Offseason Questions for the Capitals

The Washington Capitals find themselves cleaning out their lockers and heading into the offseason much earlier than they would have hoped this year. Now they face the numerous questions regarding coaches, free agents, and how they expect to go farther in the playoffs next season. Here are the most important questions facing this team in the offseason.

Coach: In the wake of their improbable first round upset, management hinted that changes would be coming this offseason. Immediately, people assumed this meant head coach Bruce Boudreau. Owner Ted Leonsis and general manager George McPhee have already put those rumors to rest. "He's a really good coach," McPhee said, "He's going to be here a really long time. No need to raise those issues because he's not going anywhere." Talking about coaching changes are certainly premature at this point, but if the Caps have an early exit next season it will be an option that is at least discussed.

Nicklas Backstrom: The biggest priority for the Caps heading into the offseason is Nicklas Backstrom. Backstrom's entry level contract expired at the end of this season and he is now a restricted free agent. Backstrom seems happy in Washington and has never indicated he is considering going elsewhere, and as the Caps have the right to make him an offer I expect they will do whatever it takes to keep him. I would be surprised if signing him is a major issue, but what the Caps have to pay him will be. Make no mistake, they will pay him what he wants. The problem is that his previous contract was entry level and since then he has established himself as a superstar. Signing him now is going to cost a significant amount of money and this could impact who the Caps try to sign when free agency begins. Listed below are the other restricted and unrestricted free agents on the Caps' roster:

Restricted- Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon, Tomas Fleischmann, Jay Beagle, Andrew Gordon, Chris Bourque, Jeff Schultz, Michal Neuvirth
Unrestricted- Brendan Morrison, Scott Walker, Quintin Laing, Eric Belanger, Alexandre Giroux, Boyd Kane, Kyle Wilson, Shaone Morrisonn, Milan Jurcina, Joe Corvo, Jose Theodore

Goalies: The big name here of course is Jose Theodore, who I am not expecting the Caps to sign. While he has been a tremendous asset to the team and has put together two impressive regular seasons, he has not been a reliable playoff goalie. Twice he has gone in as the starter and failed both times to last two full games. Boudreau told reporters prior to the series against Montreal that Theodore would not have a short leash this season and he was still pulled early in game two. While confidence in him is not high, Boudreau has shown a lot of confidence in young Michal Neuvirth. When Varlamov went down with injury in the regular season, it was expected that Theodore would take over as the primary goalie. Boudreau, however, started Neuvirth in 16 games. He will be a major priority for the team to sign this summer. Theodore will walk and the money the team will save from his contract will go to Backstrom.

Defense: Defense really needs to be a focus for the Caps this offseason. They were ranked 1st offensively and 16th defensively. More importantly they were ranked 25th on the penalty kill. As good as they were, the Caps had to play from behind constantly this season. While they were able to overcome numerous deficits in the regular season, it really hurt them in the playoffs. The first thing the team needs to do is talk to Mike Green. Last year he was widely criticized for his lack of conditioning in the playoffs and he spent the entire offseason trying to get in better shape. Now he needs to work on his defensive game. It is the only thing holding him back, but it is a serious problem since he is a DEFENSEman. His offensive skill does not excuse his poor defensive play. Regarding the team's free agents, they will not allow Jeff Schultz, who won the plus-minus award this season and seems to be finally coming into his own, to leave. They will also attempt to re-sign Shaone Morrisonn, one of the few defensive minded defensemenon the team. Milan Jurcina will not be back. As the team already traded him once, I do not think there will be much urgency to sign him again, especially with the emergence of Jon Carlson. Joe Corvo looked tremendous in the postseason, but signing him will be expensive and my guess would be that the team let's him go. My biggest fear regarding defense will be that the team decides to rely solely on the emergence of Carlson, Tyler Sloan, and Karl Alzner and do not attempt to sign a more defensive player. If they cannot sign Shaone Morrisonn, then they MUST sign a defensive minded defenseman to help the Caps keep the puck out of the net.

Forwards: The biggest question besides Nicklas Backstrom is not actually a free agent, but is Alexander Semin. Semin's contract was set to expire at the end of this season, but he signed a one year extension. Semin has the talent to be a top line left winger on most NHL teams, but happens to be on the same team as the best left winger in the world. Being that talented, he will expect a large contract. With the other superstars on the team, he might be just too expensive. Now that the team is fully focused on building for the playoffs, Semin's failure to produce in the postseason makes him expendable. The fact that he only signed for an extra year tells me the writing is on the wall and he will part ways with the Caps after the 2010-11 season. The Caps will not allow a player of Semin's calibur to leave without getting something in return and I will expect an offseason or a deadline trade. If the team acquires a notable left wing this summer, then Semin's tenure in DC will end sometime soon. More likely, however, is that the team will wait until the trade deadline to deal Semin when teams are more desperate for scoring talent. I felt Brendan Morrison was a fantastic free agent signing last summer and will be sorry to see him leave, but the Caps will not pursue him this offseason. Morrison is a second line caliber forward, but was a healthy scratch frequently in the regular season and twice in the team's seven playoff games. This tells me that the team will not sign him and signing Eric Belanger will become very important. He seems to enjoy playing in DC, saying after the team's improbable comeback against Chicago "We didn't do that in Minnesota" so my guess would be that he will be back in DC.

The Caps will try desperately to trade Michael Nylander again, but I doubt any team will be willing to pick up his large contract. Lending him out so that he does not contribute to the salary cap as they did this year is the most likely scenario for 2010-11 which is the last year of his contract. Boyd Kane is 31 and unlikely to make an impact at the NHL level, so unless the team wants to sign him for Hershey, he will be gone. The team is likely to sign Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon, and Tomas Fleischmann, especially Fehr after his breakout season this year and these players seem unlikely to go anywhere else. Scott Walker was a deadline deal and I expect the Caps will not pursue him unless they want him to replace Jon Erskine (fingers crossed) as the team's fighter. As for the rest, the Caps will definitely want to sign Jay Beagle, Andrew Gordon, Chris Bourque, Alexandre Giroux, and Kyle Wilson. The only one I think could leave would be Giroux who has become an AHL superstar. Signing a big contract to 28 year old minor league player who rarely gets called up to Washington is not the direction the team will want to go in. Either he accepts a minor league, low contract, or he'll have to find himself another team.

Likely Lineup: I expect most of the free agents on the Caps' current roster that they pursue will sign with Washington again. A championship contender offering a chance to play with the best player in the world makes recruiting a lot easier, especially when most of these players developed in Hershey and Washington together. As for bringing in players, my best guess is that the team will pursue a center to replace Brendan Morrison and to help on the penalty kill, a left wing to replace Semin and provide an offensive threat both in the regular season and the playoffs, and a defenseman because even the Caps cannot ignore their defensive woes this season (I hope). If they are about to hand the reins over to Varlamov and Neuvirth, they will need will more help on the blue line. Unless the team expects Karl Alzner to turn into Chris Pronger this offseason, a defensive minded defenseman is a must. So here is my projected lineup for October without specific guesses as to what free agents the Caps bring in:

1st line: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Knuble
2nd line: Semin (gone by trade deadline), Morrison's replacement, Laich
3rd line: Semin's replacement, Belanger, Fehr
4th line: Chimera, Steckle, Fleischmann

Defense Pairings: Green and Schultz, Carlson and Poti, Morrisonn and Sloan or Corvo's replacement (hopefully)

Goalies: Varlamov, Neuvirth

Other Roster Players: Bradley, Gordon, Laing, Erskine, Alzner