Washington Capitals need focus to be on the ice as questions loom

The Washington Capitals are looking for their sixth consecutive playoff berth but big questions loom next offseason. Could they prove a distraction?

The Washington Capitals have been one of the NHL’s best teams over the last five seasons and were finally able to award their long-suffering fan base with a Stanley Cup victory in 2018.

Unfortunately, the Caps fell into their old ways as they bowed out of the 2018 NHL playoffs last season in familiar fashion, dropping a Game 7 at home to the upstart Carolina Hurricanes. But hope springs eternal in DC, as training camp is roughly two months away. The Capitals are slated to return much of their core from each of the last two seasons.

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That includes franchise cornerstones Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby. Backstrom is coming off of his sixth straight 70+ point campaign having tallied 22 goals and 52 assists last season centering Washington’s top line. Holtby returns to the crease looking to bounce back from a pedestrian campaign that saw him go 32-19-5 with a .911 save percentage and 2.82 GAA.

However, neither player has a contract that extends after this season as both will be unrestricted free agents as the 2019 season approaches.

Backstrom, who turns 32 on November 23, has been Washington’s star pivot since joining the big club in 2007-2008. The 2006 fourth overall selection has been nearly a point per game performer in his career and has shown little signs of slowing down. How much will he command this offseason if he compiles another big year centering Washington’s top trio?

Consider that 35-year-old Joe Pavelski signed a three year, $21 million dollar deal this past offseason with the Dallas Stars. Pavelski has averaged 66 points a year in the last three seasons. 27-year-old Kevin Hayes got seven years and $50 million from the Philadelphia Flyers despite never eclipsing the 50 point plateau. Bad deal or not, Backstrom’s agent was likely smiling somewhere.

Holtby proves an even more difficult conundrum. Andrei Vasilevskiy just got an eight-year extension worth $9.5 million a year. He is only 25 though and is fresh off of winning the Vezina Trophy.

Perhaps a more pertinent comparison for what it might take to secure Holtby past this season is Sergei Bobrovsky‘s contract. He signed a seven-year $70 million contract with the Florida Panthers this offseason. Bobrovsky is set to turn 31 this September just as Braden Holtby will be next offseason.

Bobrovsky has a .902 save percentage and 3.14 GAA in the playoffs while Holtby sits at a .928 save percentage and 2.09 GAA. With another plus season, he will earn his way past Bobrosky’s deal and could become the highest-paid goalie in the NHL.

How this season plays out will likely determine how much of an impact these two potential distractions will have on this team. If the team is floundering around midseason, the rumors will begin buzzing about whether Washington will look to move either player in fear of losing them in the free agency money bonanza. If the team is perched atop the Metro or firmly in the playoff picture, they wouldn’t be likely to move on from either player as soon.

There are plenty of other things that Todd Rierden needs to be focusing on with this 2019 version of the Caps than the status of Backstrom and Holtby beyond this season. They have a re-tooled third line welcoming Richard Panik to replace Brett Connolly.

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The defense core looks different with Matt Niskanen out and Radko Gudas coming in. Deadline acquisition Nick Jensen’s role could increase greatly as well.There will be a time and a place for the Caps to fret about next year’s potential roster overhaul. It likely won’t be during the 2019 season.

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