Tag Archives: Washington Capitals

NHL, Zach Laing

15 – 16 Season Primers: Washington Capitals

Welcome to the 2015 – 2016 Metro Division Season Primers.

Completed already: Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Last year was another disappointing finish for a Washington Capitals who have been lead by one of the best goal scorers in NHL history, Alexander Ovechkin. The Capitals have longed for a team like they have assembled now. Defensively, the team is lead by Brooks Oprik, John Carlson, Karl Alzner and Matt Niskanen; a group that has been slowly assembled by Capitals GM Brian MacLellan and a group that is ready to dominate the NHL.

Notable Additions: RW T.J. Oshie, RW Justin Williams

Notable Departures: RW Joel Ward, RW Troy Brouwer, C Eric Fehr, D Mike Green

The additions of both Oshie and Williams are going to be humongous for a team that was a top-10 scoring team last season. They are both better than Ward and Brouwer respectively, and Williams is infamously known for being a key player in the playoffs and is 7-0 in Game 7’s he has played in. Williams shares a record with Glenn Anderson for scoring the most Game 7 goals in NHL history, with seven and he also holds the record for most points in Game 7’s, with 14.

When the Capitals make the playoffs, as I expect them to, Williams will be a huge help in getting them over that hump.

LW                                             C                                             RW
Alex Ovechkin (9.539) – Nicklas Backstrom (6.700) – T.J. Oshie (4.175)
Marcus Johansson (3.750) – Evgeny Kuznetsov (3.000) – Justin Williams (3.250)
Brooks Laich (4.500) – Andre Burakovsky (0.895) – Tom Wilson (0.895)
Jason Chimera (2.000) –  Jay Beagle (1.750) – Michael Latta (0.575)
Stanislav Galiev (0.575)

LD                                             RD
Brooks Orpik (5.500) – John Carlson (3.967)
Karl Alzner (2.800) – Matt Niskanen (5.750)
Dmitry Orlov (2.000) – Nate Schmidt (0.813)
Ryan Stanton (0.575)

 G
Braden Holtby (6.100)
Philipp Grubauer (0.750)
Justin Peters (0.950)

In order for the Washington Capitals to be successful this season, they will need to rely on their number one ranked power play that lead the league last season, as well as the strong goaltending of Braden Holtby. The best case scenario for the Capitals this season will of course be a Stanley Cup Championship.

The fact is though, Alexander Ovechkin has never gotten past the second round of the playoffs. Despite that his performance has never seen a drop off, Ovechkin is now 30 years old and he isn’t getting any younger. The Capitals have begun to capitalize and finally have gotten some great cogs to fit in around the Great 8. It will be interesting to follow them this season.

As I said before, I expect the Capitals in the playoffs and vying for the Eastern Conference Championship.

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Trade Proposals from Fans

Let’s be honest with ourselves here. We tend to overvalue the players on our team and undervalue players on other teams and most time to the extent of side-splitting hilariousness. So I’m going to try and make this a weekly thing where I look for the most ridiculous or realistic fan trade proposals regarding the Edmonton Oilers circulating the oilogosphere and comment on them. I imagine a majority of them will come from HFBoards. So without further ado, there are some humdingers!

This first one is what I call “The Ditka”.

To Arizona Coyotes: Nail Yakupov and the #16, #33, #56, and #78 picks this year
To Edmonton Oilers: The #3 overall

The gist of the deal is obvious. Reunite McDavid with Strome or add Noah Hanifin… Boy that’s a lot to give up for one guy. On the other hand, what are the odds that any of those other picks have the same impact in the NHL as a Strome or Hanifin?

The second deal on the docket is as follows:

To Edmonton Oilers: Alexei Emelin and the rights to Magnus Nygren
To Habs: Teddy Purcell (50% retained salary) and a 2015 4th round pick

I don’t know… I like a good hard hitting defenceman as much as anybody else and God knows that Purcell is as useful as tits on a boar but $6m seems like a hard hit to take to get rid of Purcell.

The third proposal:

To Edmonton Oilers: Tom Wilson
To Washington Capitals: Nail Yakupov

There’s a part of me that really likes this. Is Wilson the modern day Dave Semenko?… Could he be? I think there’s one foregone conclusion though, someone on the right wing is going to get moved sooner or later and this team needs someone willing to let the other team know that roughing up our stars will not be tolerated.

Proposal #4:

To Edmonton Oilers: Derek Stepan, Cam Talbot, Carl Hagelin and Kevin Klein
To Rangers: The 1st overall pick

So the guy that wrote this believes that he’s helping the Oilers so much by getting them a top center, a goalie, a complementary winger and a “solid” defenceman at the minimal cost of Connor McDavid… What I don’t understand is how people come up with these ideas sometimes. Would you deal that for Mario Lemieux or Gretzky, Crosby or Ovechkin? Crikey! What have any of those Rangers done lately?

Here’s another beaut!

To Edmonton Oilers: MA Fleury and Evgeni Malkin
To Pittsburgh Penguins: The 1st overall pick and Ted Purcell

I guess Edmonton’s salary cap is infinity times a million and thanks for being nice enough to take Purcell….

This proposal has me thinking:

To Edmonton Oilers: John Gibson, James Wisniewski, 3rd round pick (2015)
To Anaheim Ducks: Nail Yakupov, Ben Scrivens, and the #16 pick this year.

As I said earlier, one of Yakupov or Eberle will be moved at some point and the Oilers could use player like Wisniewski on the point. Gibson is sure to be a helluva goalie sooner than later but do you make this deal knowing that the Oilers defence is strife with overpaid veteran defenders?

Here’s another with the Rangers:

To Edmonton Oilers: Dan Girardi and Cam Talbot
To Rangers: The #16 and #56 picks this year and Nikita Nikitin

There’s something to really like about this one. Dan Girardi would be a perfect fit on the Oilers and a great presence for the younger players like Nurse. Could he be the kind of partner that would calm Justin Schultz’s game down?

The last proposal of the day:

To Edmonton Oilers: Alex Edler, Eddie Lack, and Zack Kassian
To Vancouver Canucks: The #16, #33, #56 picks this year and Martin Marincin

I guess the overall point of this charity is so that the Canucks can accelerate their rebuild?… What? Because inter-division rivals LOVE helping each other out…

Well I hope you enjoyed the read. I had a good laugh going through the trade boards over at Hockey’s Future in order to bring this to you. If you heard any proposals that have made you piss your pants, feel free to send ’em over in the comments below!

Before you go, I’d love it if you headed over to the Beer League Heroes T-Shirt shop and took a gander. Maybe pick one up and help keep this team afloat if you’re so inclined. We’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading!

– BLH