Last Friday, the Washington Capitals had their season ending press conference after they were unceremoniously bounced from the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Former Fighting Sioux All-American forward T.J. Oshie is a UFA and wants to remain with the Capitals. According to Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post, the Capitals might not be able to keep Oshie.
The feeling has been mutual — “We love him, too,” Coach Barry Trotz said — but that may not be enough for the Capitals to re-sign the dynamic right winger. Eleven players from Washington’s 2016-17 roster are up for new contracts, and the Capitals are expected to return most, if not all, of their six restricted free agents. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt are due considerable pay raises, and though Oshie appears to be Washington’s top unrestricted free agent priority, salary cap constraints may prevent a successful partnership between player and team from continuing.
As I mentioned last Friday, Oshie has many of the attributes that the Wild lack in their top-six forward group, so he’d probably be a great fit in the state of hockey. Oshie would add additional speed, toughness and goal scoring to the Wild’s lineup. Obviously, I am just throwing it out there, but there are many different factors that play into this. The Wild would need to express an interest in Oshie and he would have to be interested in coming home to Minnesota.
According to Cap Friendly, Oshie is making $4,175,000. At the present moment, the Wild are $11,441,409 under the cap. The Wild have a few core players that they need to sign or part ways with. The Washington Capitals have 22,811,205 in salary cap space. The Capitals have a number of restricted free agents like Nate Schmidt that they need to sign. They may not have room for Oshie who’s probably due a substantial raise.
Question: If Oshie doesn’t resign with the Capitals, where does he end up? Why?
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
