Capitals Season Preview -

[Knut]

Last Season the Capitals had a strong year, finishing in 4th place in the league, but were ousted in the first round by a strong pens Team. The capitals exited the playoffs with the highest payroll in the league, 3 players making over 9 million dollars, a bare cupboard when it came to prospects/picks, and a number of high profile RFA's ....

This offseason saw a huge Exodus of Talent from the Capitals.... players like Patrick Elias, Zdeno Chara, Matheiu Schnieder, Andrew Brunnette, Todd Bertuzzi and Toni Lydman ... however, with gigantic contracts and lots of teams near or at the Cap it was a tough go getting a decent return for these guys.

The Caps started the offseason by shedding salaries left and right and moving out UFA rights... they payroll went from somewhere near 84 Million to about 68 Million. Recently the Caps have started bolstering the roster with upgrades and making small moves to fill holes. While there still are some glaring holes on the team (4th line and bottom 4 defence) the team should be a playoff team once again. Expect alot of changes as the season wears on, and it is likely at least half of these listed to not be on the roster at the deadline...

Our depth Chart as of right now:

Rolston (78) - Drury (78) - Roy (78)
Streit (75) - Modano (77) - Sillinger (74)
Fleischmann (72) - Reinprecht (75) - Nagy (74)
Belak (69) - Roenick (73) - Adams (69)

Beauchamin (77) - Hainsey (77)
VanRyn (74) - D. Markov (72)
VanDermeer (73) - Bouillon (72)

Dipietro (81)
Auld (75)

There is a sizable list of possible NHLers this season as well.. The following players have had at least a few games of NHL experience and have a shot at the making the show this season...

Dick Pelley, Rick Rypien, Dane Byers, Alex Bourrett, Vojtech Polak, Shawn Belle, Mark Fraser, Jordan Hendry, Martin Lojek and Jeff Friesen.

The Capitals payroll currently sits at about 76 million, but expect that number to go up during the year, as the Caps have never been shy about bringing in big contracts.

[Sylvanfan]

Still pretty decent depth up front. No real go to guy, but good depth down to 10 forwards. Defence as you say could use some help, but you are pretty solid in net. Pretty decent job since you've had strong teams the past two years and this was a year where you were going to have your payroll issues arise.

[simmer2]

Aaron, you did a good job getting decent returns for a lot of expensive contracts. Good moves recently, you've compiled another good lookin team.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

This team looks to be a fairly deep squad, if they can add a couple decent 4th liners or more importantly a #1 Dman I could see them challenging for some of the top spots in the east. Knowing Hesla (and as he mentioned) I am sure he will make a few moves in the near future to solidify this squad.

[Goffie]

You did a great job of getting under the cap while maintaining a competitive team. I have no doubt that the Caps will be a part of the top teams in the league again this season.

[Sylvanfan]

I think it's very under rated when a GM had a high payroll team the previous year and returns a strong team the next year. GM of the year seems to go to those who turn teams around type of thing, and I think the winners have been good choices. But GM's who keep strong teams where they are also are doing a hell of a job too, thats a lot tougher than I think it's given credit for.

[Slava]

That is a pretty solid squad from top to bottom really. I think that the league has a lot of parity right now and your built for the longer term when you consider injuries and things like that.

[RT14]

Solid team all-round, which as mentioned before, is hard to do after moving all that cap space. Great job!