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

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DWGie26 said:
That is amazing! Very cool tribute to those season ticket holders. Hope you’ll continue it on.
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Oh yeah, they leave the family over my dead body. Honestly it's one of the biggest reasons I stayed in the area after college, can't give something like that up.

kicksavedave said:
Are you like, 7 foot tall? ;)
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Only 6'8, sorry!
 
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trick9 said:
Fitting considering he's going to be the next scapegoat.
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Vrana as the scapegoat? I don't see that. He's popular and signed to a league minimum deal.

The most likely scapegoat candidates to me are PLD up front and Sandin in back. Milano could be a dark horse if he isn't producing and fans feel that Vrana should be playing instead. I could also see Mangiapane getting some grief if he doesn't gel with Ovechkin/Strome as expected.
 
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Kazer said:
Vrana as the scapegoat? I don't see that. He's popular and signed to a league minimum deal.

The most likely scapegoat candidates to me are PLD up front and Sandin in back. Milano could be a dark horse if he isn't producing and fans feel that Vrana should be playing instead. I could also see Mangiapane getting some grief if he doesn't gel with Ovechkin/Strome as expected.
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He was popular when he was here as a young promising NHL'er. He comes in as a struggling veteran with red flags all around him and who needs to be given kid minutes (remind you of anyone from last season?). Meaning he's going to be the other guy along with Milano that's blocking the kids coming up.

The 'bring youth in' -crowd is pretty big in here. I'm going to be very surprised if Vrana isn't one of the scapegoats when TDL rolls around. He used to be popular but that was when he was the promising kid coming up. It's not going to take long for people to realise this Vrana is turning 29 soon and has limited potential.
 
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Performance to salary ratio is important though.

A guy on league minimum has to be really really bad to be the scapegoat.

Now if Vrana does well this year and the Caps sign him to a 5x5 or something and then he sucks again….yes.
 
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895 said:
Performance to salary ratio is important though.

A guy on league minimum has to be really really bad to be the scapegoat.

Now if Vrana does well this year and the Caps sign him to a 5x5 or something and then he sucks again….yes.
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Eh, I've seen a lot of rationalizations that every penny vs the cap counts when trying to attack various whipping boys.

Vrana is not likely to be the big scapegoat because most of the people who do that also revered Vrana as a martyr to the anti-front-office cause.
 
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No chance Vrana is a scapegoat. It would be like if Sgarbossa was playing all year and people were blaming him for us being bad. He’s a depth forward that can hopefully give us some speed and scoring depth in the games he actually plays.

I agree that PLD and Sandin are the likely whipping boys. PLD because he’s the big trade addition and players that have huge talent that they don’t play up to are destined to be scapegoats.

Sandin just has kind of been crapped on the past year so I expect t to continue, although I thought he looked pretty solid in the preseason games he played. I don’t think Sandin is meant to be a first pairing defensemen. I think actually all of our d-men are where they really should be now
 
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895 said:
Why would he change to 92? It's not his birthday?

New start?
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He wore 92 with Springfield last year, which is presumably where the speculation is coming from.

jakub-vrana-hendrix-lapierre-io-1.jpg
 
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stephenball said:
No chance Vrana is a scapegoat. It would be like if Sgarbossa was playing all year and people were blaming him for us being bad. He’s a depth forward that can hopefully give us some speed and scoring depth in the games he actually plays.

I agree that PLD and Sandin are the likely whipping boys. PLD because he’s the big trade addition and players that have huge talent that they don’t play up to are destined to be scapegoats.

Sandin just has kind of been crapped on the past year so I expect t to continue, although I thought he looked pretty solid in the preseason games he played. I don’t think Sandin is meant to be a first pairing defensemen. I think actually all of our d-men are where they really should be now
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The Caps appear to be going with the following D pairings (based on recent practices):

Chychrun - Carslon
Fehervary - Roy
Sandin - TvR

That seems to be setting up for Chychrun - Carlson to be the offensive pair, Fehervary - Roy to take the toughest defensive minutes, and Sandin - TvR to be the balanced pair.

And I have to say, I love those pairings. Fehervary - Roy feels like it could be the new Orlov - Niskanen. The Caps improvement on the blueline is their biggest improvement year over year.
 
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Vrana will definitely not be the whipping boy. He left DC incredibly loved and is maybe the originator of the "why won't this coach play the young offensive guy with good per 60 stats" archetype.

PLD definitely the obvious choice at forward but I could see Lappy, Protas, or Mangiapane step into that role. On defense Sandin is also obvious, but I think his reduced role could put Chychrun into the mix. If anyone gets hurt McIlrath better be ready for the abuse when he comes in instead of AA ...
 
Kazer said:
...
Chychrun - Carslon
Fehervary - Roy
Sandin - TvR

That seems to be setting up for Chychrun - Carlson to be the offensive pair, Fehervary - Roy to take the toughest defensive minutes, and Sandin - TvR to be the balanced pair.

And I have to say, I love those pairings. Fehervary - Roy feels like it could be the new Orlov - Niskanen. The Caps improvement on the blueline is their biggest improvement year over year.
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a more-than-decent Top-6 D has got me intrigued to say the least

Having a legit top pair that can each go on O in a heartbeat = I like

If having Sandin as your weak link on 3LD is the biggest problem on D, I'll take that 8 days/wk

This D-corps should be able to score 10+ more GF than last year easily (and hopefully 15+ more)
 
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Season predictions:
NYR TOR EDM DAL
NJD FLA VAN COL
CAR TBL SEA WPG
WSH* OTT VGK NSH*
NYI* BOS CGY UTH*
PIT MTL LAK STL
CBJ DET SJS MIN
PHI BUF ANA CHI

Good vibes: TOR, EDM, OTT, MTL
Bad vibes: BUF, LAK, MIN, BOS
Hardest to read/most volatile: WSH, VGK, CAR, TBL

Voters finally come to their senses and don't just look at points ... crowning Connor Hellebuyck as a dual Vezina/Hart winner to add to his 4 nations gold

Driven by the disrespect of not being invited to the 4 nations, Josi and Hischier bring home the Norris and Selke double for Switzerland

Celebrini has an even better rookie year than Bedard and sweeps the Calder

Ovi hits 35 goals, falling just short of the record and way off the Rocket pace set by Jake Guentzel

The west is significantly worse than the east with all five bottom teams from the conference. STL wins the draft lottery

Toronto breaks through with a Presidents trophy and a cup final appearance but are comprehensively beaten in 5 games by the Dallas Stars
 
For some Caps specific ones:

Chychrun is a fit and re-signed to a 7x7 extension
Thompson starts game 1 of the playoffs
Duhaime/Dowd/Raddysh is the best version of the Dowd 4th lines
The entire third line struggles and the Protas deal is given a bit more scrutiny
PLD is just good enough that the trade wasn't bad, but not good enough that it was a steal either
Carlson >70 points
 
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