, for whatever reason, to dress Hagelin in the playoffs
Provide some cap relief to potential trades partners. If doable/permissible it would have to be part of a package deal. For discussion purposes, say a team is up to or nearly at the max on cap, but they're interested in a Capitals UFA, but don't have cap space to make it work, would there taking on the additional Hagelin LTIR contract provide them with cap room and make it work from a a cap point.
Great but unlikely. To begin with, it's loaded with doomsday +/or executive malpractice assumptions on the part of the Caps (and Aisles, who don't seem to be in tank mode).
When a franchise essentially stops drafting and developing certain sacrifices need to be made. Lacking heir apparents necessitates doing such things IF they dare not risk taking a step back. (Again, Fehervary isn't that guy.) If it were different they could afford to be more selective and strategic. Alas these situations are unavoidable.
Let’s be real. Orlov will be seeking a 5 or 6 year term. If so, the Caps should thank him for his contributions and go in a different direction.
Definitely not. However; we also didn’t have to try to make multiple guys caps their entire career which is part of why we are where we are.
Fair, but as I've noted several times, the lifetime status for 8 and 19 was a directive from Ted. It's not going to change.
I think many of are upset that the Capitals are trending quickly towards being suck before Ovie hangs 'em up.
Drafted? Depends on how you define it.
Yeah, actually. They've turned out a lot of young talent. They just haven't kept them because of Coaches preferring the older players. None of them were Ovi level, but you don't need Ovi level to not suck.
I not sure I actually believe this. What do you think Trotz or Lavi would've done if instead of the vets they'd had only young guys to work with, not iced a team? Management thought, and maybe they were wrong, that those vets were better At. The. Time. The focus has always been on now, not later.
It's a legit concern, but I'm not sure that's necessarily a long-term trend. I still have hope that they can retool. I think it's self-evident that this offseason was already planned for a shake-up, whether cap-driven or age-driven or whatever. I doubt they expected this season going the way it has with all the injuries to key players, but they were clearly anticipating some changes regardless. The collapse just makes the spotlight on the expiring deals brighter.
There's a missing name in there that I think is important. Rierden wasn't a good coach but the fact that they didn't go straight from one proven veteran quantity to another means they were slightly willing to roll those dice, just at the wrong level.
I don't even know if it was a better at the time. It was that the Coach wasn't putting them on the ice, using them at all, so they went and got some value for them elsewhere. It's not even a hypotehtical though, we've seen multiple younger guys now be traded and are either able to excel or at least be big time contributors for other teams almost instantly.
