The Washington Capitals have signed a key forward today inking Andre Burakovsky to a two-year, $6MM deal. Getting Burakovsky in for a relatively low price of $3MM per season was imperative for the team after it found itself in cap trouble this offseason. Mike Vogel of the team site gives us the breakdown:
- 2017-18: $2.25MM+$500K signing bonus on July 15th
- 2018-19: $3.25MM
After re-signing Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie to eight-year contracts, the Capitals found themselves without much room to pay Burakovsky and fellow restricted free agent Philipp Grubauer. That ended up with the team dealing Marcus Johansson to the New Jersey Devils, but they still didn’t have the room to give Burakovsky a long-term deal. Buying out any free agent years would have made the cap hit skyrocket, as even though he currently has a career-high of 38 points, he’s also only 22 and has put up excellent numbers for relatively low playing time he’s received. With Johansson’s departure, Burakovsky should receive more time in the top-six and on the powerplay, giving him the opportunity to put up 50+ points next season.
That said, signing him to a bridge deal now makes any future long-term deal even more expensive. You don’t have to look much further than Kuznetsov, who took an identical two-year $6MM bridge deal in 2015, and just parlayed it into a $62.4MM contract this summer. While Kuznetsov is a center, giving him a bit more leverage, if Burakovsky can break out in a similar manner he will actually have a longer track record when he hits his third contract.
For the Capitals, this leaves them with ~$5.6MM in cap space and just Grubauer left as a key player to re-sign. They could easily fit him in under that, as the backup goaltender is coming off a $750K salary in 2016-17 and has still only started 51 games in his career. Though the option to trade him still exists, the amount of teams looking for a starting goaltender has considerably shrunk (if not disappeared all together) and dealing him as a backup would likely bring back a much smaller package. That said, Grubauer is two years away from free agency and any short-term deal will put him on the open market in a few seasons as a much sought-after starter.
Burakovsky though will now be a nicely priced asset for the Capitals, and will still be a restricted free agent at the end of the bridge deal. Despite being only 22, he’s just four years away from free agency meaning they’ll have two more years of control before he hits the open market. In 2019, the Capitals have both Lars Eller and Brooks Orpik coming off the books, and should have enough room to sign him to a longer-term deal that buys out free agent years. Whether that is signing a player capable of being a first-line winger or not is still to be determined.