The 2019-20 Washington Capitals will feature not only some returning casts of players but some new faces as well.
With a crazy free agency, the Washington Capitals lineup will look a lot different than last years team. The Capitals lost Matt Niskanen, Brett Connolly, Andre Burakovsky, Devante Smith-Pelly, Brooks Orpik and potentially Chandler Stephenson.
The top two lines will be the same, but there will be some new faces and names in the third and fourth lines. The Capitals signed Garnet Hathaway, Brendan Leipsic and Richard Panik.
There will be a few players fighting for a spot on the team who will be scratched for most of the season. My guess is that Travis Boyd will be an odd man out for the forwards but will be rotated with Garnet Hathaway on the fourth line.
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For the most part on the forward front, the top six is as solid as it comes. A top line of Ovechkin–Kuznetsov–Wilson gives your team a chance to win every night.
The second line features a mix of the youngest superstar with two solid vets. Jakub Vrana will likely to be back with the team next season once a deal is agreed with. The vets that round that line out is Nicklas Backstrom, entering the last year of his contract. and T.J. Oshie.
The third line will have a void left by Andre Burakovsky but the Capitals addressed this by bringing in Richard Panik to lineup next to Lars Eller and Carl Hagelin.
Rounding out the bottom six is a completely different fourth line. Nic Dowd is the only recognizable face but is surrounded by Brendan Leipsic and Garnet Hathaway, two of the newest members of the Capitals
The defense will also be interesting with Michal Kempny anticipated to return after a season-ending hamstring injury. Other than that top pairing with John Carlson, the remaining blueline will be quite different. Dmitry Orlov will likely be paired with Nick Jensen, a defenseman they picked up from the Detroit Red Wings before the trade deadline last season and were able to re-sign for four more seasons.
Rounding out the pairs will be Jonas Siegenthaler and newcomer Radko Gudas. That third pairing will likely be split between Siegenthaler and Christian Djoos, barring any setback comes with extending his contract this summer. Gudas was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in the Matt Niskanen trade and it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to the Capitals.
My guess is the opening lines will look like this to start the year against the St Louis Blues:
Offense
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Haglin-Eller-Panik
Leipsic-Dowd-Hathaway
Defense
Kempney-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Seigenthaler-Gudas
Goalies
Holtby
Copley
Burakovsky will be missed and there’s no telling what could happen to Chandler Stephenson with arbitration but the Capitals did a good job addressing who could fill in to some of the openings in the bottom-six. We won’t know for sure until the season plays out, but expect the Capitals to have another strong season in what should be an exciting 82-game fight to the playoffs inside an improving Metropolitan Division.