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

Dowd is the single most important pending UFA/RFA to me, even moreso than Chychrun. His effectiveness in his role enables so many other things to happen right for this team. I'd easily go to $2M or beyond to re-sign him. (If he wants the Beagle $3M special ... I'd have to think.) But I'm honestly a bit nervous that they haven't already announced an extension for him.
More than Chychrun? That’s a little much.

I love Dowd but the dude is 34. How many years left he’s got left is a mystery.

I agree on your numbers. However I’d give him term for a lower number. A little LTIR wink wink contract.
 
Dowd is the single most important pending UFA/RFA to me, even moreso than Chychrun. His effectiveness in his role enables so many other things to happen right for this team. I'd easily go to $2M or beyond to re-sign him. (If he wants the Beagle $3M special ... I'd have to think.) But I'm honestly a bit nervous that they haven't already announced an extension for him.
Losing Dowd will for sure open up a center spot. I just dont know if we have a top 4th line grinder center in the system for next season.

We have been good at finding these players on the open market so im not to worried yet
 
Losing Dowd will for sure open up a center spot. I just dont know if we have a top 4th line grinder center in the system for next season.

We have been good at finding these players on the open market so im not to worried yet
He’s more a 3rd line grinder center here which makes him an interesting player to try and assign a value to, or replace.
 
Reason Alexyev hasn’t gotten any playing time is because the Caps have had very little injury time to defensemen since earlier in the season. Alexyev is a 7D until he proves he can be a 6D. he can’t be mad at Caps for that. Ring him up a few more games and keep him as a RFA. He also loves it here.

And yeah, i was a bit generous on the amounts just to error on side of cap space but i I don’t think any of them are way out of wack. Even at my high cap numbers, we have plenty of space since we have so many value / EL contracts next year.

I think Mac gets signed to a 2-way deal with intent to have him in Hershey but he can be called up. Doubt he gets taken off waivers.
 
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Dowd is the single most important pending UFA/RFA to me, even moreso than Chychrun. His effectiveness in his role enables so many other things to happen right for this team. I'd easily go to $2M or beyond to re-sign him. (If he wants the Beagle $3M special ... I'd have to think.) But I'm honestly a bit nervous that they haven't already announced an extension for him.
What is going with a Chychrun extension? It seems unlike our FO to let a good, pending UFA in their prime (that I assume we want) just go into the playoffs/summer without a deal.

There haven’t even been whispers about negotiations, like we heard for both LT and Chuck. I know he has some issues in terms of being an all situations D-man. But, didn’t Carlson/Orlov still have issues around that age? Plus JC6 has had a rocky dev path. You’d think JC74 would be a great mentor to help him shore up and mature his game.

And regardless of deployments, he’s still 2nd on the team in TOI/gm. If he’s gone, that’s a lot of minutes to try to fill next year if we want to keep having success. So, I dunno what’s going on there. Maybe they’re far apart, or Hutson has changed their calculus.
 
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Zero chance Dowd takes the bulk of his pay next year and beyond in performance bonuses. He’s earned a raise in guaranteed $ IMO. It’s his last chance at a big (for him) payday.
Halpy and Beags both left for bigger paydays, and while Halpy was 30, Beags was approaching 33 when he signed with Van. Dowd is getting a bit long in the tooth and idk how long of a deal for a significant $$ another team might offer him.

The performance bonuses don't have to be 'stretch goals.' Play in 60 games, get an extra $500k. Score 5 goals, another $500k. They're also an approved work-around for the cap, although bonus-related overages would count against the next year's cap. The risk for the player is an injury that would prevent him from reaching those easy goals. Maybe the league would approve a bonus of 'average 0.1 gpg.'
 
Halpy and Beags both left for bigger paydays, and while Halpy was 30, Beags was approaching 33 when he signed with Van. Dowd is getting a bit long in the tooth and idk how long of a deal for a significant $$ another team might offer him.

The performance bonuses don't have to be 'stretch goals.' Play in 60 games, get an extra $500k. Score 5 goals, another $500k. They're also an approved work-around for the cap, although bonus-related overages would count against the next year's cap. The risk for the player is an injury that would prevent him from reaching those easy goals. Maybe the league would approve a bonus of 'average 0.1 gpg.'

That’s right, a simple injury could negate all his performance bonuses. I just can’t see him taking that when he’s playing at a high level for his role.
 
Dowd has been underpaid for a while now and around the league you notice when watching different teams feeds that Dowd around the league is thought of as the best 4th line center in the league. I'd guess there are lots of teams familiar with his game since there were a lot of interest in him at the 2024 trade deadline too. Pair that with the fact that teams are going to have a lot of cap space next summer and Dowd is likely going to be looking for a contract that doubles his career-earnings to date (~9.4m).

I do think he likes to be here and during the season he's been mentioned several times as part of the 'core' -group among players so we'll see how this ends up. If they let him walk it wouldn't be the first time they'd do that to a fan-favourite 4C.

Capitals these days are pretty analytics-based. I wouldn't be too surprised if they let Dowd walk in the summer and make replacing him with a younger guy one of their main priorities this summer. I love Dowd but at the same time he's earned his bag after years of providing value for us and i think there's a team out there that wouldn't hesitate giving him 3-year contract at 3+ million which would basically double his career-earnings. I'm having hard time thinking that analytics-based team like the Capitals would give him that. I do think they'd be willing to give him close to that AAV for a year or two though, if he's okay to that.
 
What is going with a Chychrun extension? It seems unlike our FO to let a good, pending UFA in their prime (that I assume we want) just go into the playoffs/summer without a deal.

There haven’t even been whispers about negotiations, like we heard for both LT and Chuck. I know he has some issues in terms of being an all situations D-man. But, didn’t Carlson/Orlov still have issues around that age? Plus JC6 has had a rocky dev path. You’d think JC74 would be a great mentor to help him shore up and mature his game.

And regardless of deployments, he’s still 2nd on the team in TOI/gm. If he’s gone, that’s a lot of minutes to try to fill next year if we want to keep having success. So, I dunno what’s going on there. Maybe they’re far apart, or Hutson has changed their calculus.
I said from the beginning I wouldn't be surprised if they are far apart money-wise. Chychrun (or his agent) will want him to be paid based on his points, which are good. The Caps will want to pay him based on his analytics, which are not good. I could easily see a >$1.5 million gap per year.

Carlson and Orlov were both better defensively at that age.

There has been a ton of public criticism of how his agent handled the Rantanen deal. Apparently, Rantanen wanted to stay in Colorado. I don't know if that changes how his agent will approach this.
 


Leonsis only ranked 6th with a A- rating!

Worst owner ever! 😉
 
Dowd has been underpaid for a while now and around the league you notice when watching different teams feeds that Dowd around the league is thought of as the best 4th line center in the league. I'd guess there are lots of teams familiar with his game since there were a lot of interest in him at the 2024 trade deadline too. Pair that with the fact that teams are going to have a lot of cap space next summer and Dowd is likely going to be looking for a contract that doubles his career-earnings to date (~9.4m).

I do think he likes to be here and during the season he's been mentioned several times as part of the 'core' -group among players so we'll see how this ends up. If they let him walk it wouldn't be the first time they'd do that to a fan-favourite 4C.

Capitals these days are pretty analytics-based. I wouldn't be too surprised if they let Dowd walk in the summer and make replacing him with a younger guy one of their main priorities this summer. I love Dowd but at the same time he's earned his bag after years of providing value for us and i think there's a team out there that wouldn't hesitate giving him 3-year contract at 3+ million which would basically double his career-earnings. I'm having hard time thinking that analytics-based team like the Capitals would give him that. I do think they'd be willing to give him close to that AAV for a year or two though, if he's okay to that.

Interesting how consistent Dowd has been in his career in terms of games per season, goals, assists, points.

He should have his career year production-wise if he finally puts together a fully healthy season.
 

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