Caps aim to remain contender
Team works to maintain roster balance while staying in hunt for Cup
only team worse than them? The Los Angeles Kings, who won Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014 but then also got When the Washington Capitals and caught with an aging and expensive Pittsburgh Penguins take the ice roster. tonight, they’ll together account for the “You don’t really see the so-called past three Stanley Cups, both appeardynasty too much more in the NHL,” ing in every postseason all but once Chicago forward Patrick Kane said. since 2008 — and they’re the excep“That’s probably more geared toward tions, rather than the rule. In this age of other sports. . . . It’s a little bit different increased parity in the NHL, with new than when I first came into the league. challengers rising rapidly and old I don’t want to say you had some easy powers falling off equally fast, the matchups, but going into some games, Capitals and the Penguins are the rare you knewthat you were better than the consistent contenders. other team. Now, teams are so even.”
A tight salary cap prevents the best Maybe this down cycle for both the teams from retaining all of their top Blackhawks and the Kings is just the talent, while a wave of new stars has cost of winning multiple champipropelled the league’s worst teams onships, in which case both might back toward the top at an accelerated argue it was worth it. A common pace. Keeping a championship winthread was awarding big-money condow propped open rests on managing tracts to keep Cup-winning core lineteam pay structure to afford superstars ups together, and while some of those without sacrificing depth. deals may have seemed reasonable at
When the Penguins repeated as the time, they didn’t age well. Chicago champions in 2016 and 2017, they defenseman Brent Seabrook, whose became the first team to do so in 19 play has declined to the point where he years, a testament to how difficult it is. was a healthy scratch in one game last As the Capitals now hope to parlay season, is under contract through their first Stanley Cup into another, 2023-24 with a $6.875 million salary they have to weigh decisions to win cap hit. Los Angeles has five players now with what’s best for the organizaover the age of 30 making at least $5.25 tion’s future and sustaining success million for two more seasons after this one.longterm.Perhapstheycanlearnfrom some of the missteps of other champs. MacLellan avoided getting wrapped
“It seems that teams can make a up in Stanley Cup sentimentality this jump faster than they used to be able to summer when he let longtime center by a couple key guys and making the Jay Beagle sign with the Vancouver right moves,” Capitals general manager Canucks in free agency. Committing to Brian MacLellan said. “It goes the Beagle, who’s 33, for multiple seasons other way, too, where teams do one or might have created a salary squeeze in two things wrong and they’re gone. Washington next summer for upcomThey’re at the bottom of the league. ing restricted free agents Jakub Vrana The shifts are more dramatic than I and Andre Burakovsky. MacLellan also think they’ve ever been.” chose to trade veteran defenseman
The Chicago Blackhawks won three Brooks Orpik at the NHL draft in a Stanley Cups in six seasons from 2010 move that created cap space to re-sign to 2015. But as the team repeatedly ran John Carlson. While Orpik ultimately into salary-cap constraints, it traded ended up back in Washington anyway, away talent to get out of some bad dealing away a locker-room favorite contracts while the players left on the was a bold move just two weeks after roster got older and slower in a league the team won a championship. that’s skewed younger and faster. The But emotion will play into decisionBlackhawks fired Joel Quenneville, the making at some point. MacLellan sees second winningest head coach in NHL the current Stanley Cup window as history, in early November and they this season and next, when goaltender have the second-fewest points in the Braden Holtby, center Nicklas BackNHL through Monday’s results. The strom and captain Alex Ovechkin are
Blackhawks face big question marks
The Blackhawks added another difficult question to their long list of problems when Corey Crawford suffered another concussion.
Suddenly, their goaltending situation is up in the air. There was no update on Crawford’s status a day after he was placed on injured reserve. The two-time All-Star got hurt in the first period of Sunday’s 7-3 loss to the Sharks when the back of his head struck the right post during a scary goalmouth pileup.
“He just needs time to get better,” Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Obviously you feel for him and want him, first of all as a person, just get back to 100 percent.”
Crawford, who helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2015, also missed most of last year and the start of this season because of a concussion. The pair of head injuries in a relatively short time period raises questions about whether he might play again.
“It looks rough, how he hit his head on the post,” defenseman Connor Murphy said, “especially a guy like that who battled so hard to come back and was such a big part of our team. To me, he was our best player. Hopefully he’s back soon.” AP all still under contract. So the objective in the meantime is to surround those three with a good supporting cast. Holtby and Backstrom are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2019-20 campaign, and Ovechkin’s contract is up after the following season. Those two offseasons appear to be when the Capitals will set aside their dispassionate objectivity regarding the roster.
“We’re going to be sentimental with Ovi and Nicky for sure,” MacLellan said. “Because they’ve been here forever and they’ve done what they’ve done. I think you have to be. They’ve defined this franchise. You can’t be that cold.”
The last time the Capitals’ window appeared to be closing was after the 2016-17 season, when Washington had several contracts expiring at the same time the league faced its first expansion draft in 17 years.
“I think you’ve got to keep the right guys,” MacLellan said, and for him that meant retaining right wing T.J. Oshie. Though Oshie was 30 at the time, MacLellan signed him to an eight-year, $46 million deal, gambling on the salary cap continuing to rise and Oshie remaining productive well into his 30s. But what reassured himit was the right decision was that Oshie’s presence in the locker room would stay the same and be well worth it, even if his scoring eventually drops off. That contract has arguably already been validated with a Stanley Cup.
Washington has seven players signed beyond 2021, so as those players get older, “you’ve always got to have young guys coming in,” MacLellan said. “I mean, we have Vrana, Burakovsky [ and center Evgeny Kuznetsov] and then we’re going to need another level after that if we want to keep it going.” With that in mind, the Capitals have been more conservative in trading away draft picks or prospects over the past year, mindful of restocking the cupboard.
“You have a window where you can create depth and max out your salaries, and then you’ve kind of got to regroup after that,” MacLellan said.
But regrouping doesn’t have to come at the cost of winning. Pittsburgh has built around superstar centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and the pieces flanking them have been mostly been young, cheap and expendable if the team needs a change.