Speculation: Caps Roster General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines/etc) | 2024-25 Summer Edition

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Funny enough, Caps could have gotten Tage for free in his draft year, he was right there when they were on the clock but they traded down and took Lucas Johansen lol.
Sure but it took Tage Thompson FIVE years and his breakthrough season came from nowhere. Even after being drafted his numbers in the minors etc were very average. I don't think anybody expected him to suddenly score 38 goals and 68 points in the NHL. It still seems kind of surreal that he is almost a PPG player over the last 4 seasons, especially on the most hilariously badly managed team in the league.

Hindsight is always 20/20 - definitely would take him over LuJo in a heartbeat!
 
Yeah, I like that PLD is getting a chance with OV (and Protas). has come in and worked hard. No ego. Probably wanted to play with OV but got second line. has done his thing. Now gets a chance with OV. I like it!

Is it really necessary to shuffle everything? That being said I guess they have to try something. They have not been playing great hockey recently
Not that much shuffling at all. Flipping some top 6. Bottom six stays exactly like it has been. Safe for Dee pairs.
 
Heck, if we're talking about imaginary trades with Buffalo, I want Dahlin over Tage Thompson or Tuch.

Forget Dahlin and give me Eichel.

Seriously, im not totally against building a package including Mangiapane, one of the gazillion great winger prospects we have with another lesser amount of greatness prospect, or maybe a pick.. But I really need it to make all the sense in the world to do so.

A true and effective top6 or top4 player just in or entering his prime with contract security. Thats what ill take. Nothing less. This team doesnt need anything else. And its arguable if they even need that with how the team is built and where its going.

Last 20 years ive been looking for solid depth, solid roster players, solid whatever. This is propably the first time in Ovechkin era that our depth is just simply overflown. Not only do we have all the Vranas and Milanos on the sidelines, but theres like a full fistful of guys waiting and totally deserving their chances up in Hershey. At all positions too. Those guys have played plethora of meaningful playoff-hockey and just keep winning championships. Ill take any one of those our own guys over any struggling bottom/middle6-bottom4 guy that the basement teams have to offer.

Do not spend assets just to make a trade.

On the other hand, if Seattle wants to give us a pick to take Burakovsky with retention... :D
 
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Forget Dahlin and give me Eichel.

Seriously, im not totally against building a package including Mangiapane, one of the gazillion great winger prospects we have with another lesser amount of greatness prospect, or maybe a pick.. But I really need it to make all the sense in the world to do so.

A true and effective top6 or top4 player just in or entering his prime with contract security. Thats what ill take. Nothing less. This team doesnt need anything else. And its arguable if they even need that with how the team is built and where its going.

Last 20 years ive been looking for solid depth, solid roster players, solid whatever. This is propably the first time in Ovechkin era that our depth is just simply overflown. Not only do we have all the Vranas and Milanos on the sidelines, but theres like a full fistful of guys waiting and totally deserving their chances up in Hershey. At all positions too. Those guys have played plethora of meaningful playoff-hockey and just keep winning championships. Ill take any one of those our own guys over any struggling bottom/middle6-bottom4 guy that the basement teams have to offer.

Do not spend assets just to make a trade.

On the other hand, if Seattle wants to give us a pick to take Burakovsky with retention... :D
Dahlin is great and clearly the best player in Buffalo. When he got injured they where up 4-1 vs Colorado early in the third period. They lost that game 5-4 then lost the 7 (1 in OT and 1 in SO) next without him. Then two more with him. They are a bottom feeder without him and a middle of the pack team with him in the lineup. They would be in the WC hunt without his injury.

Getting him and locking up Chychrun would secure that the Caps have among the best blue lines in he league a long period. I dont care if both are LD. They can play in different pairs just like Carlson and Chychrun are doing now.

Of course he wouldnt be available anyway. Buffalo will trade Power or Byram way before Dahlin. The cost would also be massive and would probably leave big holes other places in the lineup.
 
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Hope moving Dubois isnt a mistake. As others have said, hes come in and negated most of the things people said about him in the offseason. Just think he had settled in perfectly to a role and now they are changing that.
 
Raddyish is fine but I’d love to see a fourth line with Duhaime, Dowd, and Hathaway. Would probably be the best skating fourth line in the league, miss that guy.
Agree that Hath would enhance that line. It looks like his PIMs could be problematic, but maybe that's just the role/frustrations that come with the Flyers.
 
Hope moving Dubois isnt a mistake. As others have said, hes come in and negated most of the things people said about him in the offseason. Just think he had settled in perfectly to a role and now they are changing that.
I don't think the role changes much: Play sound possession and defensive hockey. Get the puck to your shooters. Just different shooters.
 
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Am I wrong or is Chuckies injury the perfect reason to just roll with LT and even when Lindgren gets back, the 50:50 should be over and he should be the backup.
 
I find the dichotomy of our predicament, amusing. Truly.

We have a team that is tied for #1 Overall in the league (and #2 in Goal Diff), and has scored the 2nd most GG in the league. All extremely positive signs that would scream “GO FOR IT!!”.

And we have a transcendent player that has just 1.5yrs left on a contract — where we should do all we can to get HIM (and US) our 2nd Cup!!

Yet we have posters that want to hoard nuts and are afraid of “the future”.

JFC people. Make this team as good as it can be, this year and next. Then see where you are.

Please STOP hoarding nuts!

NO ONE is advocating some stupid Erat type trade, so do not go there. But you need to give, to get.

Sudzalev or Muggli or “blank” plus a 2nd and Mangiapane (for salary) won’t get us dicksquat. It just won’t.

Do we want another Cup? Or do we simply want to worry about making the playoffs 4yrs from now?

SMH
 
I find the dichotomy of our predicament, amusing. Truly.

We have a team that is tied for #1 Overall in the league (and #2 in Goal Diff), and has scored the 2nd most GG in the league. All extremely positive signs that would scream “GO FOR IT!!”.

And we have a transcendent player that has just 1.5yrs left on a contract — where we should do all we can to get HIM (and US) our 2nd Cup!!

Yet we have posters that want to hoard nuts and are afraid of “the future”.

JFC people. Make this team as good as it can be, this year and next. Then see where you are.

Please STOP hoarding nuts!

NO ONE is advocating some stupid Erat type trade, so do not go there. But you need to give, to get.

Sudzalev or Muggli or “blank” plus a 2nd and Mangiapane (for salary) won’t get us dicksquat. It just won’t.

Do we want another Cup? Or do we simply want to worry about making the playoffs 4yrs from now?

SMH

Yeah I’m with you. Deal from your strength, improve the team today. It’s not like there aren’t very apparent spots to upgrade.

I’m very tired of the nut hoarding group parroting “don’t make a trade just for the sake of it”…

….like our Management is dealing any prime prospects for some mediocre return/waste trade.

Let’s move past that dumb notion and focus the conversation on the spots that could clearly be upgraded to give Ovechkin another real Cup chance.

Honestly, I think some of these folks just want to prepare for life after Ovechkin and are already looking past his last chances.
 
I find the dichotomy of our predicament, amusing. Truly.

We have a team that is tied for #1 Overall in the league (and #2 in Goal Diff), and has scored the 2nd most GG in the league. All extremely positive signs that would scream “GO FOR IT!!”.

And we have a transcendent player that has just 1.5yrs left on a contract — where we should do all we can to get HIM (and US) our 2nd Cup!!

Yet we have posters that want to hoard nuts and are afraid of “the future”.

JFC people. Make this team as good as it can be, this year and next. Then see where you are.

Please STOP hoarding nuts!

NO ONE is advocating some stupid Erat type trade, so do not go there. But you need to give, to get.

Sudzalev or Muggli or “blank” plus a 2nd and Mangiapane (for salary) won’t get us dicksquat. It just won’t.

Do we want another Cup? Or do we simply want to worry about making the playoffs 4yrs from now?

SMH
PROTECT THE NUTZ
 
I find the dichotomy of our predicament, amusing. Truly.

We have a team that is tied for #1 Overall in the league (and #2 in Goal Diff), and has scored the 2nd most GG in the league. All extremely positive signs that would scream “GO FOR IT!!”.

And we have a transcendent player that has just 1.5yrs left on a contract — where we should do all we can to get HIM (and US) our 2nd Cup!!

Yet we have posters that want to hoard nuts and are afraid of “the future”.

JFC people. Make this team as good as it can be, this year and next. Then see where you are.

Please STOP hoarding nuts!

NO ONE is advocating some stupid Erat type trade, so do not go there. But you need to give, to get.

Sudzalev or Muggli or “blank” plus a 2nd and Mangiapane (for salary) won’t get us dicksquat. It just won’t.

Do we want another Cup? Or do we simply want to worry about making the playoffs 4yrs from now?

SMH
Agree. Our cupboard is surprisingly well stocked. Use those assets and our available draft capital for a clear upgrade if one is available. Also, this management group has shown a savant-like ability to find guys with term who need a change of scenery and thrive here. I gather there's some NYRs who might need a new environment...

I am not wholly opposed to a rental player if he's a gamebreaker, but I think our management team would aim to add a longer term guy if possible.

If the NUTZ that get traded find success in their new orgs while we acquire a guy who contributes to deep playoff runs here for 1-3 years, where's the harm? It's a good outcome for all.
 
I think people act like the 2018 Cup team (and every Cup winner before and after) was simply the top player possible at each position, therefore they won the championship. Its an utter failure to understand team building and to understand that team chemistry trumps individual talent, all day long.

Teams that win the Cup are rarely the ones that make a big splash while in the presidents trophy race. They are the teams that come together with chemistry, and health, in the playoffs, despite a few seemingly weak spots in the lineup.

Who among you thought our 4th line, with DSP leading the way, would score so many key goals in the 2018 playoffs?

Have we learned nothing from our own history? Its not about protecting the nutz (prospects and picks). Its about protecting the chemistry that has this team playing well above the sum of its parts, which is usually what it takes to win a Cup anyway.



 
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I think people act like the 2018 Cup team (and every Cup winner before and after) was simply the top player possible at each position, therefore they won the championship. Its an utter failure to understand team building and to understand that team chemistry trumps individual talent, all day long.

Teams that win the Cup are rarely the ones that make a big splash while in the presidents trophy race. They are the teams that come together with chemistry, and health, in the playoffs, despite a few seemingly weak spots in the lineup.

Who among you thought our 4th line, with DSP leading the way, would score so many key goals in the 2018 playoffs?

Have we learned nothing from our own history? Its not about protecting the nutz (prospects and picks). Its about protecting the chemistry that has this team playing well above the sum of its parts, which is usually what it takes to win a Cup anyway.


Watching Miracle recently?
 
I find the dichotomy of our predicament, amusing. Truly.

We have a team that is tied for #1 Overall in the league (and #2 in Goal Diff), and has scored the 2nd most GG in the league. All extremely positive signs that would scream “GO FOR IT!!”.

And we have a transcendent player that has just 1.5yrs left on a contract — where we should do all we can to get HIM (and US) our 2nd Cup!!

Yet we have posters that want to hoard nuts and are afraid of “the future”.

JFC people. Make this team as good as it can be, this year and next. Then see where you are.

Please STOP hoarding nuts!

NO ONE is advocating some stupid Erat type trade, so do not go there. But you need to give, to get.

Sudzalev or Muggli or “blank” plus a 2nd and Mangiapane (for salary) won’t get us dicksquat. It just won’t.

Do we want another Cup? Or do we simply want to worry about making the playoffs 4yrs from now?

SMH
Tuch isn't transcendent.

He's on pace for 27 goals and 59 points despite playing nearly 20 minutes a game (with a good amount of PP time) primarily with Tage Thompson and JJ Peterka (sometimes with McLeod at center when Thompson was injured and occasionally with Zucker as the other winger instead of Peterka).

So you're going to take that player and drop him onto our 3rd line with Eller and Frank/Miro/Vrana/Milano/Raddysh/Mango? How do you think that's going to impact his production and TOI?

If you want to upgrade the 3rd line, fine by me. But trading Cristall for Tuch is not the answer.

Also, everything kicksavedave just said. Best deadline we ever did was Kempny for a 3rd and Jerabek for a 5th.
 
I have no problem with swinging for the fences. I'm even okay with trading Leonard if it's a young first liner coming back.

But I just don't see that many trades on the table.
 
The tricky aspect in any deal seeking to King Them is it's realistically got to be a winger, right? Where else would they look to upgrade? How often does a winger move that needle far enough? Is the existing C/D core good enough after adding PLD/Chychrun and Sandin's break-out (who has seemingly cooled off)? Thompson seems just fine in net so there's mainly only one area or hole to address and perhaps not a wealth of obvious upgrades that will be available.

Such an add would need to be quite dynamic and not many immediately come to mind as about to move in the coming months. No one on Seravalli's current trade board fits the bill unless they would dare to make a Pettersson for Strome+ swap (which seems unlikely structurally). Cozens in time could get there I guess but doubtful short-term. Such a target also structurally probably shouldn't be a RW (Tuch, for instance) so as not to block Leonard's immediate top six path. Yet would they look to move McMichael either to 3C or with lesser linemates? Or Protas when he does so many valuable things when with skilled players? I think their main issue remains hoping that Strome can find another level when games get very challenging.

I could buy a token sort of X factor third-line wing addition like in theory Taylor Hall but at this stage the juice isn't worth the squeeze. I would still guess their big add will be Leonard...probably as it should be unless something too good to pass up materializes. He may not immediately go from BC to in the lineup. He may need some practices and time to digest plenty of video. But everything they've said to date suggests they have high expectations for him. There should be no doubt he's a big part of their plans.

Certainly they owe it to themselves to continue to be bold and explore opportunities to improve. But at least based on what's been in the rumor mill so far there don't seem to be very many appealing upgrade candidates at all.
 
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I'd be all for a big splashy upgrade even if it means giving up the nuts, but I don't see that happening before the summer. Those kinds of trades are super rare in season.

I'm much less interested in tinkering. This team is, IMO, vastly outperforming its talent, and I don't want to upset the delicate cultural and performance balance that the front office and Carbs have established by adding, for example, a 3LW.
 
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