Starting at noon, it’ll be open season on unrestricted free agents in the NHL. Last year’s contracts will be up, and we’ll be inundated by a flood of exorbitant salaries and impractical terms. For the last few years the Caps have mostly been bystanders to the free agency frenzy, but with $12.7M in salary cap space, they’ll likely be a bit more active today.

I cut this video to discuss what might animate the Caps’ offseason strategy: where they stand as a franchise, what holes they need to fill, and where the problems are not.

Here are those eensy charts from the video.

We’ll have an open thread up at noon today. It should be an interesting day.

And because I know one of you will screenshot it, here’s me doing that weird face.

Sources: NHL, Behind The Net, Hockey Analytics