1. Good Contract – Alex Ovechkin’s Chase
Tom Wilson will be there for the greatest Washington Capitals player ever.
None of the bad stuff means that Tom Wilson is a bad player that doesn’t deserve to be signed. It is just easy to worry about a 29-year-old that plays a hard game with an injury history getting all those years at that number.
There are some positives here. For one, and perhaps the most important, he will get to continue playing with Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin.
Playing with Ovechkin has been something Wilson learned how to do over time. He plays a game that compliments a line with him well. Once he got that opportunity and ran with it is when his career really started to take off.
Entering the season, Ovechkin has 822 career goals. Wayne Gretzky is the all-time leader with 894. He is going to be hard after that all-time record and he will need good line-mates to play with in order to get there. Wilson can help be one of those guys.
The Capitals might be happy they have Wilson as Ovechkin gets close to the record. He can make plays, set screens, and take some of the eyes off Ovechkin.
Getting this done seems to be near the top of their priority list so that is a reason to have as many good players around as possible, even if it isn’t the best contract.