The Capitals obviously won't be trading Alex Ovechkin.
If they were going to do that, they wouldn't have approached the summer as stupidly and naively as they did. Personally, I think the team got caught with it's pants down - I believe they thought they could sign Oshie and Kuznetsov and that they'd be able to keep the team together by moving out Orpik.
But the cost to sign players quickly got out of control and they quickly found out that nobody wants to help the best team in hockey stay the best team in hockey by taking on their one horrible contract.
I mean, if we assume that MacLellan has any competence at his job, that's the only thing I can think could have happened. I don't think he suddenly became an idiot overnight, I just think things started spiraling and they got away from him.
He probably thought he could get Oshie cheaper, and that got a little out of hand, and then he lost Schmidt, who he probably thought he could keep - but there were just too many teams making deals with Vegas and MacLellan got played.
The Kuznetsov deal though - yowzer! When they made their plan for the offseason, they probably didn't think that was going to go so high, so they panicked and gave away Johansson.
In the end, if you look at the amount of wins that Johansson, Williams, Schmidt, Winnik and Shattenkirk combine for, the Capitals are going to be so much worse than they thought, and now they're stuck with all these dumb contracts. Every team has star players, it's your depth players that give you the edge.
No other team had the luxury of putting a Shattenkirk on the third pairing, and most didn't have a third or fourth line that could compete with Washington's.....but virtually all teams have a good first two lines.
So while they're still going to make the Playoffs - Orlov, Niskanen, Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Backstrom and Holtby is still a damn fine core - they won't be the same team, or even close.
Their only hope is that some cheap ECL players emerge to soften the blow.
But looking back at their moves this summer, it's hard to imagine they didn't have a plan, had such a bad plan or suddenly became morons. I think the prices escalated, and some things fell through and MacLellan pressed on with his plan rather than adjust it.
Now the Capitals are a shell of their former self. They still have a good team, but have lost so many good players it's really hard to know how to feel about them.
In the end, their best move was probably to trade Ovechkin. Of course, the sentimentalist inside me hates this idea, but given his salary, the probably return and the other players you could have kept instead, I think it was their best move.
It would have taken insane balls, but it would have been smart.
It can't happen now, and it probably never was going to. Moving forward, the team will need to find some cheap walk ons, some discount free agents and increase the price their willing to pay for someone to take Orpik.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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