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Offseason Thread

elocomotive

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Hey guys, thought I'd drop into our rarely used team thread for some comments on the upcoming offseason.

My theory for next year is that the Caps need to keep their core/top players together again including Ribeiro and see what they do with a full season under their belts and Oates at the helm. I think this should be a make or break year for McPhee and the key guys on the team. If they can't make conference finals or better, it's time to try something different. We've had most of the "young guns" for quite some time now and barely a whiff of playoff success. To keep those guys, some things have to be done, here's what I'd do in McPhee's shoes...

Trade/buy out Erat - $4.5 mil
Trade Schultz - $2.8 mil (I mean, they aren't using him anyway)
Trade Ward - $3.0 mil (solid guy, but we need the space)

Rough cap hits in parentheses:
Sign Alzner (4.0 mil), Mojo (1.8) , Hendricks (1.2) and Ribeiro (6.7 mil?)
Bring up Orlov and Wilson

That gives you a full roster just under the cap hit. I find Erat to not be useful to this team - I really don't know what he brings and is way to expensive for how he plays. You can't have he and Brooks on this team at their cap hits. Too high for the production. And I think you NEED Ribeiro on this squad. We've been lusting after a 2nd line center for years and gave up a solid prospect for him. I wouldn't just let him leave to keep Ward or Erat, which is essentially what you are doing if you let him go.

That roster is then...
D - Green, Alzner, Carlson, Erskins, Hillen, Orlov, Olesky
F - OV - Backstrom - Brouwer
Laich - Ribs - Mojo
Chimera - Perreault - Fehr
Wilson - Beagle - Hendricks
G - Holtby, Neuvy

I say give this squad one more chance and then make some MAJOR moves if it doesn't work.

What do you guys think?
 

DoobeeDoobeeDoo

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Hmm, I believe the roster as of now looks something like,

L1: Brooks Laich - Nicklas Backstrom - Alex Ovechkin
L2: Troy Brouwer - Mikhail Grabovski - Martin Erat
L3: Jason Chimera - Jay Beagle - Joel Ward
L4: Tom Wilson - Matthieu Perreault - Eric Fehr
Reserves: Marcus Johansson & Michael Latta

D1: Mike Green - Karl Alzner
D2: John Carlson - John Erksine
D3: Tomas Kundratek - Steven Oleksy
Reserve: Jack Hillen

G1: Braden Holtby
G2: Michal Neuvirth

Not a bad team going into next season. Lots of talent & depth, only question I have is the experience at the blue line after Mike Green. Otherwise I would just stick with that lineup for now. Maybe buying out Martin Erat wouldn't be a bad idea down the road, but it would look really bad if they trade Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat and then just buy him out within half a season. They obviously saw something in Erat to trade Forsberg for him, so I would give him a chance to prove his worth before buying him out.

Some prospects I would like to see get a chance this upcoming season would be Nicolas Deschamps & Ryan Stoa, they do rather well for the Hersey team, maybe they could shine for the Caps if they are given some opportunities?
 
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