Washington Capitals: Most Overlooked Part Of Off-Season
Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Capitals are set to enter the 2015-16 NHL season with perhaps their strongest roster in recent memory. This is all because of a very strong and memorable offseason put together by general manager, Brian MacLellan. The team lost several solid depth players in Eric Fehr, Joel Ward and Troy Brouwer, as well as a star defenseman in Mike Green. This caused reasonable concern amongst the fans, leaving them wondering how the team would replace those players and still build off of a very strong first season under Barry Trotz.
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The concerns would not last long: two legitimate top-six wingers in T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams were added to form one of the strongest overall top-sixes in the entire league. Several young players have been re-signed to very friendly deals, including Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby. Marcus Johansson is the only remaining significant restricted free agent for the Washington Capitals, though he will almost certainly be returning barring a trade or walk-away by the team at arbitration.
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The fact that these moves have been impressive isn’t up for debate. The most impressive and overlooked part of these past several weeks is the pieces that Brian MacLellan did not move, and what that means for the future of the Washington Capitals.
Rumors surrounded the team for months, preceding the trade deadline even, about adding a top-six forward for the stretch run last season, as well as for the future. Whether it was Patrick Sharp, Radim Vrbata, or any name that rumors attached to the team, it was a debate over what the team would have to give up to add that top-six guy that would put the team over the top. Williams, who is penciled in on the Washington Capitals second line, was signed to a bargain of a deal for two years in free agency, largely because he believes the Washington Capitals have a really good shot at the Cup in the near future (also because his son loves Ovechkin).
A combination of Pheonix Copley, Troy Brouwer and a 2016 third round draft pick netted them the right winger they were looking for to put with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Copley, an impressive though still relatively unproven goaltender, was far from the best goaltender in the system. Vitek Vanecek, a 2014 draft choice, and Ilya Samsonov, the surprising first round selection in this year’s draft, were both likely ahead of Copley on the Washington Capitals goaltending depth chart, making Copley expendable. Washington Capitals fans already know what Brouwer meant to this team, so I won’t analyze his inclusion in the deal, other than the fact that Oshie is a much better fit on this team.
The reason why the analysis on Copley is important is because he is the only prospect of any kind that the Capitals gave up while the team markedly improved.
If you read any kind of message board or social media, you would see that the prototypical deal that was requested by the fans of teams linked to the Caps in trade talks was highlighted by any of Madison Bowey/Jakub Vrana/Connor Carrick and a 2016 1st round pick. It was pretty reasonable, even, that at least one of those assets would probably be going the other way for a player of real significance.
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But, here we are, at the end of July with only one or two holes left to fill. On top of that, the team held onto their top prospects. Bowey and Carrick are the two top defensive prospects in the Capitals’ system, and after the loss of Mike Green, a great opportunity will lie ahead of one of these two to fill that gaping hole possibly as early as this season at some point. Bowey probably has the higher ceiling out of these two. Vrana is pretty much unarguably the best forward prospect that the Capitals have, now that Andre Burakovsky and Kuznetsov are full time NHLers, so keeping him was almost a no-brainer.
With those players, amongst several other good prospects such as Riley Barber, the future remains bright for the Washington Capitals. The fact that Ovechkin is beginning to age just a bit has scared many people into believing that the window for a Stanley Cup is starting to close, and that perhaps the team should go “all-in” and give up whatever it takes. Indeed, the team is all in now. This offseason, and the shuffling that has gone on, proves that.
The events of this summer have been very exciting, and it isn’t even over yet. Fans have many reasons to not just look forward to this year, but continue looking forward to the bright future that remains intact, yet overlooked, for the Capitals. And maybe, just maybe, Brian MacLellan has opened the window even more.
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