Offseason Checklist: Washington Capitals

The offseason has arrived for all but a handful of teams who are still taking part in the playoffs.  Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Washington.

The Capitals were able to pull off a late-season comeback to reach the postseason but they were quickly dispatched in a four-game sweep by the Rangers, ending their year on a low note.  Washington is a team that’s more or less stuck in the middle so GM Brian MacLellan will need to figure out how to get this team moving in a more concrete direction.  There are a couple of different paths to take obviously and their checklist will reflect both routes accordingly.

Examine Goalie Trade Options

This season was somewhat of a changing of the guard for Washington’s goaltenders.  Darcy Kuemper was signed to be the long-term starter while Charlie Lindgren was brought in during the 2022 offseason as a low-cost backup.  They flipped roles this year with Lindgren cementing himself as the starter while Kuemper struggled, landing in the second-string role as a result.

While both netminders are under contract for next season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see MacLellan try to shake things up.  However, the route they take – retool or rebuild – will indicate which netminder would be the right one to move.

If they’re looking to win now, they might want to look at the market for Kuemper to see if there’s a taker for a swap of underachieving goalies.  This could be an offseason that sees more musical chairs than usual this summer when it comes to goaltenders and there are a handful of teams with veterans who have multiple years left on their contracts with a price tag in the range of Kuemper’s $5.25MM.  Since Kuemper (who does have a 10-team no-trade list as of Saturday, down from 15) doesn’t have positive trade value on his own, perhaps taking a flyer on someone else in a swap of bad deals could help their situation between the pipes.

On the flip side, if they pivot to a rebuild, then the idea of moving Lindgren stands out.  Signing him to an extension now would carry some risks considering he’s coming off a career year but here’s a goalie who’s underpaid even by backup standards with a cap hit of just $1.1MM.  With one year left on that contract, he could have some decent trade value for a team looking for a low-cost option in goal.  With both Hunter Shepard and Clay Stevenson dominating at AHL Hershey, the Capitals could move forward with one of them splitting time with Kuemper or his replacement (they could look at the first swap idea in either route) and assess from there.

MacLellan suggested earlier this offseason that he’s planning as if both netminders will be back for next season.  He should at least be exploring what other options might be out there in the coming weeks.

Re-Sign McMichael

After taking care of Aliaksei Protas earlier in the season, the Capitals got one of their young forwards signed early.  They didn’t do that with Connor McMichael and therefore will need to get him signed over the next few months.

It has been an interesting first three years for the 2019 first-round pick.  McMichael held his own in his rookie year in a fourth-line role but then in 2022-23, he was dispatched back to the minors for most of the season where he had a chance to play the offensive role he’s more suited to, not to mention getting in a long playoff run with the Bears.  That helped propel him back to the NHL for this season and the 23-year-old was more impactful, notching 18 goals and 15 assists in 30 games while averaging just under 16 minutes a night.  That goal total was good for a tie for fourth, a pretty good outcome for someone who played all of six NHL games the year before.

Generally speaking, this is the type of player profile where it makes a lot of sense to do a bridge contract.  Here’s a player who only has a couple of years of NHL experience under his belt and likely hasn’t reached his offensive ceiling.  More often than not, a short-term second contract is a straightforward solution.  However, they gave Protas five years at $3.375MM per season with even less experience and less of a track record offensively and he would have been a logical bridge candidate as well.  That means the potential for McMichael to sign a longer-term agreement certainly is there.

If it winds up being a conventional bridge contract, it should check in somewhere around the $2MM range, perhaps slightly backloaded to guarantee a higher qualifying offer at the end.  That would also give them more money to work with if they’re looking to add to their roster this summer.  Conversely, a bridge contract that buys up some UFA time likely pushes past the $4MM mark.  If he develops as they hope, that would be a team-friendly pact before long but it would take away from their cap space this summer.  If they decide to retool though, they may look more favorably on a longer-term agreement as they won’t need as much cap space for next season so they can more comfortably pay more now to potentially save later.

Utilize LTIR

This time last year, Nicklas Backstrom had done relatively well finishing up 2022-23 after returning from hip resurfacing surgery and while his $9.2MM price tag was high for the role he could fill, he could still fill a role.  However, just eight games into the season, he shut it down, missing the rest of the season due to ongoing issues with his hip.  At this point, it seems highly unlikely that he’ll be able to return.  Accordingly, the Capitals can go into offseason LTIR and use that money either in free agency or on the trade front.

There’s also the potential for that number to go up.  T.J. Oshie has been playing through some significant back pain and mused about the potential of not trying to play through it next season given the issues it gives him in his day-to-day life.  If the determination is made that he won’t play either, that’s another $5.75MM that could be added to the LTIR pool.  Given the potential that he could return, it’s unlikely that money would be utilized this summer (it might be more of an in-season decision) but it’s something that will need to be considered.

Now, how they use LTIR will be influenced by their direction.  If they want to add win-now pieces, they can utilize it that way; we’ll get to some possible needs on that front shortly.  But if the focus is on the future, then they can try to become a broker and take on a contract along with some future assets to help in the long term.

How much they have to spend remains to be seen with Oshie’s situation.  But they will have LTIR at their disposal this summer if they want to use it.

Add Scoring Help

While this obviously is more of an issue if Washington is trying to push for another playoff spot next season, it’s an area that’s going to need to be addressed at some point.  It wasn’t that long ago that the Capitals were one of the higher-scoring teams in the NHL.  However, they only managed to finish 28th in that regard this season and with Backstrom likely not returning, Oshie’s status in jeopardy, and even long-time middleman Evgeny Kuznetsov now gone in a late-season trade, a good chunk of the previous core isn’t going to be around anymore.

This is something that Backstrom’s LTIR situation should help them with.  By the time they re-sign McMichael and their other free agents, they’re basically going to primarily have just Backstrom’s (and maybe Oshie’s) money to play with.

How should that money be spent?  They’re not in a spot where they need to be picky.  While Dylan Strome has fared rather well in his two seasons with the Caps, he’s not a true number one center in an ideal world.  McMichael still isn’t overly proven at the NHL level.  With Backstrom and Kuznetsov out of the picture, there’s a definite need to add an impact piece down the middle.  Ideally, that would be someone with some offensive creativity which could help unlock some of the sluggish scoring on the wing.

Speaking of that, the Capitals had just three wingers surpass the 15-goal mark last season.  One is Alex Ovechkin who overcame a terrible start to put up 31 tallies but age is catching up with him.  Another is Tom Wilson, a player who hasn’t reached 25 goals in a season in his career; he’s more of a secondary contributor from a points perspective.  The third was Anthony Mantha who put up 20 goals before being moved to Vegas a little before the trade deadline.  Suffice it to say, there’s a definite need for a scoring winger or two.

If MacLellan has any designs on trying to get back to the playoffs in 2024-25, he will need to find a way to add multiple impact point producers to this roster.  If the plan is to retool, they can push that down the road temporarily but it’s an area that will still need to be addressed sooner than later.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.