Washington Capitals: How the Division Champs stack up?
By David Trice
We have reviewed all opponents for the Metropolitan Division, now is time to review how the Washington Capitals will fare defending their division title.
After winning the 2018 Stanley Cup, the Capitals were fortunate to maintain a very similar roster unlike most champions. The few notable roster changes from Cup winner to those chosen to defend it include: letting Jay Beagle leave via free agency and a trade for Colorado’s 2nd round pick in 2018 in exchange for Philip Grubauer and Brooks Orpik.
But the move of Orpik was temporary as they signed him back once he was bought out by the Avalanche, on a much more team friendly cap hit. Sadly to the dismay of the Capitals faithful they didn’t get far in defending their much awaited title, and with that early exit from the 2019 playoffs it was time for the turnover to really take affect.
The Capitals found themselves against the cap this off season while needing to sign back or replace a number of places in the line up. These included second and third line left wingers, a third line right winger, third pair defenseman and a number of key RFA/UFA depth. The real challenge would come with a decision on how to approach filling out the roster, do they attempt to replace the offensive depth lost or improve the team defensively overall to offset the lack of secondary scoring depth?
More from Editorials
- Alex Ovechkin will score 50 goals in 2023-24
- It’s time for Capitals fans to chill out with the Anthony Mantha hate
- The Capitals Have Several Potentially Bad Contracts
- Nic Dowd looks to show reliability
- Dylan Strome’s Contract Could Be A Steal For The Capitals
As the dust settled on all the moves necessary to fill the voids and remain under the salary cap, the Capitals chose the latter by improving the team defense. New additions Richard Panik, Garnet Hathaway, Brendan Leipsic and Radko Gudas are expected to contribute to a more defensively responsible lineup. While retaining Jakub Vrana and Christian Djoos to ease the loss of the secondary offense from the lineup.
How will these moves payoff against the revamped Metropolitan Division? As for replacing the departed offensive depth, it is thought that Richard Panik will replace Brett Connolly as the third line right wing. This will be a tall task to replace the output Connolly has been able to provide the Capitals, but with Panik coming from a more skill depleted lineup in Arizona to a perennial playoff team in the Capitals his numbers are sure to improve to some degree. Although he may need to do so with less ice time, as he held an average time on ice of 16:37 versus Connolly’s 13:20. The additions of Garnet Hathaway and Brendan Leipsic, are meant to serve notice to the holdovers of Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd that better defense is expected from the 4th line.
Most likely, Hathaway will be in the everyday lineup for sure where the other three will be vying in training camp for the remaining 4th line winger role. With Hathaway the Capitals gained a better defensive player than they currently have on the 4th line, as his +14, 36 blocks, 200 hits and 23 takeaways can contest.
Looking into the advanced statistics, he also was on ice for 27 goals for versus 17 goals against when at even strength. In addition to his defensive prowess he offers an upside for offense from the bottom six, as he scored 11 goals and 8 assists with an ATOI of 10:32.
Finally, the addition of Radko Gudas just reiterates the Capitals feeling on how they won the Cup previously with a lot of grit and toughness as evidenced by his 255 hits; giving the Capitals four players who registered at least 200 hits. Gudas will provide a more reliable defensive defenseman than was present with Matt Niskanen, while being younger and much cheaper. As the team stands, I believe they will be a harder team to play while not dropping off from the offensive side as much as people might think. But a lot will depend on the team chemistry and the continued production of the top six, if too many suffer from regression it will be much harder to repeat as division champions with the changes other teams have made.
Look for our thoughts on how the Division will play out in an upcoming post to reveal the Metropolitan Division Power Rankings as viewed by Stars and Sticks.
Trending. What will it take to keep Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby?. light
If you missed any of the previous reviews for the rest of the Metropolitan, follow the links below to brush up on the coming and goings in the division: