How could the Capitals look with Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom back

Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom have been making significant progress and that is good news for Washington Capitals fans.

How could the Capitals lineup look when they return and who could go? Let’s find out.

Here’s what I think the forward lines will look like when Wilson and Backstrom are back.

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Milano-Strome-Oshie
Johansson-Backstrom-Eller
Mantha-Dowd-Hathaway

Now if the salary cap is bad, the Caps could move anybody. But who would they move. Lars Eller and Anthony Mantha could be doable players.

Mantha has a cap hit of $5.7 million and has been OK this season but could be better. He has nine goals and 13 assists for 22 points. I wouldn’t say the Caps won the trade. Jakub Vrana has been struggling on and off the ice and who knows what his numbers would be like if V was better than he was right now. We wish him the best and hopes he gets back to his ways soon.

Eller has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 39 games. Moving him to the wing could be doable he has done it before. But who knows. His cap hit is $3.5 million.

Mantha has two years left on his contract. Eller is in his last season before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

Let’s do some math. Tom Wilson carries a $5.166 cap hit while Backstrom’s is $9.2 million. The Caps have $91,961,832. Adding the two cap spaces together equals $14.366 million over the cap. There will be moves that would have to be made.

Getting rid of Mantha and Eller would free up $9.2 million in cap space. What about the other $5.166 million the Caps have left over the salary cap.

There’s going to have to be a lot of roster maneuvering. And that’s just the forwards side. If you look on the defense it’s even more stressful.

Besides John Carlson, every defensemen is either an unrestricted free agent or restricted free agent. Every single one is playing for their future each game night.