A horrible man once said you should never let a crisis go to waste.
I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but the Washington Capitals are bad. They’ve lost three straight and have recorded just three regulation wins in their last fifteen games. Two of those three regulation wins came against the Arizona Coyotes and the Columbus Blue Jackets, the 28th and 32nd place teams, respectively.
And as of Friday morning, HockeyViz says the Caps have a 37-percent chance of making the playoffs. This – I am now going to attempt to argue – is a gift.
Excuses? There’s a ton. They’re the oldest team in the league and perhaps not incidentally also the most injured. They’re currently missing their star player while he mourns his father. Every forward line has had missed a critical pieces for some stretch. Some core players, such as Oshie, are clearly playing hurt. It’s a disaster up and down the lineup, on the scoreboard, in the standings.
Okay, pause on that.
The way I hear it, there’s been a handshake deal between the Caps and their star players, stipulating that the team would continue to earnestly compete as long as those players are under contract. Basically, no Kane-Toews situation.
But now, for reasons totally out of anyone’s control (or for reasons one could at least try to argue were out of anyone’s control), the team cannot really contend this season. It doesn’t have to be the players fault or the coach’s fault or the GM’s fault. It’s just one of those things where everything went wrong and oh shucks what are you gonna do.
What you are gonna do: Sell everything not nailed down. That means trading away any expiring free agents who are not in the team’s long-term plans. Naming names:
- Conor Sheary, a spritely forward with way more offense than his salary ($1.5M) suggests
- Marcus Johansson, a Swedish Army Knife, who is great between the blue lines and earns just over one million
- Lars Eller, a veteran forward who isn’t a liability in his own end
- Anthony Mantha, a promising top-six forward who needs a different system to play under
- Nicolas Aube-Kubel, a waiver wire pick-up who has exceeded expectations
- Nick Jensen, a reliable defender who is worth twice his paycheck according to Dom at the Athletic
- Erik Gustafsson, a nominal third-pairing defender who’s had an offensive explosion
- Dmitry Orlov, a star defender with whom the Capitals are reportedly struggling to sign to a new deal
Besides Mantha, all of these players’ contracts will be void come summer. Between then and now there will almost certainly be no grand quest by plucky underdogs to win the whole damn thing. So, before the NHL trade deadline on March 3, the Caps should convert those contracts into as many durable assets as possible. That means picks, prospects, and young players.
Let some of the team’s young and low-minute players get a chance to earn a spot in next year’s team. Free up Washington’s salary-cap space so they can make more of those high-value free-agent signings they’ve become so good at. Don’t rush back anyone on IR. Let the guys struggling through their injuries get real recuperation. Keep Ovechkin’s linemates as strong as possible so he can keep scoring. Get a decent first-round draft pick. And prepare for that coaching change.
The Caps promised their stars they’d keep contending for as long as those guys are on the team, but this season it’s just straight-up out of their hands. It doesn’t have to be anyone’s fault (it is, but we don’t have to say it out loud), and now that they’re here, they might as well make the best of it.
Headline photo: Screenshot courtesy of @Capitals
