Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman delivered some more bite-sized nuggets of Capitals analysis on his 31 Thoughts podcast along with Jeff Marek.

Friedman elaborated on his report from earlier in the week that the Capitals were trying to “move money” to bring back pending UFA Brenden Dillon.

One player that could possibly be out the door is bottom-six forward Richard Panik, who ended the season on the fourth line after he was expected to be a mainstay on the third.

The comments start at the 1:02:55 mark.

Elliotte Friedman: They want to keep Dillon. They’d like to keep Dillon. I’ve heard that if it gets done it’s probably gonna be somewhere in the $3.5 to $4 million range if they can get it done.

They’re trying to move money. To me, that probably someone like Panik ($2.75 million AAV). I don’t know what the market is for him. But I think they’d like to keep [Dillon] if they can.

The other thing now is who’s going to be the goalie combo with Samsonov next year. It looks like Holtby is gonna go to free agency and they’re going to see.

I think the other big question they got is ‘What’s Ovechkin’s number going to be?’

[Friedman is asked by Marek if Ovechkin would take evergreen one-year deals for the rest of his career]

I don’t see it. I think him and Backstrom want to tie each other into each other. I know that in business that sometimes you’ve got to be ruthless, but as long as Ovi doesn’t go in there and ask for 8-years, eleventy billion dollars. He deserves every penny he gets. He saved that team. How much of the value of that team is tied up in things he’s done there.

As far as I’m concerned, even if he asks for eleventy billion dollars, that guy deserves every dollar he’s going to get. And maybe he might not live up to it, because he might get older. The fact is: Who is betting against him? And how much money are the Capitals going to make in the chase for Gretzky and the attention he’s going to create.

As far as I’m concerned, whatever he gets, he’s earned it.

Free agency officially begins on October 9. The NHL Draft, which starts on October 6, could generate multiple deals as teams look to upgrade their teams ahead of next season.

S/T to Japers Rink for first tweeting.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB