It was a bit surprising at first that the Capitals didn’t move defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk as a rental at the deadline. However, GM Brian MacLellan said that he didn’t move him since he hoped to sign the blueliner to a new contract. Mission accomplished on that front as the team announced they’ve signed van Riemsdyk to a three-year extension that carries an AAV of $3MM. ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that the deal breaks down as follows:
2023-24: $1MM signing bonus, $2.75MM salary
2024-25: $1MM signing bonus, $2MM salary
2025-26: $1.25MM signing bonus, $1MM salary
The 31-year-old is in his third season with Washington and has worked his way from being a depth defender to one that has become a quality every-game piece. He has played in all 66 games this season – the only Capitals defender to do so – and has set new career highs in goals (seven) and points (19) while logging 19:00 per game, his highest ATOI since his first full NHL campaign back with Chicago in 2015-16. Van Riemsdyk also leads the Caps with 146 blocked shots, good for seventh in that stat league-wide.
For those efforts, van Riemsdyk is landing a sizable raise. The AAV on this new deal actually exceeds the total earnings that he received over his first three seasons combined; he’s wrapping up a two-year agreement that carried a cap hit of just $950K, a considerable bargain relative to his performance thus far.
Washington has been busy when it comes to the back end lately. They moved out long-time veteran Dmitry Orlov at the trade deadline while bringing in Rasmus Sandin in a separate deal that also moved out pending UFA Erik Gustafsson. Sandin joins Alexander Alexeyev and Martin Fehervary (both pending RFAs this summer) as 23-year-olds now playing regular roles in the lineup at the moment while they’ve now handed van Riemsdyk and Nick Jensen three-year extensions as bridge veterans that could see their playing time drop when the youngsters are ready to supplant them on the depth chart. Those players will join John Carlson in what should be a fairly stable defense corps for 2023-24 and beyond as the Capitals look to retool fairly quickly over embarking on a longer-scale rebuild.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Great move. Now have 3 experienced dman locked up to reasonable cap hits to go with the youth movement on the left side