Who the Washington Capitals Could Lose to Free Agency This Summer
The Washington Capitals offseason is here and with the early stages in full swing we have a lot more questions than answers. As the summer progresses, the salary cap situation will begin to crystallize and we will get a general idea the direction the Capitals are going in.
A big decision is looming, do the Caps do a major retool, rebuild or do they run it back again. While the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, the direction the Caps SHOULD go in is very complex.
Here are the players who the Caps could potentially lose in free agency.
Forwards
The only free agents on the forward front are unrestricted free agents Marcus Johansson and Johan Larsson. They both were acquired at the trade deadline. Larsson came from the Arizona Coyotes while Johansson was with the brand new Seattle Kraken. The Caps sent Daniel Sprong to the Kraken in that Johansson deal.
Johansson made $750,000 last season while Larsson made $700,000. They are both good veteran cheap forwards that could help any team that is cap strapped. Believe it or not, the Caps aren’t the only ones who have little wiggle room in the salary cap.
Defense
On the defense there is three unrestricted free agents. There’s Justin Schultz, who while is the better one than the other two I’ll mention has the biggest cap hit at four million. That four million could be used elsewhere to upgrade their situation at goalie (more on that later). The other two are Michal Kempny who made $2.5 million last season and Matt Irwin at $750,000.
It is likely none of those names will be back next season. Irwin was OK but nothing really stood out. Schultz is good either on a second pair or third pair on any team but his price is too high to re-sign.
Parting ways with Kempny is a hard one but will likely happen as well. Kempny was brought in at the 2018 trade deadline and he helped the Caps to their first Stanley Cup. Though a hamstring injury that sidelined him for a long time messed up his game.
This past season Kempny was splitting time with the big club and the AHL team over in Hershey. It was the byproduct of a bad preseason. Perhaps a change in scenery could help Kempny get his NHL career back on the right track. Things are much different now.
Goaltending
We saved the best one for last. Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek are both restricted free agents. Pheonix Copley is an unrestricted free agent. Copley will probably be gone. From there the Caps will have to decide between Samsonov and Vanecek. One could stay, one could leave, or both could leave. But very unlikely they go with both of them again. It didn’t work the last two years.
Vanecek was 20-12-6 last season with a 2.67 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. Samsonov was 23-12-5 with a 3.02 goals against average and a .896 save percentage. There wasn’t even a clear starter when the playoffs emerged but Vanecek got the nod for Game 1 and then was lit up in Game 2.
Vanecek did win Game 1 but Game 2 was horrendous which caused Samsonov to come in relief for the third period to try to put out the fire. Samsonov stopped all 17 shots in that third period and ended up getting the nod in net the rest of the series.
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Does this mean the Caps coaches and decision makers have made up their mind on who will likely remain on the team next season? Or is it still way too early to tell? Even if it is still too early, General Manager Brian MacLellan has to make a decision soon.