The Washington Capitals will head into the offseason with around $14 million available to spend, and perhaps nearly $20 million, depending on what TJ Oshie decides with his health.
This summer, the Capitals will have two notable restricted free agents — Connor McMichael and Beck Malenstyn — and two notable unrestricted free agents — Max Pacioretty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Per Cap Friendly, the Capitals already have a roster of 19 (10F/7D/2G) signed to deals next season and has picks in every round of the 2024 NHL Draft, except the seventh. They will pick 17th in the first round and have three different third-round picks.
With draft picks and cap space to work with, the Capitals could choose to make a move over the offseason.
“I think we have more flexibility going forward here,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said Tuesday. “I mean, we’ll see what the market is. Salary cap will go up a little bit, so it’ll give teams a little more room. We’ve acquired some draft capital. I would anticipate we’re going to have some room to use that, so we’ll see what it brings.”
Some of MacLellan’s moves could involve the team’s goaltending duo of Charlie Lindgren and Darcy Kuemper. Lindgren had a career year and is headed into the final season of his three-year contract worth $1.1 million per season. When speaking to the press, Lindgren was open to a new deal if the team wanted to go down that road. The 30-year-old backstop is eligible for an extension on July 1.
“I mean, it’d be nice, you know? Not going to lie,” Lindgren said. “Obviously it’s something I’m working hard and doing everything I can, not just for myself but for my family and the team and the organization. Like I said, we’ll, I guess, see what happens.
“DC is a place that I feel extremely comfortable,” he added. “I love living here. I love playing for this team. I love playing for this organization. I can go on and on how amazing the staff is here. Just my teammates, it’s just a really good situation. I’ve really thoroughly enjoyed my time here so we’ll kind of see what happens with that.”
MacLellan, however, did not expect to negotiate an extension this summer.
“Not yet,” MacLellan said. “I think we’ll go into the year. We’ll talk to him. Obviously, we’re happy with his performance. He’s a big part of how we played down the stretch and into the playoffs. We have time to work that out.”
As for Kuemper, who had a career-worst year and whose name has already been bandied about in trade rumors, MacLellan believes the 2022 Stanley Cup champion netminder can re-find his past form.
Kuemper went 13-14-3 in 33 appearances with a 3.31 goals-against average and a .890 save percentage. He made just seven starts after the All-Star break.
“The season kind of got away from Kuemps a little bit,” MacLellan said. “I think he’s a good goalie. I think if you look, he’s been a consistent good goalie for a long, long time. Performance probably wasn’t at his standard that he would like to be at, and then Chuck played really well.
“I think the coaches or the team, we were under pressure to win every night, so they went with Chuckie. The longer that time goes on, I think it’s harder for Kuemps to get back in the rotation and compete for a spot back. I would anticipate that, given his track record of consistency, that he would come back and have a good year next year.”
Outside of Lindgren’s pending contract situation, MacLellan has more immediate concerns: re-signing his RFAs. The Capitals will likely want to retain both McMichael and Malenstyn, who took major steps this season and earned confidence from head coach Spencer Carbery. They were just two of four Caps players to get into 80-plus games this season.
The Capitals could opt for a bridge deal for McMichael, akin to how they handled Martin Fehervary’s three-year extension last summer. Malenstyn could sign a one-year deal and become a restricted free agent again during the 2025 offseason, but that would leave him with just one more RFA year before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
“We’ve had initial conversations [with both players],” MacLellan said. “I think we’ve communicated that we’ll wait until the end of the season and then go from there.”
MacLellan was noticeably less resolute when asked about team’s two UFAs, Pacioretty and Aube-Kubel. Both players signed one-year contracts before the 2023-24 campaign.
The Capitals did not retain any of their notable UFAs last summer, allowing Conor Sheary, Craig Smith, Matt Irwin, and Connor Brown to walk. With fewer veterans on the roster, younger players were able to establish larger roles this past season, something the Caps could attempt to repeat.
“I’ll meet with coaches here,” MacLellan said. “We’ll go through lineups and what we think we need and then we’ll make decisions before July 1st on that.”
With Oshie’s status for next year up in the air, MacLellan’s well-known search for a top-six forward could turn into a search for two. He admitted Tuesday that the team will need to go out and replace Oshie if the veteran winger calls it quits after a 16-year NHL career.
The quicker Oshie makes a decision, the quicker MacLellan could put the additional salary cap space to work. Carbery agreed that the team needs help up front, telling reporters that the organization would get to work on trying to find an available elite offensive talent. The rookie bench boss also added that he thought the club needed some size on the backend, but MacLellan wasn’t as sure.
“I don’t know,” MacLellan said. “I thought [Alex Alexeyev] had a really good playoff. He’s got good size. I think last year we weren’t sure and we added (Joel) Edmundson. But I liked what Alexeyev did at the end. I thought he played physical, I thought he was real competitive, he moved the puck well. I think he took it to another level right at the end of the year, playoffs especially.”
The Capitals also saw 34-year-old John Carlson lead the league in time on ice per game (25:54), and that workload only increased during the playoffs (where he averaged 29:12). Adding some help on defense could lighten Carlson’s load but MacLellan believes shifting deployments and recovering from a slew of defensive injuries could solve the problem without requiring another player.
“I think it was a unique situation in that we had two top-four guys out for an extended period of time and he filled in for them,” MacLellan said. “I don’t think we want him playing that much, you know. I think we can take a little bit of that penalty kill time away from him too so he can have a more normal workload that would benefit him going forward.”
Nine defensemen who featured in NHL games for the Capitals this past season are under contract for next season. That number does not include a tenth in pending RFA Hardy Häman Aktell.
MacLellan won’t have to make any decisions on his offseason strategy just yet. Thanks to the Capitals’ early playoff exit, he’ll have more than a month to prepare before the 2024 NHL Draft kicks off on June 28, and even longer before free agency begins on July 1.
