It’s about to be a busy summer for Washington Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan. The team will have five unrestricted free agents and two restricted free agents. Needless to say decisions will be made. And lots of them.
So who is it that will stay on the Capitals and who goes?
Who stays
Martin Fehervary: The Caps should 100 percent bring back the young defenseman who’s one of two restricted free agents. We’ll talk about the other one next. Fehervary had six goals and 10 assists for 16 points and is a key face to the future of the Caps defense.
Alex Alexeyev: So is Washington’s 2018 first rounder. He’s another future piece of the Capitals defense. He had five assists.
Connor Brown: We never got to see Brown fully play as he got hurt quickly into the season when he was supposed to get Tom Wilson. Why not give him another chance?
Who goes
Carl Hagelin: Hags deserves a new home to get his career back on track after he missed the entire season with that eye injury.
Craig Smith: Smith was OK but this was just a real as the winger and center is 33 years old.
Matt Irwin: Irwin is also up there in age and the Caps are trying to get younger at forwards and defense.
Conor Sheary: Tarik El Bashir of The Athletic recently reported not to expect the Caps to give Sheary an extension. He’ll be a hot free agent target as he comes off a 15 goal season. The problem is he had some scoring slumps. A fresh start would be something he might need.
Keep an eye on those names and yes those are my predictions on who will depart the Caps and who stays around. It will be an interesting and important offseason ahead for the Capitals.