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

[YippieKaey]

Sandin & Carlson will be a bad first pairing. Both are high event, offensively oriented players without the footspeed to make up for mental gaffes that they are both prone to. Put Fever with JC and Sandin with Jensen. Sandin is a lesser skating version of Orlov so they should mesh well.

And it's important to have at least some offence from another D-pairing than the first and JC and Sandin is all we have in that respect.

 

[HTFN]

And that’s the big hole in the D Corp that’s keeping them (IMO) as barely a playoff quality unit.

I like Fever playing up because he’s got the better physical tools, he just needs to process the game faster IMO, hone his craft. Fever has shown he can play any pair IMO, to varying degrees of success.

Sandin hasn’t proven a thing. This will just be like Fever running with Carlson….it’s an audition that could easily and eventually see him bumped to the 2nd pair.

That's just twabby saying that Sandin had good advanced stats and on ice impacts in his limited Toronto role and extrapolating the hell out of it.

Will be interesting to see how viable that really is as a projection method, and Sandin seems like as good a recent test as any.

 

[twabby]

That's just twabby saying that Sandin had good advanced stats and on ice impacts in his limited Toronto role and extrapolating the hell out of it.

Will be interesting to see how viable that really is as a projection method, and Sandin seems like as good a recent test as any.

He didn't just have good impacts in a sheltered role. He had arguably the best impacts in the league in that role.

That's why I brought up Orlov. He was quite sheltered in 15-16 and put up great numbers in that role. I suggested at the time that he would become a top pairing defenseman very quickly based on his performance in a sheltered role and I was criticized for making that projection. The very next year he was part of the shutdown duo with Niskanen and was in that same role the following seasons.

That's not to say Sandin will follow that same path with 100% certainty. But if a guy kills third pairing minutes more than pretty much anyone else in the league, I think it's reasonable to expect him to do well in an elevated role.

 

[SherVaughn30]

Sandin and Carlson bring a lot of offense, but both are very questionable defending(you don't even need to look at advanced stats to know that). You have to pair both on separate lines with a D-man who can skate and defend. Frankly it's poor coaching strategy to load your two best offensive d-men as a pair. The only time it should be done is if the team is trailing by a goal with a couple mins left in the game. You think the Pens are going to pair Karlsson/Letang regularly? They won't and have them playing on separate D pairs.

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

Ahhh….Philips looked like an AHL skater the few shifts I saw of him….Maybe he’s more effective than a pretty skater…


“Ohhhhh maaaah gaaaaawd,…..his back…..Told Ya so!”

To be fair it doesn’t matter what his injury is. The dude is often injured.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

He didn't just have good impacts in a sheltered role. He had arguably the best impacts in the league in that role.

That's why I brought up Orlov. He was quite sheltered in 15-16 and put up great numbers in that role. I suggested at the time that he would become a top pairing defenseman very quickly based on his performance in a sheltered role and I was criticized for making that projection. The very next year he was part of the shutdown duo with Niskanen and was in that same role the following seasons.

That's not to say Sandin will follow that same path with 100% certainty. But if a guy kills third pairing minutes more than pretty much anyone else in the league, I think it's reasonable to expect him to do well in an elevated role.

Ohhhhh stop acting like you were theonly one saying Orlov could be good…and guess what…..he actually got better as his career progressed! He developed! (GASP)

To be fair it doesn’t matter what his injury is. The dude is often injured.

It kinda does when people were bashing the signing for his back problem. It was a random injury, could have happened to anyone. I mean unless the facts don’t matter.

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

Ohhhhh stop acting like you were theonly one saying Orlov could be good…and guess what…..he actually got better as his career progressed! He developed! (GASP)


It kinda does when people were bashing the signing for his back problem. It was a random injury, could have happened to anyone. I mean unless the facts don’t matter.

The acquisition was bashed because he is often injured.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

The acquisition was bashed because he is often injured.

Nevermind….

 

[twabby]

Ohhhhh stop acting like you were theonly one saying Orlov could be good…and guess what…..he actually got better as his career progressed! He developed! (GASP)

Well his minutes increased at least.

 

[DWGie26]

I’d prefer to keep Fever and JC74 together. I feel like that pair can continue to grow. Fine to look at Sandin and JC74 in the preseason, but i suspect when it shakes out, we won’t love that pairing.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Well his minutes increased at least.

Keep dying on that hill!

 

[Marshall]

Tarik leaving the Athletic is a big loss. Hope his next venture is Caps-related. Speculation on my part, but maybe MSN gig?

 

[Ridley Simon]

The Athletic keeps bleeding good writers. The NY Times acquiring them has done them zero favours

 

[twabby]

I wonder if Tarik is going to take on a bigger role with TNT? Probably not, but that would be a neat career arc.

 

[HeyMattyB]

IMO, the Athletic has been nearly worthless since they dumped most of the local writers they originally (and proudly/loudly) poached from other newspapers and began focusing on national-interest stories (with a *lot* of listicles and other bullshit in there). I rarely read it these days, and when I do I usually regret it, so I won't be renewing my subscription. (Along those lines, Wirecutter has also become nearly worthless in the last few years.)

Here in Philly, a new subscription site (PHLY, part of the "All City" network of sports sites) turned around and hired a lot of the notable local Philly sports reporters that had previously worked at the Athletic before things went to shit and they got laid off. (D.C. doesn't have an All City site yet.) I'll keep an eye on it, but the Philly Inquirer's coverage of local sports is good enough for me for now (and, IMO, a lot better than WaPo's coverage of hockey and basketball).

 

[Ridley Simon]

The NY Times ruined The Athletic.

It is what it is (and they are charging next to nothing to join for a year, so there is that)

 

[Calicaps]

The NY Times ruined The Athletic.

It is what it is (and they are charging next to nothing to join for a year, so there is that)

The Times shuttered its entire local NY sports reporting desk a couple of months back with the idea that those reporters would transition to the Athletic and all sports, local and otherwise, would come from there. But at the same time, they've killed the Athletic's local sports reporting in all other markets. I have no idea what's going on there. Will miss Tarik either way though.

 

[Random schmoe]

I cancelled my Athletic sub over the summer when they let so many writers go, specifically Dan Connolly's coverage of the O's and a lot of guys like Daniel Kaplan covering sports business and legal issues And haven't looked back. The only ones I miss reading are Keith Law on prospects and Brittany Ghiroli. (Also cancelled my separate NYT subscription at the time, despite generally liking their work.)

To be honest, I was disappointed with most of TEB's work there. Rarely felt like he was putting in much depth of effort, minimal 'feature' pieces. Just interviews and recaps.

 

[HeyMattyB]

It's all such a bummer.

To quote The Sire (from WWDitS): “Time lays waste to all, and journalism is reduced to dust. Ruin is inevitable, and all else is prelude."

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

How much load management is realistic if we want backstrom to play a full season? No back to backs? Randomly sitting if it’s 3 games in 6 nights?

 

[Kuz]

If Kuznetsov plays like a 1st center this year playoffs are possible. Strome+Backstrom should be good enough as 2nd+3rd center to make the center position quite good.

We are starting to get a decent prospect pool aswell.

Miro and Cristall looks promising. Hopefully CMM and Lapierre takes steps forward. Neither looks like a future 1st center, but hopefully one of them can be productive as a 2nd center. Then you have Suzdalev and Protas aswell. On defence Iorio, AA, Sandin and Ferhervary are still young and hopefully will get better with age.

Still probably missing some game breaking talent in that group. No 1st D or 1st C in that group and I dont think Cristall and Miro are gamebreaking winger talents even tough they might get good enough for a 1st line.

 

[Misery74]

How much load management is realistic if we want backstrom to play a full season? No back to backs? Randomly sitting if it’s 3 games in 6 nights?

Backstrom should absolutely be given nights off. 60-65 games would be ideal.

 

[The Dude]

Tarik leaving the Athletic is a big loss. Hope his next venture is Caps-related. Speculation on my part, but maybe MSN gig?

Good call:

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Unsurprising….

 

[usiel]

I cancelled my Athletic sub over the summer when they let so many writers go, specifically Dan Connolly's coverage of the O's and a lot of guys like Daniel Kaplan covering sports business and legal issues And haven't looked back. The only ones I miss reading are Keith Law on prospects and Brittany Ghiroli. (Also cancelled my separate NYT subscription at the time, despite generally liking their work.)

To be honest, I was disappointed with most of TEB's work there. Rarely felt like he was putting in much depth of effort, minimal 'feature' pieces. Just interviews and recaps.

Yeah noticed it has gotten a lot worse for that same reason. If they are going to rely on the draft nik people to keep it going there I just don't know.

Good call:

Well that is cool.