Braden Holtby was a work horse this year for the Washington Capitals. He played 73 regular season games this year, tops in the league, and 13 playoff games in which he almost out dueled the great Henrik Lundqvist in a best-of-seven.
Holtby, an RFA this summer, is due for a nice raise, but talks have stalled recently as the Capitals are still trying to come to terms with the future franchise netminder.
Earlier this off-season, the Caps re-signed Philipp Grubauer to a two-year, one-way deal which now gives the Caps two goaltenders under contract - the other being Justin Peters. Chances are, Peters will end up in Hershey next season and Grubauer will be called to back-up Holtby, which is just fine for Caps fans are excited to see a duo like this in net going into 2015-16.
For Holtby, his game has come a long way in two seasons. Working with goalie coach, Mitch Korn has done wonders for Holtb'y game and he finished in the top five in almost every goaltending category including second in the league with 9 shutouts.
The Capitals need to figure out what to do with Holtby and fast as the NHL Draft and the Free Agency period beings starting next Friday. The Caps still need to find a right winger to play with Ovechkin and Backstrom. They need to re-sign RFA's Kuznetsov and Johansson. They need to try and re-sign Fehr, Ward, Galiiev, and Beagle, who are all UFA's.
Holtby will command $5M-$6M a season and his term should be about 5-7 years. In two years, Holtby will become a UFA, and the Caps may be trying to extend him until then to be sure he keeps up with his play from this season. With Grubauer waiting in the wings, it gives Holtby some competition this year and may be what the Caps are hoping as well.
The Caps have until June 25th to extend Holtby at least $2M and chances are GMBM is working hard at trying to figure out how best to go about it.
Washington needs some more offense this season from someone other than Ovechkin and Backstrom, and rumor has it they are targeting Chicago's Patrick Sharp. Once Holtby is signed and taken care of, then the Caps should be able to aim their sights at tweaking the forwards.
More to come...