Top 3 things that the Capitals need to fix for 2022
The Washington Capitals suffered another first round exit yet again. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The Caps pretty much tried the same thing the last two years and it didn’t work.
Peter Laviolette now enters the final year of his contract. There hasn’t been any talks about an extension and with a results driven owner extension talks are unlikely to happen this summer. So it’s pretty much a make or break season coming up for the Caps bench boss.
Here are 3 things the Caps need to fix next season.
#3 Forwards
The Caps need to adjust their lineup, particularly the bottom six. It’s time to get younger and faster. That starts with Connor McMichael playing the third line center and parting ways with Lars Eller. The Caps have all four of their varsity forwards under contract. Evgeny Kuznetsov isn’t going anywhere. Neither is Nic Dowd, who signed a contract extension in November. That makes Eller the odd man out.
The only way Nicklas Backstrom is no longer on the Caps is if he can no longer play due to that hip injury. If Backstrom can’t play then that creates an even bigger hole at the center position that’ll need to be filled.
#2 Defense
This may get me crucified by other Caps fans. Maybe not, though. It’s time to part ways with John Carlson. He’s too much of a Mike Green. And we need more defenders than offensive guys. We’ve got plenty of offensive weapons already.
The defense should already look different with the inevitable departures of Justin Schultz, Michal Kempny and Matt Irwin. Losing Schultz would give the Caps more wiggle room with the salary cap as his four million cap hit comes off the books.
After the Caps won the Stanley Cup in 2018 many players got the big bucks. One of the players who got the biggest bucks was John Carlson. He makes eight million a year. His contract doesn’t run out until 2026-27.
By then, the Caps may already be in a legitimate rebuild saying goodbye to one of their longtime and greatest team captains ever in Alex Ovechkin. Parting ways with both Schultz and Carlson this summer would give the Caps 12 million in cap space just from those departures alone. They could use that 12 million to try and keep the window open even if it’s only by a little bit.
The Caps could not only use a forward with that money but find a young defenseman to complement Martin Fehervary.
#1 Goaltending
In the opening paragraph I gave the definition to the word insanity. Nothing describes insanity more surrounding this team than the goaltending situation the last two years. They re-signed Ilya Samsonov and then traded back for Vitek Vanecek after the expansion draft.
After that trade back with the Seattle Kraken, many people speculated (including us) that the team wasn’t fully in on Samsonov… yet. Now they’re both restricted free agents this summer and one of them could be back or they both could be gone entirely.
On breakdown day, General Manager Brian MacLellan didn’t rule out a veteran goaltender either, saying he will explore all options.
Goaltending is the number one thing the Caps need to fix. They saw how running it back with Vanecek and Samsonov did not work and now they have to decide who they want to move forward with and which goalie to part ways with.
The Caps need a steady net minder in the crease next season. They’ll already be a year older as it is so they’ll be counting on someone to backstop the team while the offense does it’s thing.
Those are the three things I would fix with the Caps next season.