Washington Capitals re-sign T.J. Oshie for eight years

The Washington Capitals have announced they’ve re-signed T.J. Oshie to an eight year deal. He has a cap hit of $5.75 million per season.

The Washington Capitals have some upgrades they must make this offseason. At the very least, they have to find Nate Schmidt’s replacement and re-sign their RFAs. One thing the Capitals will no longer have to worry about is finding T.J. Oshie’s replacement. That’s because he has signed an eight-year deal worth $46 million. It works out to a $5.75 million annual cap hit.

As always, the incomparable Mike Vogel has the details. $20 million is designated as a signing bonus, which is relevant because it makes it a bit more expensive to buy out. However, $11 million of it is in the first three years, which makes a buy out more plausible after the first trio of seasons. According to CapFriendly, he has a modified no trade clause.

Here's the year-by-year breakdown of the Oshie deal with the #Caps, expressed in millions of dollars: pic.twitter.com/GJyfmGb9cV
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) June 23, 2017

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“T.J. is an invaluable member of our team and we felt it was imperative for us to re-sign him in a competitive free agent market,” said Caps general manager Brian MacLellan, via Monumental Network. “T.J. is a highly competitive player with a tremendous skill set; he epitomizes the kind of player our team must have in order for us to continue to put ourselves in a position to compete in this League.”

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Oshie’s contract was never going to be pretty. And oh boy, the final years could be terrible. Luckily, buying him out is quite possible because of how his signing bonus is set up.

The cap hit is perfectly acceptable. He’s probably worth $5.5 million per year at most over a short term contract. So an extra $250,000 isn’t going to break the bank early on. Assuming the salary cap ceiling rises proportionally, extending Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Andre Burakovsky and company shouldn’t be much of an issue.

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This deal is all about winning now. If the Capitals don’t, it will be viewed as nothing short of an albatross. But in the end, if the Caps win a Stanley Cup (or two or three…) with Oshie, it’s a hefty price tag, but one that’s well worth it.