The Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup and now, the question is, how do they defend it?
The Capitals have only $7.26 million in cap space, and they still need to re-sign Tom Wilson.
They've got a top-heavy roster where they pay eight players over $5 million, but the problem is that they only have one single entry-level contract on their roster.
That belongs to Jacob Vrana, a very good player with a lot of potential.
But that is the Capitals biggest problem: an abject failure to develop any young players and work them into the lineup to counter the collection of huge contracts.
With only one ECL, the Capitals aren't getting any value for their cheap deals. Smith-Pelly, Chandler Stephenson, Madison Bowey (a defenseman with the complete inability to play defense) are all on cheap deals, but they're all worse than replacement players.
So the Capitals are in rough.
In the NHL salary cap management is the key to success. The Capitals got lucky - which could happen again, because the top of their roster is very, very good - but long term sustained success is very hard when the bottom of your roster is garbage - you're going to get beat up by the other team's worst players, while almost every team can at least match the top of your roster.
With no cap space (because I assume Wilson eats most of it) the Capitals are going to have to be smart and creative, and there is no indication their GM is up to that task.
The Capitals are hurt by their own success - their best players all cost a ton, they have drafted low and badly, and they lack prospects.
The Cap went up and they got out of Orpik's contract. That was a great break for them, but a smarter GM would have kept the cheaper goalie and traded the expensive one for a some players to fill out the roster.
It will be interesting to see how they handle this, but I fear that they've bought into their own success and haven't done enough to improve their team this summer.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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