Brian Sickles: Capitals Free Agency Day One: Kuemper, Brown, Gustafsson

As a Sens fan, I'll miss Brown. Best way to describe him is that he's like a Swiss Army knife, he'll pretty much fit in anywhere. Penalty kill he shines on, and makes other teams afraid to pinch because he steals the puck so much leading to odd man rushes or breakaways. You can play him up and down the line up, 4th line grinding up to first line, and he never looks out of place.

Some insight on the 2 former Hawks signings from a Hawks fan that watches nearly every game.

Gustafsson can be a GREAT PP QB (see his 60 point season), but defensively he is a liability (also see that same 60 point season where he somehow managed to still be a -6). He did make some good strides in his defensive game this past season, but I still found myself tensing up whenever he was stuck in his own zone and left to defend.

Borgstrom, like the Hawks Twitter community likes to say (specifically Mark Lazerus), is just a guy. He's not bad, he's not good, he's just there. Hopefully like you mentioned he can play in Hershey and regain some confidence to finally show NHL fans what those who watched him in the NCAA know he's capable of.

As a Sens fan, I'll miss Brown. Best way to describe him is that he's like a Swiss Army knife, he'll pretty much fit in anywhere. Penalty kill he shines on, and makes other teams afraid to pinch because he steals the puck so much leading to odd man rushes or breakaways. You can play him up and down the line up, 4th line grinding up to first line, and he never looks out of place.
- Ronninn

Love the input! Thanks for the comment.

Some insight on the 2 former Hawks signings from a Hawks fan that watches nearly every game.

Gustafsson can be a GREAT PP QB (see his 60 point season), but defensively he is a liability (also see that same 60 point season where he somehow managed to still be a -6). He did make some good strides in his defensive game this past season, but I still found myself tensing up whenever he was stuck in his own zone and left to defend.

Borgstrom, like the Hawks Twitter community likes to say (specifically Mark Lazerus), is just a guy. He's not bad, he's not good, he's just there. Hopefully like you mentioned he can play in Hershey and regain some confidence to finally show NHL fans what those who watched him in the NCAA know he's capable of.
- blackhawks95

Great stuff. I am liking Gustafsson for sure. I am not sure where Gustafsson fits on our PP. If he goes anywhere it will PP2 for sure. Even if Carlson gets hurt, Gustafsson shooting left really throws off the flow of the Ovechkin one timer. Every millisecond counts on those. Borgstrom seems like a low risk medium-high reward kind of guy. Thanks for the comment and inside scoop.

If we get lucky in the next lotto we'll have a shot at Connor Bedard. This is looking as bad as George McPhee calling the shots.

I think Gus is essentially a much cheaper version of Schultz so not an improvement or a loss really.
I like goalie being re made and like do it all Brown a lot. He can be resigned in Washington if he works out and likes it. He just didn't want to re sign in Ottawa. Mojo is a good add in terms of skating, keeping possession and carrying thru neutral at 5 on 5 and 2nd power play. He of course, won't score much but I am hoping that Snively and Eller can if he's on the 3rd line with them. Would love a big D upgrade but I wonder if they do that at the trade deadline if they see themselves as a lock for the playoffs again...

Was kind of hoping for a Brent Burns type pick up on the back-end, but these moves are all solid!

Might as well just get the band back together: Chandler?! Was also always a fan of Beagzzzz!