Washington Capitals add another weapon to their arsenal with Conor Sheary addition

Conor Sheary will add a different dynamic to the Washington Capitals offense.

The rich keep on getting richer after the Washington Capitals beefed up their forward depth by signing speedy forward Conor Sheary to a one-year, $735,000 contract.

It is a signing that means the Caps are now $1,759,877 over the salary cap per CapFriendly, although they can place defenseman Michal Kempny on LTIR and potentially Henrik Lundqvist in order to get cap compliant by the start of Training Camp on Jan. 3, 2021.

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However, it is a deal that ticks a lot of boxes for both sides.

For starters, the Washington Capitals are very much in their win-now window still and are chasing a second Stanley Cup for Alex Ovechkin, who is refusing to let father time catch up with him.

They suffered a crushing First Round exit to the New York Islanders during the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they will now have to navigate the 2020-21 season without marquee offseason addition, Henrik Lundqvist who pulled out of this upcoming season due to a heart condition.

However, the Caps are still a team loaded with talent and are built on size and speed, lethal ingredients that should serve them well in the new and incredibly stacked East Division.

And that’s why going out and signing a role player in the ilk of Sheary to a team-friendly, one-year deal makes a hell of a lot of sense.

After all, Sheary is a proven offensive threat in the NHL and he also knows what it takes to win having won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

He recorded 23 points (10 G, 13 A) in 63 regular season games for the Buffalo Sabres and the Penguins in 2019-20, while the left winger also has 72 goals and 78 assists for 150 points in 325 career regular season games.

Sheary’s postseason resume is also impressive given that he has put up 21 points (6 G, 15 A) in 61 games, which ranks tied for 21st among forwards in the NHL since 2016.

The five-foot-eight and 175 pounds forward played a crucial role in both of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup triumphs in 2015-16 and in 2017-18, and he should fit perfectly into this Washington Capitals team.

For starters, Sheary can play up and down the lineup and he can add some real depth for the Caps in a bottom-six role, while he’s also capable of playing bigger minutes alongside star players as he consistently proved alongside Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh.

Boasting a deadly cocktail of speed and skill with a hint of a killer instinct thrown in for good measure, Sheary can play in all situations for the Capitals and he will make for a lethal weapon on both the penalty kill and the power play.

He can come up clutch in the biggest moments on the biggest stage, as proven by his Overtime Goal as a rookie in Game 3 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final against the San Jose Sharks, while his speed and elusive play makes Sheary hard for opponents to keep tabs on.

Again, able to play up and down the lineup, Sheary will likely start the 2020-21 NHL season in a bottom-six role but he’s capable of playing on one of the top two lines if the Capitals feel the need to shake things up a bit and spark their offense into life.

With his blistering speed and eye for a pass, he could even make for a new running mate for Ovechkin and it could be an interesting experiment should the Caps need to change things at any point.

Conor Sheary will deliver more often than not and his $735,000 AVV makes this signing a low risk / high reward type deal.

The Washington Capitals will certainly hope that this addition pays off, particularly in the postseason, and Sheary does add a different and more expansive dynamic to this offense, which is top-heavy with the likes of Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom in the top-six.

If Conor Sheary can come in, provide an offensive punch and some secondary scoring while giving this Capitals offense a different look and a different way in which to hurt teams, then you can consider this deal a success.

And, if the winger can do what he did in the postseason for the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Washington Capitals, then it will be a real win-win for all involved, making this addition a no-brainer.