Not that there are a lot of starting goaltending options available, but the Washington Capitals may have to move their backup Philipp Grubauer after all. With the impending defensive losses of free agents Kevin Shattenkirk and Karl Alzner, who the team likely cannot afford after the team locked up T.J. Oshie to an eight-year deal, and the loss of 25-year-old top-four defender Nate Schmidt to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, the team must find a way to replace their blueliners.
With cap room almost entirely used up and with several restricted free agents still to lock up, the Capitals have only two places to look to fill those holes – either from within or via trade, according to J.J. Regan of CSN Mid-Atlantic. The team still retains several key defensemen, including restricted free agent Dmitry Orlov, veterans Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen as well as John Carlson. From within, the team has 22-year-old Madison Bowey on hand, who might be ready to make the jump to the NHL. He was out with an ankle injury and missed a lot of the AHL season a year ago, but still had 14 points in 34 games. Still, he may not be the player you count on to jump onto a playoff team’s defensive line.
Therefore, the lack of depth on defense could easily force the team to move Grubauer, who was often talked about as an expansion candidate for the Golden Knights. However, since Grubauer has little chance to grab a starting gig in Washington and isn’t even the future of the franchise as that role likely belongs to 2015 first-round pick Ilya Samsonov. There are still several teams who need a quality, young goaltender and they may be able to offer an inexpensive blueliner to fill Washington’s needs.
- While there have been dozens of teams linked to Ilya Kovalchuk over the past two months since he announced he’d like to return to the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets are one team that have shown interest in the 34-year-old Russian winger. However, while that interest still exists, Columbus Dispatch’s Aaron Portzline tweets that the team, as of today, are not in full pursuit of Kovalchuk, and are currently searching for a Top-6 center to fill in the gap.
- The Carolina Hurricanes are closing in to signing Derek Ryan to one-year deal, tweets Edmonton Oilers radio analyst Bob Stauffer. Ryan, was a Masterson Trophy finalist this past year, which goes to a player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey. At age 30, the center finally broke through into the NHL after years of playing in Europe and the AHL, finishing the season with 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points and being credited for helping change the culture of the Hurricanes locker room. He is coming off a one-year, $600,000 contract and looks to be getting a solid raise.
houseoflords44
I’ve watched Madison Bowey in Hershey the last two seasons & he is nowhere near ready to make the jump to the NHL. He makes far too many mistakes defensively. He makes bad decisions with the puck. He often tries to force passes through 2 players instead of taking the easy way out of the zone. His positioning is terrible. I saw him on several occasions vacate his position in front of the net to unnecessarily help in the corner. The puck came back to where he was & the other team scored when a wide open player put it in the net. He has shown flashes of brilliance, but has not done it consistency. He was a healthy scratch for a few games in the playoffs. Two other young defensemen significantly outperformed Bowey this season. Christian Djoos is a superior offensive player. Djoos was the 3rd leading scorer in the league among defensemen with 58 points (2 points behind the co-leaders & he played in fewer games than the top 2) . He had 13 goals & 45 assists. Djoos is an excellent offensive defenseman. On the other end, Tyler Lewington is far better defensively than Bowey. Lewington played on Hershey’s top defense pairing for most of the season and had the best +/- among the team’s defensemen. He is a smart player in his own zone. Bowey has a chance to be a solid NHL defenseman in the future, but he isn’t ready right now. Bringing him up at the start of the season could set him back & completely destroy is confidence