The Washington Capitals enter a new season and not much has changed surrounding the team. Gone are Brenden Dillon and Zdeno Chara. There are still final decisions of the roster to be determined. Looking back on what the Capitals did, or didn’t do this past summer, what was their biggest regret?
I will not say it wasn’t trading Evgeny Kuznetsov. Letting him go could lead to a big regret in the future. I will also say if there was a regret from this past offseason it wasn’t as costly as a few offseasons ago when we let a Stanley Cup winning head coach in Barry Trotz walk out the door.
So if I was to say the Capitals had a big regret from the offseason it wouldn’t be from missing out on a big time free agent. Who they hell could they afford with the limited cap space? Nope if there was a regret it comes from the Capitals not getting younger over the offseason BUT based on their circumstances things could change leading up to opening night.
In fact, things are different right now after the final preseason game. There has been debate about an internal prospect filling that void of an injured Nicklas Backstrom. Kuznetsov would center the first line while Lars Eller moves down to the second. The fourth line remains untouched so that third line center position could be either Connor McMichael or Hendrix Lapierre.
Now there could be a chance for both McMichael and Lapierre to make the opening night lineup. Alex Ovechkin left last night’s preseason game in the first period with a lower body injury. The Caps are off today so we may not get word on Ovechkin’s status until they practice on Sunday. If he were to miss the first few games, which is a better case scenario than several weeks, there will be a mix of youth in that lineup after all.
Everyone says the Caps are bringing back the same team, but are they if they have two hot prospects in the mix? We may have said McMichael should get playing time over the summer. If there’s an injury to Ovechkin that will sideline him for a while, let Lapierre get in there too.
So granted, there could be a ton of regrets that the Caps had from the offseason. But based on what we saw from the preseason, they may have caught a break.