Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Washington Capitals Mailbag: Dream Team
Our next question comes from Bill from Arlington!
"Hey Dave. I’ve noticed that you’re a huge hockey fan and I love how you evaluate players past what they do on the score sheet. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on something. My co-workers and I had a lunch time discussion about the best players in the NHL. If you could add three players from other teams to the Washington Capitals (ignore cap issues), who would they be and why?"
Oh wow, that’s an excellent question Bill. So many different ways I could go with this question. Do I grab guys who can help the Washington Capitals win now? Or do I build for the future? I think I’ll go with the first option because that’s more fun.
The Washington Capitals have a pretty deep team. They have three kind of weaknesses that I’d like to cover. The first concern is that other than Backstrom, they don’t really have anyone who’s an above average shutdown line center. The kind of center you could throw out there against anyone. I’d love for the Washington Capitals to add one. I narrowed my list down to three guys: Patrice Bergeron, Joe Thornton and Anze Kopitar.
Out of those three guys, give me Bergeron. It’s incredible how much better the Bruins are with him on the ice and how much better he makes his teammates. He was born to play for Barry Trotz. The next concern on my list: who’s replacing Mike Green? I love Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt, but they’re not replacing Green this season. I’d like to fix that.
So who could replace Green’s production? I’ll go with Erik Karlsson. He faces tough competition and lots of minutes. Despite that, he manages to make everyone look absolutely silly. Giving him sheltered minutes would be like only using Datsyuk for shootouts, so I’d give Karlsson first pairing minutes. That would open things up for John Carlson and Matt Niskanen. Plus, a power play featuring Ovechkin and Karlsson would be unfair. Honorable mentions include Duncan Keith, Justin Faulk, P.K. Subban and Drew Doughty. Karlsson is the most productive of those guys, so I’ll go with him.
My final concern that’s not really one: a shutdown wing to pair with Bergeron and Oshie (I’d have Backstrom and Williams with Ovi). Basically form the best shutdown line in the NHL and allow Ovi and Backstrom to destroy inferior competition. This boils down to the impossible decision of choosing between Brad Marchand and Nikita Kucherov.
I’ll go with Marchand, but I’d love to have Kucherov as well. Marchand has chemistry with Bergeron. I loathe Marchand because he’s a pest (a darn good one at that), but Washington Capitals fans would quickly warm up to him. He’s incredibly underrated because people think he’s just a pest. They couldn’t be more wrong. He and Bergeron form the best shutdown line in the NHL bar none. He annoys you and then scores on you. Double Whammy!
An underrated part of having Marchand and Bergeron: Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky and Tom Wilson could easily be sheltered with offensive zone starts. Basically, it makes everyone’s life easier.
Quickly, here’s who I’d add if I wanted to build for future and possibly extend the opening of the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup window. I’d add Aaron Ekblad, Filip Forsberg and Connor McDavid.
That was fun! Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and to tweet me (@BmoreDaveS or @Stars_AndSticks) with #CapsMailbag and your question if you’d like to be featured next time!