Washington Capitals: 3 Affordable Free Agent Defensemen

3 affordable defensemen for the Washington Capitals.

The Washington Capitals will be going into this years free agency with not a lot of money to play with, but still plenty of positions to fill. Thanks to the Caps being in a cap crunch they will have to say goodbye to a fan favorite and team legend. Fans will also have to look out of the corner of their eyes because a big move to free up cap room could come at any point. I’m not saying that will happen, but it definitely could.

One thing the Capitals need to do is sign a depth defenseman with this little cap room. Right now, the Capitals have just under $9 million in cap space. The only guy they are going to have to re-sign is trade deadline acquisition and defenseman Brenden Dillon. I’m guessing he’s going to cost at least in the $4 million a year range.

If that is the case then Washington will have just under $5 million left to sign other players. I tend to think they should sign a veteran defenseman. One who will be a steady hand, help the younger defensemen find their way and in this instance, be somewhat on the cheaper side.

You can’t sign any of these guys to anything more than one year really. The Capitals are going to need plenty of cap space next year to extend Alex Ovechkin and Jakub Vrana. You would think both are set to get at least $2 million extra on their current cap hits.

So, who are just a few of the Capitals options on defense?