Washington Capitals: Where are they now?

We are well into the offseason and there are now several new names that are joining the Washington Capitals. But what about the players that we won’t see this fall donning the red, white, and blue? Where did they end up? That’s what this post will focus on.

We’ll start with the forwards. During free agency we saw the Caps trade for Connor Brown, the acquire Dylan Strome while re-signing Marcus Johansson. I don’t think they’re done yet as the team is now just over six million over the cap.

So far the only forward that’s departed was trade deadline acquisition Johan Larsson. He reportedly joined the enemy the Pittsburgh Penguins. He had one goal and five assists for six points during his brief 14 game time with the Capitals. There are no contract details as of this writing.

The defense and the goaltending is going to look very different. Before we get to the goalies let’s talk about the defensemen. The Caps re-signed Matt Irwin while adding Erik Gustafsson.

Meanwhile Justin Schultz joined the Seattle Kraken. He signed a two year deal with a cap hit of $3 million per season. That’s one million less than what the Caps were paying him each year. Michal Kempny has yet to find a team to sign for.

And finally there’s the goaltending. The Caps had a difficult decision to make between their two young, homegrown, yet inconsistent goalies. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t so difficult. The Caps said goodbye to both Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek.

In their place the Caps added Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren.

The Caps not only parted ways with Samsonov and Vanecek but Pheonix Copley as well. Copley is now with the Los Angeles Kings. The Caps traded Vanecek to the New Jersey Devils to move up in the second round of the NHL Draft.

Today Vanecek got paid as the Devils signed him to a three year deal worth a total of $10.2 million. He will make $3.4 million per season. Samsonov joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as he will compete for net time with Matt Murray. His cap hit in his one year contract is $1.8 million. He made $2 million last season with the Caps.