Washington Capitals: Projecting the 2022 starters

Now that the 2022 NHL Draft is in the books the focus for the Washington Capitals now shifts to free agency and then the new season ahead. For this exercise we’ll do our first jab at predicting the 2022 opening night lines and defensive pairings for the Caps first game against the Boston Bruins.

We’ll skip goaltending since we don’t know who they’ll add yet but it’s looking at lot like it could be Darcy Kuemper.

Without further ado let’s break down the forwards. Keep in mind Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson will be in either a suite or the press box.

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Mantha-McMichael-Sheary
Snively-Eller-Protas
AJF-Dowd-Hathaway

Keep in mind a lot could change depending on what the Caps decide to do this Wednesday for free agency. I bumped Connor McMichael up to the second line since I’m not sure what direction the Capitals will go at that position in the free agent market. No changes to the top line.

The bottom six is interesting. Axel Jonsson Fjallby is the new Carl Hagelin on the fourth line with Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway. I decided to go with Aliaksei Protas on the third line along with Joe Snively. Again we gotta see what the Caps do this week.

Now let’s look at the defense:

Fehervary-Carlson
TvR-Orlov
Johansen-Jensen

The defense could really have any combination or pairing. But I’d say the John Carlson and Martin Fehervary pairing stays up top. The big surprise this year is Trevor van Riemsdyk moving up to the second pair next to Dmitry Orlov. But maybe it isn’t a surprise as Justin Schulz is likely not back with the Caps next season.

The third pair has Nick Jensen and Lucas Johansen who was just extended over the weekend. Goaltending like I pointed out earlier is a mystery but don’t be surprised if it’s Darcy Kuemper and Ilya Samsonov.

This is an early exercise and doesn’t take into account who the Caps could go after during free agency. But perhaps we’ll try this again when the season gets closer and the free agency chaos dies down.