With 28 Unrestricted and Restricted Free Agents (UFA / RFA) entering the 2015 offseason, decisions being made in Ballston now and over the next few weeks will have larger than normal impact on the Capitals for the next several years, as well as play a huge part in defining General Manager Brian MacLellan’s legacy.
Some decisions will be easier than others. particularly on the defensive side of things. It appears that Erskine, Gleason an Green are probably gone, and the Caps will strive to re-sign Nate Schmidt, and look to Madison Bowey for the next supporting piece. It is not clear how the moves will shake out for the remaining defenders (Kundratek, Landry, Moore, Oleksy, Schilling and Wey).
In goal, decisions appear to be pretty straightforward as well. Holtby will re-sign, probably a long term big deal. Grubauer will be a key re-signing and move to backup Holtby. Peters will ultimately be re-assigned to Hershey for the remaining year. of his two-year deal. It’s not clear how things will shake out for Brandon Anderson and Edward Pasquale.
On the offensive side, the route to success becomes much more convoluted. GMBM has stated that it will be a priority to sign Kuznetsov and Johansson, and it would appear that Glenncross will be gone. But things are much less certain for Beagle, Fehr and Ward. These will be high-impact decisions, and critical for GMBM to get it right. For other offensive players, the future is even more uncertain. Chris Brown, Chris Connor, Aaron Volpatti, Casey Wellman and Kris Newbury are big question marks. An obvious re-signing would include Stanislav Galiev.
2015 Free Agents:
| Forwards | Defensemen |
| Jay Beagle (UFA) | John Erskine (UFA) |
| Eric Fehr (UFA) | Tim Gleason (UFA) |
| Curtis Glencross (UFA) | Mike Green (UFA) |
| Marcus Johansson (RFA) | Nate Schmidt (RFA) |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov (RFA) | Tomas Kundratek (RFA) |
| Joel Ward (UFA) | Jon Landry (UFA) |
| Chris Brown (RFA) | Mike Moore (UFA) |
| Chris Conner (UFA) | Steve Oleksy (UFA) |
| Stanislav Galiev (RFA) | Cameron Schilling (UFA) |
| Tim Kennedy (UFA) | Patrick Wey (RFA) |
| Garrett Mitchell (RFA) | |
| Kris Newbury (UFA) | Goal |
| Aaron Volpatti (UFA) | Brandon Anderson (RFA) |
| Casey Wellman (UFA) | Philipp Grubauer (RFA) |
| Braden Holtby (RFA) | |
| Edward Pasquale (RFA) |
Thoughts on potential moves we need to make?
I don’t think green is as good as gone. Hard to justify letting him go.especially for nothing in return.
Green will probably want $5-7 million. Thats a big price for a 3rd line Dman.
I agree!
More depth in the top lines. Need another scorer to compliment Ovi. There have been a lot of rumors about getting Patrick Sharp but I feel like we need to look for someone a bit younger before considering signing him. There were minor talks about getting Tyler Bozak of the Leafs and even attempting of getting Vladimir Tarasenko (though unlikely). I don’t know who the Caps would look at specifically, but I think they should resign Ward ASAP, and then look at offensive depth options. It also wouldn’t hurt getting another defenseman too, in my opinion.
I agree Kevin, plus I think Sharp may be too much $$. Weay be looking at $5 million left in cap space once we resign the key ingredients.
Jordan Eberle has been a rumor going around too. I’d be content with him. He’s young and skilled and being placed next to Ovie and Backy will only help him develop. Green is gone simply because of what he’ll be asking for. I don’t want him to leave but we won’t have room for him since Orlov and Schmidt are pretty much already our third D pairing next season. He’s gonna have a great year next year wherever he ends up. Hopefully it doesn’t come back to bite us in the playoffs.