Speculation: Caps Roster General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines/etc) | 2023-24 Regular Season Edition

[Misery74]

They need to sell and they need to sell now before the market shrinks. There's no reason to wait, they aren't turning it around this year. Get what you can for Dowd and Lindgren, and then continue the selloff this offseason.

The fans have spoken and they want no more of this nonsense!

Jimi > CMM as well.

CMM can become 4C, which is probably where he belongs.

Also, the TvR and Jensen signings are a disgrace.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

They need to sell and they need to sell now before the market shrinks. There's no reason to wait, they aren't turning it around this year. Get what you can for Dowd and Lindgren, and then continue the selloff this offseason.

The fans have spoken and they want no more of this nonsense!

They also need buyers willing to buy early and at a high price. Long way to the deadline still.

 

[um]

Please play AA or trade him. Honestly, he looks better than 3,6 and 57.

This is Laviolette level bullshit, and shitty f***ing asset management.

Please don’t trade him. Enough giving away our prospects because of no patience.

 

[PlushMinus]

Jimi > CMM as well.

CMM can become 4C, which is probably where he belongs.

Also, the TvR and Jensen signings are a disgrace.

Nah I think TvR and Jensen are both good D's who are having bad seasons because the entire team is having a bad season.

I think both are "worthy" of those contracts and the $$ IF they play to their potential.

Which i guess is also like saying, if they were traded to a better team you wouild likely see a big improvement in their performances.

 

[Misery74]

Nah I think TvR and Jensen are both good D's who are having bad seasons because the entire team is having a bad season.

I think both are "worthy" of those contracts and the $$ IF they play to their potential.

Which i guess is also like saying, if they were traded to a better team you wouild likely see a big improvement in their performances.

Well, their performance here is dogshit. I guess just add them to the list.

How AA isn’t playing is a mystery. 3 of the guys in front of him are absolutely awful.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Well, their performance here is dogshit. I guess just add them to the list.

How AA isn’t playing is a mystery. 3 of the guys in front of him are absolutely awful.

He’s equally or more awful then in the eyes of the coaching staff I guess…

 

[Hivemind]

Sell high while they can - Dowd, Lindgren, Mantha
Listen to see if there's appropriate takers, but don't force anything - Fehervary, Pacioretty, Edmundson, TvR, Jensen, McMichael, Malenstyn
Shop During the Off-season - Kuznetsov, Carlson
Sell at the 2025 Trade Deadline - Oshie, Bear

 

[Kuz]

1-2-3-5 in the standing coming up (1-2-5-6 in pont percentage). Should push us close to 0.500 when those games are over.

We have the hardest schedule left and have lost 5 in a row (one in ot). Lost the «easier» games they had to win to keep up against Blues, Wild and Canadiens.

So looks like its time to start looking for future assets and start tanking.

 

[Liam Smith]

Protas: 14 game point drought
CMC: 2 points in his last 20 games

 

[twabby]

Protas: 14 game point drought
CMC: 2 points in his last 20 games

Tom Wilson with 3 points in his last 19 games

 

[HTFN]

Again, you all are acting like this couldn't be predicted when the schedule dropped.

One of the oldest teams on a crunched schedule in the last half? What did we think would happen? They don't have a real play driver, there's nobody to singlehandedly carry them out of this anymore. What did anyone expect?

Was anyone actually entering this season thinking "they could really do some damage with one or two bounces/moves"? Probably not, right? At least among the crowd thinking clearly.

So what are we so mad about? Some of us are calling out a first year coach in the GDT because he didn't instantly make a disjointed group of parts work, even though he did make them work to the tune of like 2nd/3rd in the Metro a while back, and just can't sustain a bad team. Goobers in the Montreal GDT asked if he deserved the hot seat, lol.

They did okay, and I enjoyed watching them do okay because they had chip in contributions from that next wave of players. That might have dried out, and that's okay too. Shit only gets harder from here, no surprise they can't instantly hang. Development matters, and all that.

This sucks in the moment but isn't anything wildly unexpected or budgeted for. Doing it right just takes time.

 

[Holtbyisms]

I mean, in what world did we get robbed? It's not like we traded for some 27 or 28 year old. He's about to be 24.

The one where we gave up a 1st round draft pick for a guy who plays like a 3rd pairing tweener.

 

[Kuz]

When youre top two centers going into the season carrying 17 mill of cap arent close to 1st liners any longer its hard to put not being a playoff team on the coach. Now both are out of the team. Backstrom most likely will never return while Kuznetsov will be out for awhile I guess. Not that any of the versions they are today would be any help.

Of the other high paid forwards you have Ovi who is getting old. He would probably be able to put up decent points on a good team with a guy who could drive his line.

Oshie 12 points in 30 games, Wilson 21 in 46 and Mantha 23 in 43. None of them can carry a line either and Mantha have been better than expected this year, but is still around a 0,5 in point per game with 5,7 million in salary. These guys are paid salaries to be closer to the 07-0,9 in points per game.

The 6 players mentioned carried 51,6 % of the cap going in to the season. Hard to contend when all of them are performing way under what they are paid. We could add Kuemper and Carlson to the list and we are at 67,5 % of the cap of players who are not performing up to the standard expected based on their salary.

We have to go to the 9th highest paid player to find a guy who performs up to his salary in Strome.

Then you could argue that some of these guys would perform well in a team where they have guy who can drive play. Put Ovechkin, Mantha or Wilson next to guys like McDavid, Petersson, Barkov, MacKinnon etc and they would definetely put up more points than in the Caps jersey. Thats the main problem for the Caps they have no players that can drive play good enough on a 1st line.

 

[Kuz]

The one where we gave up a 1st round draft pick for a guy who plays like a 3rd pairing tweener.

Yeah dont think Sandin will evar be good enough to be worth that 1st pick for the Capitals. There was definetely some good players available at that time wo with the right pick they could have a player with more upside on the team in a few years. Like Gulyayev who is a full time KHL player right now.

 

[Acallabeth]

So what are we so mad about? Some of us are calling out a first year coach in the GDT because he didn't instantly make a disjointed group of parts work, even though he did make them work to the tune of like 2nd/3rd in the Metro a while back, and just can't sustain a bad team. Goobers in the Montreal GDT asked if he deserved the hot seat, lol.

We definitely lack talent, but they went from a middle-of-the-road offensive team to having 3rd worst GF in the entire league, just slightly ahead of openly tanking Sharks and Blackhawks. The roster isn't that much worse this year, in fact, last season they were mostly missing a routinely top 3 team scorer in Carlson and a top RW in WIlson.

 

[HTFN]

We definitely lack talent, but they went from a middle-of-the-road offensive team to having 3rd worst GF in the entire league, just slightly ahead of openly tanking Sharks and Blackhawks. The roster isn't that much worse this year, in fact, last season they were mostly missing a routinely top 3 team scorer in Carlson and a top RW in WIlson.

how are we defining "the roster"?

The guy carrying the load was like 35 years old, we're not talking about conventional here. I'm not saying Ovechkin or other playing veterans are permanently cooked but if they were, it wouldn't really be anybody's fault if that were the case. The organization clearly promised to do that for them and then did it, so that's good. Them being bad sucks to watch but is also okay for the long term.

Look at who carried last year's team if that's your example, and then wonder if it's at all reasonable for any of them to fall off and I think you've got your answer.

There's not a coach in this league that can squeeze anything truly valuable from this collection of players (and that doesn't mean the GM is to blame either, because GM moves work on a longer timeline and can't be simulated like the video games)

 

[TheSmokingMan]

Tom Wilson with 3 points in his last 19 games

I knew Protas and McMichael were in a drought, didn't realize TW was mired in one too. Yikes!

Like many have already commented, this team lacks a speedy playmaking center. We actually have a few decent finishers on the team, but even when we do manage to enter the O zone with posession, there's no one to create space and get them the puck. I actually think our Defense is pretty solid, but they have been relied on too much to skate the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone because we just don't have any forwards that can do it consistently.

 

[trick9]

MoneyPuck game odds:

Capitals @ Panthers - 17.3%
Capitals @ Bruins - 19.0%
Canucks vs. Capitals - 29.4%
Avalanche vs. Capitals - 29.4%

Few funny notes for the next 7 days of games:

- Capitals are the only team to have odds of below 20% to win a game. And they have below that twice.

- Teams rarely even dip below 30%. In the next 7 days Wings are below 30% once, Devils once and Hawks once. Caps in all their 4 games.

Buckle up.

 

[Langway]

The problem with unintentionally tanking is it's unlikely to result in a high enough pick to net them the foundational talents they need any time soon. The process is only lengthens the longer they remain stuck within a minimally competitive framework. They've got to reevaluate how they operate and conclude a strategic shift is needed to stack assets in a more forward-thinking manner. They have a lot of pieces that would fare better elsewhere and in part it comes down to how they're structured. The sorts of qualities they look for in players. How they collectively tend to play. It's broken...and the more convenient areas of point to in order to excuse it are all gone now.

They collapsed last year and while it certainly looks like they will again the best they can probably do is somewhere around the fifth or sixth pick. That could net them Eiserman/Demidov/Dickinson but does little in the very near-term adding legit impact talent. Signing UFAs to term as band-aids seems like an unwise investment. They have the space but probably ought to just load up on one-year deals to flip at this point if they're guided by typical country club planning. If they're stuck being obligated to Ovechkin to give themselves a token shot at the playoffs every year it's just going to mean more time in the wilderness later and a generally wayward direction. Best they could hope for is elite talent hitting UFA but then they would still be getting the back-half of it. Maybe they can execute a Brent Burns type salary dump a few times or weaponize their cap space in other ways to come out ahead. But it's going to take a lot of really intelligent moves and I wonder if they've really got it in them. If not we're likely looking at numerous years of bottom 5-8 finishes while they just sort of flounder then flatline completely. At which point it at least needs to be pondered if an entirely fresh sets of eyes are needed to usher in a new era.

 

[Skrudland2Lomakin]

AJF on waivers. Go get him back asap

Gotta think a dude who is going on waivers for the umpteenth time is probably just the NHL equivalent of a AAAA player. I don't think we're really hurting in terms of young bottom 6 players and if the desire is for a guy who is fast but has zero finishing touch we have Ethan Frank in the AHL.

 

[Misery74]

Again, you all are acting like this couldn't be predicted when the schedule dropped.

One of the oldest teams on a crunched schedule in the last half? What did we think would happen? They don't have a real play driver, there's nobody to singlehandedly carry them out of this anymore. What did anyone expect?

Was anyone actually entering this season thinking "they could really do some damage with one or two bounces/moves"? Probably not, right? At least among the crowd thinking clearly.

So what are we so mad about? Some of us are calling out a first year coach in the GDT because he didn't instantly make a disjointed group of parts work, even though he did make them work to the tune of like 2nd/3rd in the Metro a while back, and just can't sustain a bad team. Goobers in the Montreal GDT asked if he deserved the hot seat, lol.

They did okay, and I enjoyed watching them do okay because they had chip in contributions from that next wave of players. That might have dried out, and that's okay too. Shit only gets harder from here, no surprise they can't instantly hang. Development matters, and all that.

This sucks in the moment but isn't anything wildly unexpected or budgeted for. Doing it right just takes time.

I don’t think they expected to get boat raced by a tanking AHL team in their own building.

Your general point I agree with. But this looks like a complete shitshow.

 

[toolboyy]

The problem with unintentionally tanking is it's unlikely to result in a high enough pick to net them the foundational talents they need any time soon. The process is only lengthens the longer they remain stuck within a minimally competitive framework. They've got to reevaluate how they operate and conclude a strategic shift is needed to stack assets in a more forward-thinking manner. They have a lot of pieces that would fare better elsewhere and in part it comes down to how they're structured. The sorts of qualities they look for in players. How they collectively tend to play. It's broken...and the more convenient areas of point to in order to excuse it are all gone now.

They collapsed last year and while it certainly looks like they will again the best they can probably do is somewhere around the fifth or sixth pick. That could net them Eiserman/Demidov/Dickinson but does little in the very near-term adding legit impact talent. Signing UFAs to term as band-aids seems like an unwise investment. They have the space but probably ought to just load up on one-year deals to flip at this point if they're guided by typical country club planning. If they're stuck being obligated to Ovechkin to give themselves a token shot at the playoffs every year it's just going to mean more time in the wilderness later and a generally wayward direction. Best they could hope for is elite talent hitting UFA but then they would still be getting the back-half of it. Maybe they can execute a Brent Burns type salary dump a few times or weaponize their cap space in other ways to come out ahead. But it's going to take a lot of really intelligent moves and I wonder if they've really got it in them. If not we're likely looking at numerous years of bottom 5-8 finishes while they just sort of flounder then flatline completely. At which point it at least needs to be pondered if an entirely fresh sets of eyes are needed to usher in a new era.

They need to intentionally tank or GTFO!

 

[Langway]

Zooming out a bit it's striking that Protas is third in assists with 15. That's through 48 games. Terrible. No system will adequately compensate for a complete lack of playmaking ability.

 

[Kolzilla]

Jimi > CMM as well.

CMM can become 4C, which is probably where he belongs.

Also, the TvR and Jensen signings are a disgrace.

Curious why you think Jimi > CMM? To me, Jimi hasn't shown much of anything and seems to be overhyped. While CMM has cooled off lately, he constantly shows quite a bit whether that's takeaways, smart passing, etc. Not being argumentative, but wondering what ppl see in Lapierre that I don't...

 

[g00n]

Well "just get rid of Lavi and play CMM" didn't work.

What now?

Maybe Lavi was really holding this team together with duct tape and spit all along.