It’s the summer doldrums.. happens every year

The Caps will also have 9 UFAs at the end of this season. Three of those are Backy, Oshie and Dowd, so I’d expect those to end. Maybe offer Dowd a 1-2 deal depending on how his season goes, and I’d think his contract is too small to be worth trading off. But two of those are the goalies, Lindgren and Thompson. Shepard will also be a UFA, so they are going to need to spend a bit more for goalies after this season.


The Caps will be paying their three top goalies less than $3M combined going in to camp.

With the Caps being relieved of Kuzy’s $3.9M payment, they are still $9.4M over the cap. Assuming Backy truly can’t play at the NHL level anymore, which seems very likely, the Caps will get that $9.2M cap break. Oshie is still a big question mark, if he can’t play at the NHL level anymore that will give the Caps a $5.75M break. We will have to wait until camp to see what Oshie is doing, but I would guess he has told management he is likely done given the amount of money management has spent, and the players they’ve brought in.

If Oshie is done, management gets a $5.5M cushion to deal with inevitable injuries.

Yea, I didn't know what to make of the golf tournament. Like, he's done with hockey so "fuck it" Im playing golf. Or, my back feels great, Im playing hockey and golf!! lol Like I said, Sept will be here soon enough and the picture will start coming into focus.

You're right of course - if Oshie is on the roster the Caps are over the salary cap and have to do something.  Maybe they just waive Bear - he shows as being on the roster, but he had personal problems in the spring, is the obvious 8th defender, and the next defenseman up, Iorio, is also a RHD, so I think Bear would be an easy lop-off.  That could save a couple of million. 

Odd that the article didn’t mention the money part. If the Caps are now free of Kuzy, that should put them real close to the salary cap. But still over it. Someone else needs to go. Before capfriendly went private, they had Oshie on LTIR. That would give the Caps plenty of space, but then they gotta play musical chairs again if Oshie comes back.


Hate to say it, but it may be time for retirement.

There still has been no final official word that Backstrom is done.  I think maybe it's a game the organization has to play - they can't just say the player is done, because rules may force the player to then declare retirement or something, and they lose their salary?  But if the team keeps the "well, we'll see" charade going, then Backstrom essentially gets an $18 million thank you gift.


We may be seeing the same thing with Oshie.  The latest cover story was that they were trying various things to try to address his back issues, but they hadn't found anything that worked yet.  They may simply play the same game with him, and sort of pretend that the end of his career isn't an irrevocably done deal, but "everyone knows" he's not going to play this season.


As for playing golf, I've had back trouble for over 50 years - and I play golf.  Now I'm not a good player, and a large part of my problem is that I can't make any real turn with my body, so I can't get any torque in my swing and I don't hit the ball very far.  I just sort of push the ball out there.  My very best drive goes only 220-230 yards.  But I can still play golf, sort of.  The new club technologies let even a limited golfer pretend that (s)he is playing a representative game.