Speculation: Caps Roster General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) - 2023 Off-season

[hockeykicker]

Previous thread: Speculation: - Caps Roster General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) - 2022-23 Season Part 3: Drop the puck!

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[StrikingDistance]

 

[Brian23]

@Misery74

 

[Misery74]

Bye Lavi

 

[Hivemind]

#FireScottMurray

 

[John Price]

#FireScottMurray

what's mitch korn doing

 

[Hivemind]

what's mitch korn doing

Still the Islanders Director of Goaltending.

Dave Prior and Stephane Waite are available though

 

[Brian23]

GMBM still great at targeting useful players. Part of me hope's he is still good enough to stick around post Ovechkin Era and see what he does when he doesn't have to keep the band together.

 

[Rayquaza64]

Interested to hear BM’s presser. Wonder if he gives a potential hint towards next HC candidates. I wonder if he goes for someone such as Brunette or if he willing to go for a rookie HC (Halpern, Carbery, etc.)

 

[Marshall]

Well, add coaching to the carousel.

 

[trick9]

What a great day.

6 % chance to add another generational player, on top of the greatest goalscorer in history.

Hershey Bears loaded for the Playoffs.

Excitement for new coach.

Eagerly waiting for all the trade news. We will be busy.

 

[SherVaughn30]

With Lavi gone, so is McCarthy. Scott Allen needs to be strongly considered by the next coach. Fraudsythe/Murray absolutely need to be gone too. Regarding Murray, all our goalies(except Grubauer) have digressed under him. Samsonov, Vanecek and even Copley all had career years once they left the inadequate tutelage of Murray. I like what Hershey's goalie coach, Juha Lehtola, has done with middle prospect Hunter Shepard and career level minor leaguer Zachary Fucale. It would be efficient to transition from Murray to Lehtola. Lehtola might be able to rub off some Finnish goaltending technique on Kuemper/Chucky Sideburns. If not, then I would take a shot at Waite as he had very good success with Carey Price. Kuemper might improve again with Waite.

 

[EHCler]

Definatly necessary to part ways with Lavi. I hope we install a replacement quickly so we can get the Roster set. Goal must be to get back into the playoffs and make the team younger.
I expect all our UFAs to be gone. Depending on health I might give Brown a cheap 1-year bridge deal, we know his health status. I see a decent 40-50 point player in him, who still has something in the tank.

 

[ovikovy817]

With Lavi gone, so is McCarthy. Scott Allen needs to be strongly considered by the next coach. Fraudsythe/Murray absolutely need to be gone too. Regarding Murray, all our goalies(except Grubauer) have digressed under him. Samsonov, Vanecek and even Copley all had career years once they left the inadequate tutelage of Murray. I like what Hershey's goalie coach, Juha Lehtola, has done with middle prospect Hunter Shepard and career level minor leaguer Zachary Fucale. It would be efficient to transition from Murray to Lehtola. Lehtola might be able to rub off some Finnish goaltending technique on Kuemper/Chucky Sideburns. If not, then I would take a shot at Waite as he had very good success with Carey Price. Kuemper might improve again with Waite.

This x 1000.
Not only the HC but all the coaching staff MUST be changed.

 

[Holtbyisms]

Foresyuck stealth head coaching hire in 3....2....1...

 

[Peeri]

I for one hope Capitals could look for a new blood for the head coach job. Someone who has deeper understanding of the new era of the NHL. But as long as they don't hire some old head who has been around for 20 years I guess I'll be okay with it.

 

[hockeykicker]

 

[hockeykicker]

 

[hockeykicker]

Videos inside tweet

 

[Langway]

Biggest takeaway to me was just how skeptical he was on Backstrom improving. To be sure it's unprecedented and he's got to be frustrated about it. But I thought he may have been a bit more diplomatic and easygoing about it. It was nothing extreme but...pretty blunt. He's usually blunt but you can see that this has the potential to go south if he doesn't manage to be more effective next year (particularly if they continue to struggle overall).

 

[Brian23]

Man, I really love listening to GMBM talk. Not just in hockey, but having a leader/GM of an organization be frank with the fanbase and it's media is so damn refreshing. So often it's just "coach speak" and smoke blown that it's basically a waste of however long they were in front of the camera.

Gushing aside, I think there were a few interesting tidbits from his press conference.

- Sounds like he's wide open to moving anyone if there's a hockey trade not named Ovechkin. That very much surprised me, especially how candid he was about Backstrom and Oshie.

- He didn't sound as down on Kuznetsov as I expected, and I am now less sure he's gone. Still leaning towards it but it's no longer a sure thing in my eyes.

- No buyouts are coming, which I think is the right call.

- Does not seem very optimistic on Backstrom. I really wonder if he'll be pushing him to retire. Sound's like Backstrom would at least want to make it to next years camp, but I think GMBM thinks that ship has sailed. Wonder how his retirement would work, would it be a true retirement or is he going on LTIR. That's a lot of money to be giving up.

- As for coaching, his talk about it sounds 1000% like Carbery to my mind. They want a unicorn candidate who's someone young who can help develop and bring along a younger team but they also someone who's veteran enough to handle a group of veterans. A multi-time COTY, who's been a HC at every level, feels like he'd fit that bill of young guy with "veteran" experience.

- They're going big sea fishing this offseason. Top 6er is coming and that'll dictate everything else. Could be center or could be winger. Not from this press conference, but the more I see people talk the more Ehler's feels he'd be someone they'd want. I think they look for a LD too, which kinda sucks but I think it's the right call.

- Doesn't sound like any thought to Conner Brown coming back but sounds like Wilson is on top of the board to resign. Probably not until they've made their Top 6 move though.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Biggest takeaway to me was just how skeptical he was on Backstrom improving. To be sure it's unprecedented and he's got to be frustrated about it. But I thought he may have been a bit more diplomatic and easygoing about it. It was nothing extreme but...pretty blunt. He's usually blunt but you can see that this has the potential to go south if he doesn't manage to be more effective next year (particularly if they continue to struggle overall).

To me it’s pretty clear that BMac didn’t think Backstrom would be back and he didn’t want him back. Backstrom is the first true boat anchor they’ve had in a long time. He has to be in the bottom ten in the league in terms of worst contracts.

Other two big takeaways for me:
1. Tom isn’t going anywhere. BMac said he wants to see him finish his career in Washington and that he’s a big part of the organization.
2. Kuznetsov is gone unless it’s cost prohibitive. Called his season underperforming and disappointing and when pressed to clarify who he meant when he said his top priority was to improve the top six he said “all of it” meaning centers and wingers and that was after he praised how good Strome was. Also sounded to me like he’s not quite ready to write off Mantha.

 

[twabby]

I came away feeling good after listening to his press conference. Well not good, but as good as I could feel given their challenges entering the offseason.

I also came away a bit surprised with how frank he was talking about Backstrom. It seems like he has very little hope for him entering next year and that he didn’t really see much improvement as the year went on. I don’t know that he can do anything about it though. The NMC becomes a modified NTC this summer but no one is trading for that contract without significant retention and significant sweeteners.

I liked that he came out and said top 6 forwards including center was his priority. It’s an obvious hole in the lineup, but I’m still glad he noticed. There are a lot of dumb GMs in the league and BM isn’t one. I have to imagine Kuznetsov is on his way out the door.

 

[Brian23]

Also sounded to me like he’s not quite ready to write off Mantha.

Was the buyout question someone asking about buying out Mantha? They said something at the end of the question that I just could not pick out and thought that might be it, but wasn't sure.

I'm also surprised we have different reads on the Kuzya bit. He was definitely disappointed in him this year, but to me it sounded much more like he just checked out earlier then everyone else this year but he liked his previous year of play which I thought was a bit of fools gold.

Again, I don't know if I can understate how down he was on Backstrom. Which I think was what really changed my view on how he was talking about Kuznetsov.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

To me it’s pretty clear that BMac didn’t think Backstrom would be back and he didn’t want him back. Backstrom is the first true boat anchor they’ve had in a long time. He has to be in the bottom ten in the league in terms of worst contracts.

Other two big takeaways for me:
1. Tom isn’t going anywhere. BMac said he wants to see him finish his career in Washington and that he’s a big part of the organization.
2. Kuznetsov is gone unless it’s cost prohibitive. Called his season underperforming and disappointing and when pressed to clarify who he meant when he said his top priority was to improve the top six he said “all of it” meaning centers and wingers and that was after he praised how good Strome was. Also sounded to me like he’s not quite ready to write off Mantha.

I disagree on the “didn’t want him back“ part…..at the beginning he says we have couple of players who we would like to see wrap up their careers here, and remain competitive, and get younger.

I think now he probably thinks LTIR is the likely outcome, but that they will talk to Nick and the strength guy and see what plan they can make for the off-season.