4 UFA Defensemen Washington Capitals Should Target

#1 Dmitry Kulikov

We’ve had two right handed defensemen and one left handed defensman. It is only right we close this out with another lefty. That player will be Dmitry Kulikov of the Edmonton Oilers who’s 30, thankfully the right side of his 30s. He only carried a cap hit of $1.15 million.

Kulikov spent the 2021 season with two teams, the other one being the New Jersey Devils. He had two assists in time with both teams with 38 games for New Jersey and 10 with Edmonton. He finished with a plus/minus of -3 with 28 penalty minutes while averaging 19:10 minutes of ice time overall.

His advanced stats were OK. Between both the Devils and the Oilers his Corsi For percentage finished at 47.7 percent.

Now comes the hard part which is sending in your protected list by Saturday. Once that’s done the Seattle Kraken can interview players that are left exposed. After the expansion draft we’ll get a much clearer picture of what the Caps will need this offseason whether it’s forwards or defense or another goalie.

The Caps have to be smart with their protected list and be prepared for whomever the Kraken will take. If Greg is right, it could likely be a defenseman which will mean the Caps would have to go shopping for a blueliner.