Capitals Season Preview
This offseason was marked by large payroll increase and outflow of youth for proven talent. At the beginning of the summer the Capitals had a 45 million dollar payroll and was chock full of talented prospects and youth (enough infact to place 4th in the future watch rankings). The Capitals identified 5 young guys that they were not going to deal (horton, Bernier, Tambellini, Parent, Auld) and decided to build arond them with talented veterans. 25 million dollars was added to the payroll in the offseason.
GM Hesla has decided to build the capitals into a team with excellent depth and no real superstars. Scoring will be by comittee and the defense held together by a solid top 4. With sim injuries the Capitals felt that depth was very important in order to be successful.
FORWARDS:
Martin Havlat will lead a young talented group that includes Daniel Sedin, Ladislav Nagy, Nathan Horton, Mark Parrish, Andy McDonald and Steve Bernier. Gm Hesla fully expects Steve Bernier to challenge for the Calder this season.
Daniel Sedin (78) - Nathan Horton (75) - Martin Havlat (80)
Mark Parrish (75) - Andy McDonald (77) - Ladislav Nagy (77)
Dmitri Afansenkov (73) - Steve Ott (72) - Steve Bernier (72)
Pat Rissmiller (71) - Adam Mair (71) - Matt Davidson (71)
extras: Donald MacLean (70), Marcel Hossa (71), Jeff Tambellini (70), Todd Fedoruk (70), Jimmie Olvestad (68)
DEFENCE:
Paul Mara is the only returning member of the defence. The rest have been brought in via trades. The Capitals feel that they have great puck moving dmen and expect alot of offence out of them. While only average defensively, they feel that they will be able to get the job done.
Phillipe Boucher (78) - Matheiu Schnieder (77)
Paul Mara (77) - Bryan Berard (75)
Zybnek Mihalek (72) - Christoph Schubert (72)
extras: Dick Tarnstrom (73) , Chris Tamer (71)
GOALIES:
Many thought that Roberto Luongo would be tending the net this season after the team brought him near the start of the summer. However, he was moved 2 months later for Rick Dipietro, Daniel SEdin and Mihalek. This means that the caps will be going with a pair of young goalies. Dipietro should get the majority of the starts, but Alex Auld is a more than capable of winning games.
Dick Dipietro (79)
Alex Auld (75)
Projected stats: Goals Assists Points
Martin Havlat 45 40 85
Daniel Sedin 20 60 80
Andy McDonald 30 41 71
Ladislav Nagy 31 35 66
Matheu Schnieder 20 40 60
Nathan Horton 35 20 55
Mark Parrish 30 20 50
Paul Mara 10 35 45
Steve Bernier 22 20 42
Bryan Berard 11 25 36
Steve Ott 15 17 32
Phillipe Boucher 6 26 32
D. Afanasenkov 10 15 25
Dick Tarnstrom 7 18 25
J. Tambellini 10 10 20
Z. Mihalek 8 10 18
P. Rissmiller 7 7 14
A. Mair 5 6 11
C. Schubert 5 5 10
D. Maclean 3 7 10
Last edited by Knut; 09-09-2006 at 07:09 PM.
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