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?
Zach Bogosian
Zach Bogosian is currently in the middle of trying to win a Stanley Cup. That’s an admirable task. Once he’s done with that however he’ll be a free agent and possibly be looking for a new home. The Lightning have just over $5 million in cap space, the tricky part is they only have three defensemen signed for next season and they have to re-sign the young and incredibly promising Mikhail Sergachev.
The Lightning also only have ten forwards signed, moves will have to be made. Bogosian could be available.
While he’s not the best option that could be out there he could be one of the best in terms of depth defensemen. If he is given too much responsibility then he might not be what you want. But based on how he’s played in Tampa maybe he’s proven to people what his role is. A depth guy that can jump up in the lineup if he needs to.
He only played in eight games for the Lightning before the stoppage in mid March, so it’s hard to get a grasp on how well he did. But his stats look very good in the playoffs.
He has a 59.18 Corsi rating, he’s been on the 156 scoring chances for and 128 chances against giving him a 54.93 scoring chance for percentage. He’s also been on the ice for 56 high danger attempts for and 42 against which gives him a 57.14 high danger attempts for percentage. All those very good numbers.
His current cap hit is $1.3m. I’d guess that will go up but maybe not too much. He’s definitely affordable and at just age 29 could be a heck of an option for the Capitals.
Andrej Sekera
Andrej Sekera is currently in the middle of trying to win a Stanley Cup. That’s an admirable task. Deja Vu! He would be going more in the direction of veteran guy who has been around a while. He’s 34-years-old and has been in the NHL for thirteen seasons.
He’s not a top four guy, but luckily that’s not really what the Capitals would be asking for, at least if you ask me. In terms of actually getting Sekera though, maybe this could be tough. Win or lose in this Cup Final, will he want to leave Dallas? This is a proven great team with likely more chances to win. Dallas also has well over $15 million in cap space with not many big names to re-sign. Maybe they go bigger with the cap space and Sekera then becomes available?
He won’t blow you away with his stats. He doesn’t score very much, at least these days, and his advanced numbers are more towards the average side. But for a depth defenseman he’s plenty good I think.
In 57 games played in Dallas this season he had a 48.50 Corsi%. That’s the wrong side of fifty percent but his important numbers did go on the right side. His scoring chance percentage was at 51.06 and his high danger percentage was 51.79%.
Again, Washington won’t be asking this guy to play top four minutes or pressure. Just be a bottom two or depth guy and play good defense. At a current cap hit of $1.5m he’s definitely affordable and could leave room for more deals if needed.
Trevor Daley
This one is a tough one. Trevor Daley has been a good defenseman pretty much his whole career. He’s been in the league for twelve seasons, despite what some fans might say, you have to be somewhat good to last twelve years in the top league in the world.
The tough part of this is he is 36-years-old, had some injury issues and has been playing on the Detroit Red Wings teams of the last three years. Those teams have just been horribad. So bad that I just had to use a non word like that.
How much talent and juice is there available for this guy? With questions like that he should easily be affordable. His current cap hit is $3.166m, that will go down, and if Daley wants to return to a winning side it will most likely have to go down.
Again, they just need him to play bottom pairing minutes, they don’t need him for anything serious which is what they were asking in Detroit. At least when you look at the depth chart or the lineups Daley was playing on the first pair.
Daley’s stats have never looked too great, he is usually on the wrong side of fifty percent in his stats, but for bottom pairing guys I think he’d be fine. When he played on good Penguins teams in back to back Cup years he had OK or good stats. His best year being in 2015-16 where he played in 53 games for Pittsburgh. His Corsi was 53.55%, his scoring chance percentage was 56.79% and his high danger percentage was 55.77%.
More. Washington Capitals: John Carlson gets snubbed from Norris Trophy. light
That was five years ago. So the “does he still have it” question remains. But he could be cheaper, and playing on a good team he could really bring his stats up. He maybe wouldn’t be my first defenseman option, but an option he is I believe.