The Capitals last year came within 2 wins away from winning the CDNHL championship. Usually teams like that don’t see a massive overhaul, but with 4 of Washington’s top 6 forwards hitting the ufa market along with their starting goalie Optimus Reim, that’s exactly what happened.

“We wanted to keep the boys together but it was just impossible with some of the huge paydays some of the guys were in for”, said GM MacPherson. “We liked our high tempo offensive core, but our lack of defensive depth last year we felt was our undoing so we wanted to become more of a two-way team. We felt we succeeded in that to a degree, admittedly we lost a lot of offensive firepower.”

 

Forwards

Last years the Caps looked like an almost unstoppable offensive force. This years it’s much different. They’ve got their star player and team captain in Tyler Seguin who should be a ppg player. After that there’s a lot of questions surrounding who else will be a big time performer. Vanek should be able to get 20 goals and maybe challenge for 30 which should help Seguin out. Krejci is a decent scorer but more of a playmaker, same goes for Koivu. Bjugstad is also a decent scorer but he won’t wow anyone with his goal totals more than likely. The rest of the offensive forward core is rounded out by Cogliano and Panik, who are decent scorers as well but more of utility players. The core is very reliable in their own end though so hopefully for the Caps that will counteract their lack of firepower offensively. The forward core will go as far as Seguin can carry the load offensively, if he goes down with an injury for any point in the year, the Caps will be in huge trouble.

Projected Forward Lines

Panik – Seguin – Krejci

Vanek – Koivu – Bjugstad

Brodziak – Cogliano – Komarov

Martinsen – Thompson – Smith

Key Piece

Seguin

Most Likely To Exceed Expectations

Panik

 

Defence

Last year this was seen as the teams Achilles heel. This year it is seen as a point of strength. Star D-man Ellis is one of the very few returning Capital players from last years run. He will be heavily relied upon to produce offence to help out the weak forward core. Same can be said for big ufa acquisition Pietrangelo. Though Pietrangelo will be more of a star two-way presence, the Capitals will need him to produce double digits in goals if they hope to compete in the east. Connauton was a minor acquisition who is no defensive stud, really only average in his own end, but a high scoring ability will be crucial this year. Oleksiak will be a mammoth of a shutdown d-man with some scoring ability to help the Caps out as well. Physical d-men McCabe and Hagg round out this strongish Caps defence core.

Projected D-Pairings

Ellis – Pietrangelo

Oleksiak – Connauton

Hagg – McCabe

Key Piece

Ellis

Most Likely To Exceed Expectations

Connauton

 

Goaltending

It could be argued that last year Reimer was not a strong enough of a goalie to win the Caps a cup. He helped them reach the finals but it could  be argued if the Caps had a better netminder the series against the Blues would’ve gone much differently. The Caps addressed this by adding Ben Bishop as their starting netminder. While he’s not the best goalie in the league, he is good enough to steal the Caps a couple of games come playoff time(pending the Caps reach the postseason of course). Nilsson adds a solid backup to help play 20+ games to keep Bishop fresh.

Projected Goalie Tandem

Starter – Bishop

Backup – Nilsson

 

Season Projection

5th-7th In The East

While the Caps aren’t a loaded team by any means, they have got good enough of a two-way squad to get a playoff spot. They will most likely not challenge for a top spot in the East just cause of lack of overall scoring depth. No real scoring stars besides Seguin will hinder the team. They could make a surprise run in the post season as they did last year but will need to add additional offensive threats via trade somehow. If they add another scorer or 2 this team could surprise people.

#MakeWashingtonGreatAgain