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T.J. Oshie

Brenden Dillon Suspended One Game For Slashing

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Wednesday: Dillon indeed has been suspended for one game for the slash. As the video explanation notes:

It is important to note that this is not a slash delivered as part of a hockey play. Dillon is not attempting to alert an opponent to his presence, or to make a defensive play on a player with the puck. This is simply a frustrated player delivering a retaliatory and forceful slash to a vulnerable area of an opponent’s body.

Tuesday: TSN’s Bob McKenzie predicted it this morning and now it has come to fruition: San Jose Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon will have a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety this evening regarding his actions in last night’s game against the Washington Capitals. The incident is question was a slash by Dillon on the Caps’ Madison Bowey late in the contest.

With just five seconds remaining in the game, a 4-1 Washington win, Dillon hit Bowey with a two-handed slash. The action earned him a five-minute major and game misconduct – serious albeit meaningless penalties with nearly no time left. Should Dillon receive a suspension, that could very well play a role in the decision. However, the overall intensity of the game could play in his favor. It was a chippy affair throughout, including a questionable hit by Joe Thornton on T.J. Oshie and even a roughing penalty for Bowey in response to Dillon’s slash. An outburst at the end of a combative game may not be seen as an individual attack by Dillon that warrants a suspension. It also helps Dillon’s case that Patrick Kane was just recently given only a fine for a similar two-handed chop.

While the Sharks await word on whether they will lose Dillon to suspension or not, they’ll need a contingency plan. San Jose has worked hard to climb back into playoff position in the Pacific Division and don’t want to drop one or more of their upcoming games against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators, and Minnesota Wild because they couldn’t properly replace Dillon, given the recent injury to frequent backup Tim Heed. A strong defensive rearguard and a left shot, Dillon has been regularly skating alongside Brent Burns one the top pair this season, especially with Paul Martin sidelined. While the easy fix, should he miss time, would simply be to move Marc-Edouard Vlasic up a pair, but that could leave the bottom four too weak. Instead, moving Joakim Ryan up to the top pair and/or calling up young Jeremy Roy could be the solution.

Eastern Notes: Smith-Pelly, Andersen, Fedun

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A few days ago, Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz hinted that bottom-six winger Devante Smith-Pelly might be nearing a promotion to a better line. Well, NBC Sports’ Tarik El-Bashir writes that tonight will be that promotion as the 25-year-old has been moved onto the team’s top line alongside Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov in their game against the Edmonton Oilers.

Smith-Pelly, who came to Washington this offseason, has had a very inconsistent career, starting when he was a highly-touted prospect and was drafted in the second round in 2010 by the Anaheim Ducks. Despite his junior success and his success at the AHL level, the winger had trouble figuring things out at the NHL level and quickly found himself bouncing around different teams. He signed a one-year, $650K deal with Washington this offseason after a one-year stint in New Jersey a year ago in which he tallied just nine points in 53 games.

Now, with the Capitals, he has started to show some of his skills and has earned the trust of Trotz. While he’s yet to score a goal, the belief is that his talents might be a perfect fit alongside Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. Smith-Pelly will replace Jakub Vrana, who moves to the team’s second line next to T.J. Oshie and Niklas Backstrom, who is returning after missing a game due to illness.

“He deserves it. He’s put in the work. His game is such that he needs to move up in the lineup,” Trotz said on Smith-Pelly’s promotion.

 

Washington Worried About Filling Out Its Defense

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Decimated by losses this offseason, the Washington Capitals are focusing on rebuilding their team as quickly as possible so they can contend once again, but while there is some progress on the offense as some young players have stepped up, there hasn’t been that infusion of new talent on the Capitals’ blueline, writes Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan.

After a disappointing playoff run which ended in the second round to the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins, the team endured multiple losses, including Kevin Shattenkirk, Karl Alzner, Justin Williams, Marcus Johansson, Nate Schmidt and Daniel Winnik. All of the losses were due to the fact the team was up against the cap, but the team instead focused on re-signing some of their core, including extending stars Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and T.J. Oshie.

While the offense seems to have found replacements for their top lines in youngsters like Andre Burakovsky and Jakub Vrana, fixing the defense might be a totally different story, according to Khurshudyan. The scribe writes that Washington head coach Barry Trotz said that no defenseman has stood out so far into training camp to claim the final two spots in the team’s top six. Even with the losses of Shattenkirk, Alzner and Schmidt, the team still has a solid top four in Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, Orlov and John Carlson. However, the team must fill in those final two spots.

Amongst those defensemen attempting to win one of those two spots is Taylor Chorney, who has been the team’s extra defenseman for the past two years. The team also brought in two of their solid AHL defenseman in Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos, who the team hopes will be ready to take on a new challenge. The team also has several others ready to take a spot, including 2016 first-rounder Lucas Johansen, Aaron Ness, Tyler Lewington, and Connor Hobbs.

Chorney has spent the last two years on the Capitals roster, but has managed to get into 73 games in those two years and just 18 last season. The 30-year-old defenseman accululated 11 points in those two years, but is trying to break the label of journeyman.

Much of their defensive hopefuls come from their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Beras. Bowey, 22, is coming off an injury-shortened season in the AHL after suffering a gruesome ankle injury with the Hershey Bears. He managed to play only 34 games, but has lost 12 pounds and is skating faster than he did a year ago. Many people thought Djoos, 23, had the best shot to make the team’s roster this year as he had a great season for Hershey a year ago. He scored 15 goals and 45 assists for 66 points for them last year. Ness has also been in the Washington system, playing the last two years in Hershey. He also managed to get called up and get into 10 games over the past two years. A quality skater, he has played a total of 39 NHL games over the course of his career. Lewington, 22, played 72 games for the Bears last season, compiling 142 penalty minutes to go with 17 points.

Johansen,19, was the 28th overall pick in the 2016 draft and many feel he might be ready to step into the team’s lineup, while Hobbs, the team’s fifth-round pick in 2015 had a breakout year with his junior team. The 20-year-old prospect, known for his hard shot, had 31 goals and 54 assists with the WHL Regina Pats.

With the team right up against the cap, a trade would seem unlikely to aid the defense. So, the team hopes that two of these defensemen will step up soon to solidify the Capitals defense.

 

 

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Washington Capitals

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Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2017-18 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Washington Capitals

Current Cap Hit: $70,910,107 (under the $75MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Jakub Vrana ($863K, two years remaining)

This is where the Capitals have gotten themselves into trouble. Playing to win it all for the last couple of years has taken a toll on the depth of the team’s roster as they have chosen to go with veterans rather than allow youngsters to work their way into the lineup. Now that those contracts have become too much and the team has had to purge a number of free agents to stay under the cap, suddenly there is no depth to look to when they really need it.

Vrana, a former 2014 first-rounder returned to his team in Sweden after being drafted, but signed at the end of the 2015 season and joined the AHL Hershey Bears for three games, tallying five assists. He then added six points in 10 playoff games to establish himself as a top prospect. He scored 35 goals over the next two seasons in Hershey before being promoted to Washington last year. In 21 games, he tallied three goals and three assists and appears ready to step in to a bottom line role this year.

There are a number of minor leaguers that may be ready to step into the lineup such as defenders Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos, but none have seen any NHL action so far in their careers and there is no guarantee they will make the team out of training camp.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

D John Carlson ($3.96MM, UFA)
F Lars Eller ($3.5MM, UFA)
F Tom Wilson ($2.0MM, RFA)
F Jay Beagle ($1.75MM, UFA)
G Philipp Grubauer ($1.5MM, RFA)
D Taylor Chorney ($800K, UFA)
F Devante Smith-Pelly ($650K, RFA)

The team has already lost several key defenseman in the past few months, including Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt and Karl Alzner. Could Carlson be next? While the team still has several veteran remaining on their roster, the team might be hard-pressed to avoid losing another veteran defenseman. Currently penciled in to play next to Orlov, at 27 years old, he would be a big loss if the team is unable to bring him back. However, the team will be paying Orpik, Niskanen and Orlov, more than $16MM combined next year. Will Washington find the money for Carlson?

Wilson is a player who the Capitals have high hopes for. The 23-year-old wing is a former 2012 first-rounder and has played four years with the team already, usually among the bottom-tier lines. However, with smoe of the team’s losses on offense, including Marcus Johanson and Justin Williams, this might be the year that Wilson breaks out. He is currently penciled in on the team’s second line and while he managed just seven goals a year ago, he did put up three playoff goals, showing he might be ready for an enhanced role. As a restricted free agent in 2018, the team will have some control on managing his salary.

Perhaps one of the more interesting decisions the team must make is what they plan to do with their backup goalie. Grubauer is considered to be one of the top-young goaltending prospects and while he was not chosen by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, many feel that he could be a solid starting goaltender. However, with Holtby in front of him and locked up for three more years, that role would not likely be given to Grubauer in Washington. With minor leaguer Pheonix Copley looking ready to become the team’s backup and the presence of 2014 second-round prospect Vitek Vanacek and 2015 first-round prospect Ilya Samsonov, the team is loaded with goaltending talent. It seems far more likely the team will move Grubauer at some point, maybe at the trade deadline next season to add much needed depth.

Eller is at best a third line center, who averages between 10 and 15 goals per season. Barring a breakout year and he’s already 28 years old so that seems unlikely, Eller at $3.5MM might be too expensive to bring back in a year, but it’s too early to tell. Beagle did have a career year last year and should challenge Eller for that third-line center job with the loser likely to man the fourth line. Beagle, a faceoff specialist, scored 13 goals last year. If the team can bring them back on relatively cheap deals, they might be able to retain them.

Chorney was used primarily as an extra defenseman last year and only managed 18 games last season. With the team’s lack of depth after their top four, Washington may have no choice but to give Chorney a chance to win one of the last spots. The 30-year-old did manage to get into 55 games a year ago. Smith-Pelly, a quiet free agent acquisition this offseason, scored four goals in 55 games for New Jersey last year. Their futures will be decided by whether they make the team and how they perform.

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2017 NHL Free Agency Tracker

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Stay with PHR for all of the free agency signings this off-season. As of noon ET on July 1st, unrestricted free agency is open, but not before many extensions earlier in June. This page serves to organize everything in one spot, and are linked to the PHR story that corresponds with the signing. All July signings will be separated by date while June signings are organized alphabetically by team. It will be updated as soon as stories post.

Please note that signings on this list start on June 12.

July 1st:

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Metropolitan Snapshots: Grubauer, Kovalchuk, Ryan

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Not that there are a lot of starting goaltending options available, but the Washington Capitals may have to move their backup Philipp Grubauer after all. With the impending defensive losses of free agents Kevin Shattenkirk and Karl Alzner, who the team likely cannot afford after the team locked up T.J. Oshie to an eight-year deal, and the loss of 25-year-old top-four defender Nate Schmidt to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, the team must find a way to replace their blueliners.

With cap room almost entirely used up and with several restricted free agents still to lock up, the Capitals have only two places to look to fill those holes – either from within or via trade, according to J.J. Regan of CSN Mid-Atlantic. The team still retains several key defensemen, including restricted free agent Dmitry Orlov, veterans Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen as well as John Carlson. From within, the team has 22-year-old Madison Bowey on hand, who might be ready to make the jump to the NHL. He was out with an ankle injury and missed a lot of the AHL season a year ago, but still had 14 points in 34 games. Still, he may not be the player you count on to jump onto a playoff team’s defensive line.

Therefore, the lack of depth on defense could easily force the team to move Grubauer, who was often talked about as an expansion candidate for the Golden Knights. However, since Grubauer has little chance to grab a starting gig in Washington and isn’t even the future of the franchise as that role likely belongs to 2015 first-round pick Ilya Samsonov. There are still several teams who need a quality, young goaltender and they may be able to offer an inexpensive blueliner to fill Washington’s needs.

  • While there have been dozens of teams linked to Ilya Kovalchuk over the past two months since he announced he’d like to return to the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets are one team that have shown interest in the 34-year-old Russian winger. However, while that interest still exists, Columbus Dispatch’s Aaron Portzline tweets that the team, as of today, are not in full pursuit of Kovalchuk, and are currently searching for a Top-6 center to fill in the gap.
  • The Carolina Hurricanes are closing in to signing Derek Ryan to one-year deal, tweets Edmonton Oilers radio analyst Bob Stauffer. Ryan, was a Masterson Trophy finalist this past year, which goes to a player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey. At age 30, the center finally broke through into the NHL after years of playing in Europe and the AHL, finishing the season with 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points and being credited for helping change the culture of the Hurricanes locker room. He is coming off a one-year, $600,000 contract and looks to be getting a solid raise.

Washington Capitals Re-Sign T.J. Oshie For Eight Years

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Washington has locked up a prized free agent for eight years. The team announced an eight-year extension for T.J. Oshie today, paying him $5.75MM per season. As we wrote earlier in regards to the Chicago Blackhawks rumored interest, it seemed far-fetched that there was ever really a chance of that. There had been clear interest from both sides between Oshie and the Capitals since the end of the season, and it came together with a cap hit and term that fills both sides needs. T.J. Oshie

There was some concern that the Capitals might not be able to bring Oshie back when the NHLPA did not use the entire 5% salary cap escalator, but by agreeing to more years the team kept the cap hit low enough to fit into their scheme. Those years will pose a problem down the line—Oshie will turn 31 in late December—but right now keep a key player in town for a reasonable salary. The deal will be paid out like this and also includes a modified no-trade clause :

  • 2017-18: $4.0MM salary, $4.0MM signing bonus, 15 team no-trade list
  • 2018-19: $3.5MM salary, $4.0MM signing bonus, 15 team no-trade list
  • 2019-20: $3.5MM salary, $3.0MM signing bonus, 15 team no-trade list
  • 2020-21: $2.5MM salary, $2.0MM signing bonus, 15 team no-trade list
  • 2021-22: $3.0MM salary, $3.0MM signing bonus, 10 team no-trade list
  • 2022-23: $2.5MM salary, $2.0MM signing bonus, 10 team no-trade list
  • 2023-24: $4.0MM salary, $1.0MM signing bonus, 10 team no-trade list
  • 2024-25: $3.0MM salary, $1.0MM signing bonus, 10 team no-trade list

That structure gives Oshie some lockout insurance should the league have a work stoppage in 2020-21, and also makes the contract tough to buyout down the line. For example if they tried to buy him out in the summer of 2022 when he was 36, they’d only save around $1.4MM off the cap for the 2022-23 season.

Not surprisingly, Oshie turned in the best offensive season of his career (on a goal-scoring and per-game rate at least) while playing with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Oshie rode a ridiculous 23.1% shooting percentage to 33 goals in 68 games and was one of the team’s best players in the playoffs. While that is expected to regress somewhat, Oshie does seem like a perfect fit for Backstrom as a go-to-all-areas winger who can bury from in tight or off the rush. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him set a career-high in points next year, as he missed 24 games due to injury and still came just four points shy of his high-water mark.

The effect a $5.75MM hit has on the Caps salary structure is palatable for now, as they will still have ~$19MM to re-sign their group of important restricted free agents. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Dmitry Orlov, Brett Connolly and Philipp Grubauer all need contracts, and that should eat that entire nugget if not more. Nate Schmidt, who they lost to Vegas in the expansion draft also would have needed a new contract, which they may not have been able to afford.

The free agent market just got even smaller, as Oshie figured to be one of the top-3 names on the board come July 1st. With Alexander Radulov remaining as the only real elite option at forward, his camp was just handed even more leverage in their talks with the Montreal Canadiens. Radulov is just over six months older than Oshie, and though he obviously doesn’t have as long of a track record in the NHL should still be able to argue he deserves at least five years. Whether he’d settle for the $5.75MM number that Oshie brought down is still unclear, but a $46MM deal handed out on draft day is a big win for the Radulov camp.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Oshie, Shattenkirk, Scandella, Kruger

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On one of the most exciting days of the year for hockey fans, teams have already made blockbuster deals that include superstars and Stanley Cup champions. They’re not finished just yet, as the Entry Draft is just a few hours away. Already, a report has sprung up surrounding top free agent T.J. Oshie, with Andy Strickland of Fox Sports relaying that the Blackhawks are considering him as a replacement for Artemi Panarin on the Patrick Kane line. While Brandon Saad is expected to rejoin Jonathan Toews, Kane and Artem Anisimov are left without a winger for the time being on the second line.

It seems pretty far-fetched that Chicago would be able to fit Oshie into their salary structure as he’s heading into the offseason as one of the most sought-after scoring threats, but you easily could have said that about the team trading Panarin and Niklas Hjalmarsson earlier today. Oshie scored 33 goals last season playing with Niklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin, and has been in talks with the team since the end of the year. When the salary cap didn’t escalate all the way to $77MM, there entered some doubt the Capitals could fit him in, though it’s unclear where those talks currently stand. Oshie becomes a UFA on July 1st.

  • It’s been previously reported that Kevin Shattenkirk would want to play in the Northeast closer to his hometown, and there had been interest from the New York Rangers at the trade deadline in acquiring him. He ended up going to the Capitals, but with the new cap space that has been opened by the Rangers by moving Derek Stepan, fans have their fingers crossed that he could “come home.” Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet poured a dash of cold water on that, saying that he thought Buffalo made more sense given the Rangers hesitation at handing out term to a similar defender in Keith Yandle last year. Yandle would end up being traded to the Florida Panthers and signed a seven-year, $44.5MM deal that would seem to be a target for Shattenkirk’s camp.
  • Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reports that the Boston Bruins are the newest team in pursuit of Marco Scandella from the Minnesota Wild. Scandella has been called the most likely defenseman to get traded out of Minnesota, and had previously been linked to the Montreal Canadiens. With the Bruins having a solid future on the right side with Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo, Scandella could fit nicely into the left-side behind Torey Krug. Scandella’s contract at $4MM for three years isn’t terrible, but Boston would have to be careful not to make things too hard on themselves with a big extension for David Pastrnak due this summer.
  • Scott Powers of The Athletic is hearing that Marcus Kruger is once again likely to be traded by the Hawks. When an expansion draft trade never materialized, some believed that perhaps Kruger was safe from the salary cap ax for the time being. After the big moves today, and rumored interest in Oshie, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kruger and his $3.1MM cap hit sent packing.

Oshie Nearing Deal With Caps

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According to Sportsnet’s John Shannon in an interview on Sirius XM Radio, T.J. Oshie’s agent has all but finalized a deal with the Washington Capitals. Considering that Oshie was a top-three UFA forward heading into this off-season, nearing a signing with cash-strapped Washington comes as a bit of a surprise. Oshie had previously stated his desire to remain in America’s capital city, but players are often pushed out in situations such as these. RFA Evgeny Kuznetsov was obviously going to take precedence over the older Oshie, and allotting him cap dollars seemed to place the writing on the wall for T.J.

If he were to return at a discount, it’s difficult to see a player of his caliber making anywhere under $5 MM on a multi-year deal. Perhaps he does less to accommodate his team’s management, but it is quite rare that we see a player take a paycut of more than a million or so. What must be considered is that this is also the crafty Oshie’s opportunity to cash in financially on a career year. It was indeed his fourth straight season breaking 50 points, but only his first with over 30 goals. A lot of that has to do with his unsustainable season shooting percentage of 23.1%, an absurd figure for any player. As an offensive force in an exceptionally poor UFA summer, his value is likely never to be higher.

For the Capitals, if they are able to accommodate him in their internal structure, it would mean quite a few changes coming elsewhere in the lineup. Karl Alzner would be all but guaranteed to move on from the organization, and Kuznetsov’s negotiations may become more heated in hopes of driving price down. Justin Williams was already nearly assured to be on his way to a bidding war in free agency, but this development would virtually secure that fate. It could also imply that a trade of a bigger contract is under consideration by the organization, although the rumblings of potential transactions have thus far been mere conjecture. GM Brian MacLellan will certainly have some shuffling ahead if he hopes to ice a balanced team before next season.

Morning Notes: Okposo, Shattenkirk, Capitals

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When Kyle Okposo was hospitalized last month, it was a scary moment for friends, family and fans of the Buffalo Sabres forward, unsure of exactly what had happened. John Vogl of Buffalo News has a heartening update though, saying that Okposo is still likely to be ready for training camp in September.

According to teammate William Carrier, Okposo had suffered a concussion and was receiving treatment for it, which according to other sources then led to a bad reaction to medication. Okposo would end up in the neuro-intensive care unit, but was released on April 7th.

  • The Washington Capitals cleaned out their lockers today, and Kevin Shattenkirk was front and center talking to the media about his upcoming free agency. Though he told Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post that he’d talk to the Capitals first about a possible extension, he also admitted that he wants a bigger role wherever he goes. While the Capitals are likely losing Karl Alzner as well, it’s clear that Shattenkirk wouldn’t be the #1 on that team should he re-sign, which means he’s likely played his last game there for the time being. Which teams would be interested in making him their top defender is still up for debate, after an up-and-down playoff run.
  • The rest of the Capitals also talked about their free agency, with T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams and Daniel Winnik all indicating their preference to return. Oshie especially will be a tough case, as he likely would enter the market as one of the top-3 free agents this summer. With the Capitals needing to re-sign several key restricted free agents, Oshie would be tough to fit into their cap structure.

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