|
July 4th Weekend: Caps News & Notes |
|
|
|
|
|
Hello All
Happy 4th of July Holiday Weekend! We are back with a quick hit for some Caps News and Notes
Headlines:
1. Nicklas Backstrom Has Surgery - Backstrom has been dealing with a variety of hip issues over the years. It has been reported that he has had minimally invasive surgery as early as 2015 and the issues had been "so-so" in 2021 according to Backstrom. In the 2021-2022 season, Backstrom battled this same injury all season. It was a couple weeks ago that Backstrom had "hip resurfacing surgery." The reported recovery timeline for this type of surgery is typically very long, at least a year from what I have read. Ryan Kesler had the same form of surgery done in 2019 at the age of 35 and he never played again. In 2013, Ed Jovanovski was the first player to have this type of surgery. He took a full year to rehab and eventually returned to play 37 games before retiring. We live in a day and age where athletes more often than not defy timelines of injury returns. However, with this being a nagging injury for Backstrom, I anticipate him missing the entire 2022-2023 season. I am just hoping he will come back at some point. The "X-factor" variable that I believe will drive him to keep playing (if he physically can) will be to play alongside Alex Ovechkin in his quest to chase Gretzky. We are talking 3-4 years down the road. This is a huge stretch at this point but it only feels right for these two to sail off in the sunset together.
2. Upcoming NHL Draft - The 2022 NHL Draft will be conducted on July 7th-8th. The Capitals have the following selections:
1st Round: 20th overall
2nd Round: 46th overall (from WPG)
3rd Round: 85th overall
5th Round: 149th overall
6th Round: 181st overall
7th Round: 213th overall
I believe the Capitals will go for winger in the first round but center is certainly more enticing given the uncertainty of Backstrom's future.
Top Three Wingers I like:
1. Jagger Firkus, RW
2. Liam OhgrenM C/W
3. Ivan Miroshnichenko, LW
Top Three Centers I like:
1. Brad Lambert, C
2. Jiri Kulich, C
3. Conor Geekie, C
All of these guys are in and around the 20 spot depending on which predraft rankings list you are looking at.
3. Upcoming UFA Targets with Injuries - With Backstrom likely out next year, his 9.2M cap hit will not count against the Caps. In addition, Tom Wilson will be out 6-8 months and his 5.166,666M will not count against the Caps. The Capitals are working with roughly 14.37M in Cap space just from these players alone. The Caps need to fill the void as these are massive injuries for the Caps. When healthy, Wilson is a 50 point scorer, and Backstrom is a 70+ scorer at least.
Here are a couple winger and center targets the Capitals could try to sign:
Centers:
Evgeni Malkin, Age 35.9
Claude Giroux, Age 34.4
Filip Forsberg, Age 27.8
Vincent Trocheck, Age 28.9
Nazen Kadri, Age 31.7
Ryan Strome, Age 28.9
Rickard Rakell, Age 29.1
Andrew Copp, 27.9
Andreas Athanasiou, Age 27.8
Personally, I would go get a middle of the pack Center who wont cost a fortune. Trocheck, Strome, Rakell, Copp all would likely get a 3-5M contract depending on the parameters. This leaves the Caps room to sign another winger and a GOALIE.
Wingers:
Valeri Nichushkin, Age 27.2 (RW) - The Avs will do everything in their power to have him return. For him, why the heck would you leave a team where you won a cup and have been playing the best hockey in your career? If he leaves, its for the bag and the Caps cant (shouldn't) give that to him.
Nino Niederreiter, Age 29.8 (RW)
Reilly Smith , Age 29.8 (RW)
Evan Rodrigues, Age 28.9 (LW)
Ondrej Palat, Age 31.2 (LW)
Frank Vatrano, Age 28.2 (LW)
Goalies
Ville Husso, Age 27.3
Jack Campbell, Age 30.4
Darcy Kuemper, Age 32.1
Braden Holtby, Age 32.8 (Do we really wanna go down that road? Yes and No.
The Caps have been rumored to be interested in John Gibson via trade. Gibson has 5-years left on his 6.4M deal. That is a long time to pay a goalie a lot of Cheddar. Then again, the biggest issue for the Caps last year was goaltending. Not sure if it would be possible, but it would be more enticing to trade for Gibson if the ducks retained at least 25% of his contract. I'd also rather pay a younger guy like Husso 4M a year for less term.
That is all for today. More to come this month. June was slow and for good reason. I had COVID, had a work conference for a week, and went on vacation. Not much time for blogging in there. Thanks for your patience.
LETS GO CAPS!
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»
