Are the Washington Capitals Entering the NHL's Mushy Middle?

The Washington Capitals were never going to be a front-runner for the Stanley Cup this season. This writer was one of many who believed the Caps wouldn’t be a playoff team, and although injuries affected their competitive abilities, Washington just didn’t have enough meat on the bone to make it to the post-season. 

And, here we are, with six games left in their regular season schedule, and the Capitals sit sixth in the Metropolitan Division and 12th in the Eastern Conference.

That puts them – to use one of our favorite terms – in the NHL’s “mushy middle.” It’s the last place any team should want to be. Barring some miracle in the NHL draft lottery, the Caps are going to finish well out of the top five spots in this summer’s draft. More importantly, all signs have them, once again, being a mushy middle team next season.

It’s true Washington GM Brian MacLellan made some smart moves prior to the league’s March 3 trade deadline – moving out veterans Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Marcus Johansson, Erik Gustafsson and Lars Eller. 

But, as per CapFriendly, their lineup for next season is looking very much like the one that lasted past the deadline this year. The Capitals are projected to have only $7.3 million in cap space next season, and they have 17 players under contract for next year. That doesn’t leave them much room to bring back scheduled UFAs Connor Brown, Craig Smith, Conor Sheary and Carl Hagelin, let alone splurge on one or two players who aren’t Caps at the moment.

Compounding matters for Washington is the fact most of their key veterans have no-trade or no-movement clauses in their current contracts. Stars Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tom Wilson, John Carlson and T.J. Oshie all have some form of NTC/NMC, meaning that they can dictate, to some degree, where they would be headed if Washington wanted to send them packing. Thus, MacLellan’s hands are somewhat tied on the trade front.

MacLellan did acquire a nice building block for the future in former Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin. But he must make many more moves than that – moves with a focus on the future, not the present – and ideally, that should mean the Caps take another step back next year and work on replenishing their stockpile of young talent.

Otherwise, with more or less the same lineup in place, the Capitals are going to be another example of the law of diminishing returns. Casual fans may wind up caught up in the hoopla that will follow Ovechkin’s pursuit of the all-time NHL goal-scoring record, but as we’ve seen this season, Ovechkin’s success does not always translate into team success. And considering the Caps’ group of forwards are already a long-in-the-tooth 30 years old on average, they’re not about to get younger unless Washington management makes a concerted effort to break up their core and take the lumps they need to take in order to be legitimately competitive sooner than later.

It’s not easy for teams to move on from their glory years, and it’s understandable why they do hang on to veteran players when it’s apparent to most outside observers that their window to win is rapidly closing. But in the Capitals’ case, it is time to move on. It is better to suffer through a few seasons of struggles if it means that long-term success is on the horizon. Right now, and even with the players they traded away, long-term success is not going to be happening for the Caps anytime soon. 

To avoid finishing in the mushy middle next year and beyond, they need to come to terms with reality, and change things up in a big way.