Last week, it was posited that the next few gams would sort of determine the Capitals’ path to the trade deadline, whether it was supplementing or selling.
Since then, the Caps have gone 1-2 and been crushed twice, and placed Evgeny Kuznetsov on waivers, and with just one more game before Friday’s trade deadline, rumors are swirling about what the Caps will do…and right now, it looks like a reload after Sunday’s 5-2 loss to an Arizona team that lost 14 straight before back-to-back wins this weekend.
“Yesterday felt like a bit of an emotional letdown after that stirring comeback against the Flyers, the team they were pursuing,” MSN insider Tarik El-Bashir told the Junkies Monday. “Spencer Carbery even said before the game yesterday, he was worried a little bit about a letdown, and it was rough as this team has looked all year – and they did not hold back in their postgame comments.”
Deadline aside, what exactly happened with Kuzi, who went into the NHL Player Assistance Program and is now in hopes of a ‘fresh start’ elsewhere?
“I checked with a lot of people yesterday, and the one recurring theme was people telling me it was just time. There are relationships in every part of your life that just go south for one reason or another, and this was one of those,” Tarik said. “They had tried for years to work it out, Kuzi himself wanted out for a couple of years and the Capitals tried to accommodate him by trying to make a fair deal with another team, and it just never came to fruition. It had kind of been headed in this direction for quite a while and then he ends up in the program, and when he comes out, they decided, look, we're playing better without him. He wants to move on, we need to move on. They were hoping that putting him on waivers would kind of start the process of him maybe being claimed or just moving on, but I don't think there was a chance that another team was gonna take him, given his salary.”
It’s possible they could trade him this week, but if not, he hopefully reports to AHL Hershey (although Tarik doubts it), and come the off-season, El-Bashir believes there’s a better chance.
“There will be only one year remaining on his contract with the annual average salary of $7.8 million, and the Capitals can retain up to 50 percent of that contract. I think they probably will have to retain, but I think another team would take a chance at $3.9 million in terms of cap hit,” El-Bashir said. “But I kind of struggle with how this all unfolded, and I think a lot of guys feel this way, because Kuzi occupied a soft spot in our hearts. He was a loving, free-spirited guy who at times was one of the best players in the NHL. No one will ever forget the goal that he scored in that Pittsburgh series the year they won the Cup, and he could have been the Conn Smythe winner, he was just really good. But he was wired differently. He came from kind of a hardscrabble part of Russia and life wasn't easy for him at a young age, and so you always wanted to root for him and you wanted to see him succeed and I still hope that he gets himself sorted out, but it just wasn't gonna work here any longer.”
Take a listen above to the entire call, where El-Bashir also throws out some names of who else might be on the block, the goaltending situation, and more!