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Washington Capitals Sign Trevor Van Riemsdyk

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The Washington Capitals have added some more defensive depth, signing Trevor van Riemsdyk to a one-year, $800K contract according to Frank Seravalli of TSN.

It wasn’t all that long ago that van Riemsdyk, 29, was playing top-four minutes for the Chicago Blackhawks and was an easy selection for the Vegas Golden Knights when left unprotected in the expansion draft. That status was tied to a deal that sent Marcus Kruger and his hefty contract to the Golden Knights, clearing cap room for the Blackhawks to work with but costing them the young defenseman.

Since Vegas was flush with defensemen through the draft however, van Riemsdyk was immediately flipped to the Carolina Hurricanes where he has spent the last three seasons. It’s hard to find a worse place for a right-handed defenseman to find minutes than Raleigh, who have had some combination of Brett Pesce, Justin Faulk, Dougie Hamilton and now Brady Skjei locked into the top two spots for van Riemsdyk’s entire tenure. The fact that he plays the left side as well would normally help in situations like that, but Carolina also happened to have names like Jaccob Slavin, Noah Hanifin, Joel Edmundson and now Brady Skjei on the team.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that van Riemsdyk has more to give than the 15-ish minutes he’s averaged over the last two seasons, but it certainly could. The Capitals lost Michal Kempny to an Achilles injury recently and have now brought in both Justin Schultz and van Riemsdyk to help that defensive group.

It could also mean that another move is coming though, given Washington’s cap situation. Sure, the team will have some extra flexibility when they move Kempny to long-term injured reserve, but he only carries a $2.5MM cap hit and the team is now over the salary cap ceiling. Jonas Siegenthaler was a regular last year and needs a new contract, while the team also could use another experienced forward addition.

Still, an $800K bet on van Riemsdyk seems like a prudent one for a team that knows first hand that long Stanley Cup runs require more than just six defensemen. Even if he’s the extra, he’s not costing them much.

Washington Capitals Sign Cameron Schilling

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The Washington Capitals are bringing back a familiar face. The team has announced that they have signed defenseman Cameron Schilling to a one-year, two-way contract. The pact carries the minimum $700K at the NHL level and $365K in the AHL. Schilling signed his entry-level contract with Washington as an undrafted college free agent back in 2012.

Schilling, 32, has spent the past three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets and the two seasons prior with the Chicago Blackhawks since leaving the Capitals in 2015. In that time, he has played in just four NHL games total, the same amount he played in his final season in Washington. Although Schilling’s AHL production has been improved over the past few years, he has yet to show the ability needed to be an NHL regular. He is a depth addition who at least has the experience to step into the lineup for the Capitals in the case of multiple injuries.

Where Schilling specifically fits in the organizational depth chart remains to be seen. With Michal Kempny potentially missing the whole season due to injury and Washington needing to move salary just to re-sign restricted free agent Jonas Siegenthaler, the NHL blue line looks a bit thin right now, especially on the left side. However, the Capitals have promising prospects like Martin Fehervary and Lucas Johansen waiting in the wings and they are lefties like Schilling. This could keep the vet blocked in the AHL all year unless he can prove to be a superior option.

Washington Capitals Agree To Terms With Justin Schultz

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The Washington Capitals needed to add some defense after Michal Kempny suffered a torn Achilles in offseason training and they’ll pick up a former rival. Justin Schultz has agreed to a two-year contract with the Capitals that will carry a $4MM cap hit.

Schultz, 30, was a 51-point defenseman just a few years ago but has seen his offensive production almost completely dry up. When you’re supposed to be a play-driving defenseman, 12 points in 46 games just isn’t cutting it. Over the last three seasons, Schultz has played in just 138 games and has just 54 points, not enough when you also don’t provide much polish at the defensive end.

Perhaps it’s just the injuries that have sapped his production, but given how poor his possession statistics have also been it’s hard to know exactly what the Capitals are getting. For $4MM per season on a Stanley Cup contender, that’s a big risk to take.

Schultz fits in just ahead of the re-signed Brenden Dillon on the salary chart and reduces the Capitals remaining space to almost zero. Moving Kempny onto long-term injured reserve will give them a little more wiggle room, but without moving money out there isn’t a lot more the Capitals can do.

Washington Capitals Sign Henrik Lundqvist

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11:50am: Lundqvist has officially signed with the Capitals and will earn $1.5MM this season.

9:15am: There may not be a flurry of signings made official when the free agent market opens up but TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports (Twitter link) that one move that’s expected to be announced is the Capitals signing goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to a one-year deal.  The contract is expected to be worth $1.5MM which would bring his total compensation for 2020-21 to $4.5MM with the Rangers paying him $3MM from last week’s buyout.

The 38-year-old has spent his entire 15-year NHL career in New York where he holds several franchise records.  However, with Igor Shesterkin impressing in his first NHL action late last season and Alexandar Georgiev still in the fold, there wasn’t much room for Lundqvist and keeping him around at a $8.5MM AAV just wasn’t in the cards.  Last season, he played in 30 games (26 starts), posting a 3.16 GAA with a .905 SV%.

While there wasn’t a fit for him to remain with the Rangers, there certainly is with Washington.  Braden Holtby is set to depart in free agency which leaves the still-untested Ilya Samsonov as their starter.  The 23-year-old has just 26 NHL appearances under his belt and wasn’t able to play in the playoffs due to injury.  Lundqvist should be a good mentor for Samsonov while still being able to take on a notable workload to allow the youngster to ease into the starting role.  The move also means that Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek should remain as their goaltending tandem at AHL Hershey.

Assuming the deal is made official, the Capitals will be roughly $4MM under the salary cap with RFA blueliner Jonas Siegenthaler needing a new deal plus Washington having to add a few players to fill out their roster.  If they make any other moves in free agency, expect them to be low-salaried acquisitions as a result.

Capitals To Take Full Bonus Penalty In 2020-21

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  • In a pair of tweets, PuckPedia reports that the Hurricanes and Capitals will both take their full bonus overage penalties this coming season instead of amortizing them over two years which was a one-time option in the new CBA. As a result, Carolina’s cap space for 2020-21 will decrease by just over $1.367MM while Washington’s goes down by just under $420K.

Michal Kempny Undergoes Achilles Surgery, Capitals Re-Sign Dillon

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The Washington Capitals offseason has started off poorly, with the team announcing today that Michal Kempny has suffered an Achilles tendon injury. The defenseman has undergone surgery and is expected to miss six to eight months. Kempny suffered the injury during his offseason training in the Czech Republic.

This is brutal news for Kempny, who spent all of last season trying to get back to full-strength after surgery to repair a torn hamstring in April 2019. The fleet-footed defenseman was only able to record 18 points in 58 games and just didn’t make the same impact he had the year prior. Now with another long rehab in front of him, he’ll have to hope that he can get back during the 2020-21 season at all.

Perhaps on cue however, the Capitals have re-signed Brenden Dillon to a new four-year contract with an average annual value of $3.9MM. Dillon was scheduled for unrestricted free agency on Friday and the Capitals had been reportedly trying to move some money out in order to fit his salary in. With Kempny likely headed for long-term injured reserve, that flexibility is now available without trading out an asset.

Still, given the season isn’t set to start until January, Kempny could be back at some point and taken of LTIR. That means the Capitals still can’t go overboard in free agency and are still in a rather precarious salary cap position. Radko Gudas, who was the team’s other pending UFA defenseman, is expected to reach free agency.

Dillon, 29, came to the Capitals in a February trade with the San Jose Sharks that saw two relatively high draft picks go the other way. After using that much draft capital to acquire him and seeing him fit in so well, it made sense for Washington to try and retain Dillon’s services this offseason.

Though he will never be expected to put up big offensive numbers, the veteran defenseman has shown an ability to skate beside some of the league’s best and lock down his own end. His possession numbers have always been strong and he brings a physical element that is becoming rarer in the NHL.

Even with Dillon back in the fold, the Capitals could have to rely more heavily on their young prospect pipeline this season. Several high draft picks are pushing for an opportunity at the NHL level and with Kempny headed for a long stint on the injured list, it may just be available.

Capitals Re-Sign Lucas Johansen

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The Capitals took care of one their pending restricted free agents today, announcing the re-signing of defenseman Lucas Johansen to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal is worth $700K in the NHL and $95K at the AHL level.

Washington selected the 22-year-old in the first round (28th overall) back in 2016 but his development has stalled, to say the least.  After playing in just 45 games with AHL Hershey last season due to injury, things were even worse this year as two separate injuries limited him to just nine contests overall.  As a result, he has basically missed a season and a half worth of development and has yet to make it to the NHL level.

Given how important Johansen once was in their prospect pipeline, it’s not surprising to see the Capitals bring him back despite the injury trouble.  He’ll have to pass through waivers next season to get back to the minors but that seems like a probable outcome with how much time he has been out.  From there, he’ll need to stay healthy and show some signs of progress or risk facing a different outcome before the tender deadline next offseason.

Snapshots: Dillon, Jankowski, Devils

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According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet the Washington Capitals are trying to move some money in order to free up enough space to keep Brenden Dillon from hitting unrestricted free agency, but if he does hit the open market a return home would be of interest to him. Dillon told TSN radio today that “any Surrey kid would love to play in Vancouver” and that he would be interested in signing with the Canucks should it fall that way.

While there is still so much to happen in the next few days that could complicate a move like that, the Canucks are obviously interested in adding a defenseman given the work they’ve done to try and acquire Oliver Ekman-Larsson so far. Perhaps Dillon, who is coming off a five-year deal that carried a $3.27MM cap hit, could be a potential fallback option through free agency.

  • Not only do they have a draft and free agency to navigate, but the Arizona Coyotes are still busy building out their front office again after hiring GM Bill Armstrong to change the direction of the franchise. Yesterday they added Darryl Plandowski from the Tampa Bay Lightning and today the Coyotes have hired Ryan Jankowski as the new associate director of amateur scouting. Jankowski has worked with the Buffalo Sabres for the past two seasons after a lengthy stint with Hockey Canada.
  • Speaking of filling out a staff, the New Jersey Devils are still looking for a goaltending coach and third assistant coach, according to GM Tom Fitzgerald who spoke to reporters including Corey Masisak of The Athletic today. Mike Grier was given a chance to return but declined, while Alain Nasreddine will be returning to his position as an assistant coach.

Washington Capitals Loan Bobby Nardella To Djurgardens IF

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The Swedish Hockey League recently instituted a rule prohibiting any more short-term loans from the NHL, which is why over the last few weeks there have been so many prospects ending up in the Allsvenskan, the county’s second league. That’s why when the Washington Capitals loaned Bobby Nardella to Djurgardens IF today, it raised some eyebrows. The announcement states that Nardella has been loaned for the 2020-21 season, likely for the whole thing if the recent guidelines stay intact.

A move like this is even more interesting because Nardella is heading into the final season of his two-year entry-level contract, signed last spring after he finished an excellent career at Notre Dame. Nardella, 24, was an undrafted free agent signing and ended up playing in 41 games for the Hershey Bears this season, scoring 31 points.

The undersized defenseman has always been an outstanding offensive producer, totaling 103 points in 147 college games. In the structured SHL he’ll be tasked with doing more than offense, but his development will certainly continue.

The Capitals will retain his rights as a restricted free agent after the season and could potentially sign an extension at any point during the year.

Capitals Pursuing New Deal With Brenden Dillon

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Back before the trade deadline, Washington parted with a second-round pick as well as a third-rounder to add defenseman Brenden Dillon from San Jose for the stretch run.  It appears that the Capitals have seen enough to want to keep him around as Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that the team is actively pursuing a new contract for the pending unrestricted free agent.

The 29-year-old immediately stepped into a spot on Washington’s top four after being acquired, averaging just over 20 minutes a game after being acquired and nearly 23 minutes per night in the playoffs which had him behind only John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov.  While he won’t provide much in the way of offense (he averages three goals per 82 games over his nine-year NHL career), Dillon is a stabilizing defensive presence that can kill penalties while bringing some physicality to the table as well.  In other words, he’s the type of veteran that a lot of teams will want to have.

Dillon carried a $3.27MM cap hit on his now-expiring contract although his salary was $3.9MM in each of the last two years.  The latter number may be a better indicator of what his next deal could look like, especially using Montreal’s Joel Edmundson as a comparable (four years, $14MM).  There are only a handful of top-four defensemen that are set to hit the open market next month so Dillon will have some leverage in negotiations.  Capitals GM Brian MacLellan is determined to not let it get that far.

As for other free agents in Washington, El-Bashir reports that fellow Radko Gudas and winger Ilya Kovalchuk will join Braden Holtby in not returning; MacLellan confirmed earlier this month that the netminder would go to free agency.  Meanwhile, Washington may have some hesitance in tendering center Travis Boyd a qualifying offer due to his arbitration eligibility.  The 27-year-old only played in 24 games this season but put up 10 points which would certainly bolster his case in a hearing.

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