Washington Capitals: Breaking down their 2021 salary cap situation

Breaking down the Washington Capitals salary cap.

The Washington Capitals have always been known to spend to the cap and this offseason was no different. Now with Alex Ovechkin entering a contract year, there is an opportunity for the Caps to sign him to an extension.

The Caps don’t have any cap space after their offseason moves which we’ll go over in a minute. However, with the Henrik Lundqvist news where he is going to sit out the whole season, the Caps don’t have to worry about his deal affecting their cap.

That’s because they can place Lundqvist as well as Michal Kempny on long term injured reserve. Kempny’s cap hit is $2,500,000 while Lundqvist carries a cap hit of $1,500,000. The Caps have $82,524,877 as a projected cap hit via CapFriendly.com.

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The salary cap will remain flat thanks to the novel cornavirus pandemic and the NHL losing lots of money by not having fans in the stands. It will be at or near $81.5 million. The 2021 offseason is still a ways away with the season expected to be over in July. At the end of that month, all eyes will be on Washington to see if they can re-sign the great eight.

Not only will Ovechkin be entering a contract year but so will Jakub Vrana and Ilya Samsonov and they will look to extend those contracts too. It’s a big season coming up for Samsonov who is expected to get starters minutes for the first time in his career.

Jakub Vrana meanwhile will be on a quest to have a 30 goal season or at least get back in the high 20’s. What will seal Vrana’s fate with the Caps will be how he does in the postseason. After some big goals in 2018, he was held scoreless in an upset to the Carolina Hurricanes and missed a breakaway goal that could’ve saved the Caps season against the New York Islanders.

To save money and increase their chances of affording Ovechkin, it is likely they will give Samsonov a prove it bridge deal where they will re-sign him for two more years while giving Vrana and Ovechkin a massive payday.

Ovechkin is certainly worth all that money as he helped transform that franchise. Vrana is part of the next generation of superstars on the Caps and has still yet to reach his ceiling.

What kind of contract would you give that trio of players?