Also important to remember that it would be tampering if we did talk to him.
I've never understood why people think Gudas is some sort of underrated gem. He's a hard-hitting, but stupid stay-at-home type. I'm willing to say he fills the same sort of space that the Caps used John Erskine or Dennis Wideman for. Niskanen wasn't the best d-man ever, but he could move the puck and do a reasonably good job even-strength, PP and PK.
Good stay at home guys who can get the puck to the players who know how to move it are of great value. Gudas does that with ease.
I’ve only ever seen him make stupid stick penalties. As a puck mover, he’s not as valuable for offense.
Well, overpriced and not worth the effort, the Caps’ front office probably thought. Gudas won’t be re-signed though.
Like what- Ovechkin not renewing? There’s really not much else, since the core of younger forwards is there with Kuznetsov, Oshie, Jaskin, etc. Ovie could leave, yeah. Maybe he wants to start fresh with putting his mark in a new team or play in Russia. It really will come down to whether he wants to try for Gretzky’s goal record, I’d say, and what team gives him the best platform to do it.
Never meant he was a puck mover, more that he can clear his own zone without icing the puck every two attempts or feeding it right into the path of a rushing first liner. Even with the bad penalties it’s better than what Niskanen was contributing at this point which is why I’m so confused as to why Philly would help out a division rival to this extent. They lost on both talent and money.
So... the minimum standard of quality for an NHL d-man.
Oh, okay I see. Yeah, I agree. I'm going to guess it's because Philly has a poorly run front office. Even in the old Caps GMGM days, a deal as bad as this one was rare.
Well, they just freed up enough cap space for both, in a given year. The most pressing needs though are to resign depth forwards like Vrana, Burakovsky and Connolly. That's what this move was all about. I'm going to guess Chandler Stephenson is gone, and there's a tough decision to be made about Dmitri Jaskin.
Right, but it's not like they're out there in abundance. There's definitely a value to them.
I think it's more of a "do they want to keep the same gang together" decision than a cap issue (at least for now; changes if they decide to go headfirst into the FA market). I know the Caps have a couple of goalie prospects they like and may be facing a similar situation as TB did with Bishop, and Backstrom's as much a legend as Ovie but if he's looking for that last payday there's a chance they pass.
It’s the #1 most cheapened position across the NHL, and has barely improved in overall quality since the expansion era of the early 1990s. Great d-men are rare, and a decent group of 3-4 is all most teams can reasonably ask for. I’m just not going to get excited by someone like Radko Gudas. I’ve seen him before on the Caps as John Erskine, Jeff Schultz, Joe Reekie even...
It will really depend on what Backstrom wants to be paid. The guy could command a top-20 salary, were he to hit free agency. It’s an interesting case to see how much he values playing for the team that drafted him and has both given him so much, and benefited from his stellar play.
With Riikola and Ruhwedal on 1 way deals hopefully that means he is 8th now.
