On the Washington Capitals, Expansion and Alex Ovechkin …
Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: Looking at the Washington Capitals and the expansion draft. The Capitals are expected to protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender. No Capitals players have a no-movement clause.
The Capitals are expected to protect Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Marcus Johansson and Lars Eller.
The last forward they would protect is likely down to Tom Wilson, Jay Beagle or Brett Connolly.
On the blueline they will likely protect Matt Niskanen, Dmitry Orlov and John Carlson.
They will protect Braden Holtby in net, exposing Philipp Grubauer.
They will likely have Beagle, Connolly, Nate Schmidt and Grubauer unprotected for the draft.
Orlov is a RFA and is expected to get a raise from his $2.57 million he made this past season.
If they are going to re-sign any of their free agents, it would make sense for the Capitals to sign them after the expansion draft. Pending UFAs include T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams, Daniel Winnik, Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk.
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Elliotte Friedman was on the NHL Network Tuesday. Friedman and EJ Hradek were talking about if the Washington Capitals should consider trading Alex Ovechkin.
“The one thing I’ve learned over the years E.J. – and you’ve been around the business a long time too – you think that nothing is possible and then weird stuff happens, right?” said Friedman. “I think if the Washington Capitals wanted to trade him – and that’s an if – I think they’d have no problem finding a partner. Alexander Ovechkin would sell tickets. He would sell out buildings. And even though we’re talking about this being a down year for him, he still scored 33 goals and he can make your power play lethal. I don’t think they would have any trouble trading Alexander Ovechkin if they wanted to.”
Friedman continues that Ovechkin and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis are tight and it wouldn’t be a hockey decision, it would be an ownership decision. Would they think they could still sell out the building without him?
The 32-year Ovechkin is due $40 million over the next four season.