Top 5 Capitals who won’t return in 2024
The Washington Capitals apparently have $24 million to spend next summer. Based on their restricted and unrestricted free agents as well as a few surprising others, who do they hang onto and who do they let go?
The Caps have a total of 10 potential free agents when this season is said and done. Four of those are UFAs while the other six are RFAs.
#5 Joel Edmundson
It took a while before we saw Joel Edmundson suit up which was Nov. 18th’s win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. He’s played in nine games so far mostly lining up on the third pair with Nick Jensen.
He’s making $1.75 million this season after the Caps acquired him in a trade on the first day of free agency. He’s an unrestricted free agent this summer.
The Caps defense can be good and hasn’t been the biggest issue this season. It’s still early to tell what Edmundson brings to the team as he started the season hurt from an intrasquad scrimmage at training camp.
The Caps have other defensemen who are restricted free agents include Rasmus Sandin and Lucas Johansen. Don’t see Sandin going anywhere. Johansen is 50/50 but does have upside. That makes Edmundson the odd man out.
#4 Nicolas Aube Kubel
Nicolas Aube Kubel begun the season with the Hershey Bears as guys like Matthew Phillips had a surprising preseason to make the opening night roster. Aube Kubel makes $1.225 million and is an unrestricted free agent this upcoming summer.
He has one goal and three assists for four points in 11 games with the Capitals. Phillips is a free agent too but he’s restricted so that means the Caps can have more leverage in discussing a contract extension.
Other forwards that are RFAs include Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, and Beck Malenstyn. It would be foolish to deal McMichael unless the Capitals see some crazy good return but even that would be rare in an ever competitive league.
Malenstyn has impressed me a lot this season and I think his development has progressed. He’s another important forward for their future. Protas is like a bigger but more athletic Mantha. Again this is a young core that’s sprikled in with the veteran core.
#3 Anthony Mantha
No rivalry in hockey is greater than Anthony Mantha and Caps fans that weren’t a fan of the trade deadline that shocked the world in 2021 when the Caps traded the fan favorite Jakub Vrana for him.
Although he gets a lot of criticism from those types of fans, Mantha hasn’t had a terrible season. He’s eighth on the Caps in scoring with eight points. Five of those points though were goals.
Mantha’s five goals ties him for third on the team four ways which includes names like Evgeny Kuznetsov, Connor McMichael, and Alex Ovechkin. If the Caps can’t afford to keep Mantha or decide to trade him before the deadline, his numbers to start the season have slightly increased his trade value.
The real question in all this is which type of team would take on his $5.7 million salary cap hit. Would the Caps have to retain any of it is another question.
Nothing has divided the Caps fanbase more than the Mantha trade. Reality is he’s off to one of his better starts this season and it could’ve been a lot worse. He has five goals despite some early season healthy scratches.
Now if Mantha ends up having a breakout season, that puts Brian MacLellan in a tough spots as well as the fans who questioned the trade to begin with.
#2 Evgeny Kuznetsov
This is more of an educated guess rather than an assumption that Evgeny Kuznetsov could get traded. The Caps and Columbus Blue Jackets scouting each other’s last several games definitely raises questions. Scratching Kuznetsov from the lineup earlier this week raised some. Kuznetsov coming back and scoring his next game certainly raises more.
Can Kuznetsov keep it up to extend his time with the Caps? Could the Caps use this to up his value if he doesn’t want to be here? If Kuznetsov gets cold and gets scratched again, then what happens?
Either way dealing Kuznetsov is much easier said than done and the Caps learned that the hard way with the Nashville Predators when a deal with them fell through on draft night.
Kuznetsov has five goals and five assists for 10 points. He’s tied for third in team goals four ways with Anthony Mantha, Connor McMichael, and Alex Ovechkin each with five. He wasn’t much noticeable to begin the season but has turned around his play as the Capitals got better in their hot month of November.
So far this month has not been kind to the Capitals and tonight is a Metropolitan Division matchup with the New York Rangers, a possible revenge game for Kuzy after some choice comments on his former coach who is now head coach of the Rangers.
#1 Nicklas Backstrom
Nicklas Backstrom is out indefinitely and possibly for the remainder of his career. His hip surgery that he had back in the summer of 2022 was good for a while but in the end he just felt he couldn’t play and had to step away from the game.
We don’t know if this is for sure the end of Backstrom’s career but MacLellan has been hinting in interviews that it could be. Still it’s Backstrom’s call but him being with his family which includes a wife and three kids is certainly what he needs right now.
The sad thing about this if it’s indeed the end is how he likely won’t be the one setting up Alex Ovechkin when he reaches 895 to pass Wayne Gretzky. Backstrom may still see it from a suite or the press box but it won’t be the same.
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Backstrom is a heck of a center and a good teammate. Not having him around is not easy for the veteran core or even the younger players. But we wish him all he best in whatever he decides to do.