#2 How will they fix their defense?
The defense will be a top priority to address in the offseason and there are some questions as to what they’ll do. The Caps will have two unrestricted free agents in Radko Gudas and Brenden Dillon and a restricted free agent in Jonas Siegenthaler.
Siegenthaler will likely stay with the Caps and get a raise. Earlier this offseason I wrote about how they should re-sign Brenden Dillon, who might be solid with a full season under his belt. One question is how the Caps will address their defense with a flat salary cap. One thing they might do is trade one of their defensemen like they did with Matt Niskanen in favor of Gudas.
The Caps have all but three left handed defensemen. They will likely need to move one of them and add a righty. On the right hand side they got John Carlson, Nick Jensen and Radko Gudas, but Gudas will likely be gone hitting the open market in free agency. He even said himself he doesn’t plan to be back and that the team has other needs.
Laviolette could be a great addition at head coach for the defense. Now it’s all about personnel.