Capitals’ restricted free agent Chandler Stephenson will file for arbitration ahead of today’s 5 pm deadline.
The news was first reported by The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir.
#Caps restricted free agent Chandler Stephenson will file for arbitration ahead of today's 5 p.m. deadline, per source.
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 5, 2019
Stephenson’s situation will be fascinating to watch as the Capitals may not have room to bring him back after signing fourth-line players Garnet Hathaway and Brendan Leipsic to free-agent contracts on July 1.
Sort of. They don't *need* to salary three more players; they can salary no more than three more. In all likelihood, they'll add two more. One near the minimum, and Vrana for most of the remainder of the space they have. https://t.co/X3Iuy5glYW
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) July 1, 2019
The Capitals have only $4.3 million remaining under the salary cap to bring back Jakub Vrana, who is deserving of most of that money, and defenseman Christian Djoos. The Capitals extended qualifying offers to all three of Vrana, Djoos, and Stephenson on June 25th. Djoos is arbitration eligible too.
The Capitals can be up to 10 percent over the salary cap limit of $81.5 million until they submit their final regular-season roster in early October. But at some point, something will have to give.
