The Capitals have added two new forwards this week in Jordan Kyrou and ex-Sabre Alex Tuch, and have also sent two out by trading Connor McMichael to St. Louis in the Kyrou deal and trading Hendrix Lapierre to the Penguins.
Clearly beefing up their forward depth both now and long-term – Kyrou has five more years and Tuch just signed an eight-year deal, while McMichael and Lapierre were both restricted free agents – but there’s still one GR8-sized hole on the roster.
That, of course, is Alex Ovechkin, who is a free agent and has not made any decision about his future, and won’t (at least publicly) until next month – but head coach Spencer Carbery, speaking with Grant & Danny Wednesday about his team’s three trades, doesn’t think all the moves will have any effect on what Ovi will do.
“I don’t think so – I spoke to him this morning and he was working out while on vacation with his family,” Carbery said. “At this point there’s been no decision, he’s just trying to make the best decision and spend time with his family.”
When Ovi is ready to decide his future, Carbery says the Caps will ‘be right there for him,” and there’s no timeline or even lean from his side, but Ovi is ‘following the moves and was really happy for the organization.”
And if a return to the Caps means Ovi, who still played all 82 games last year and led the team in goals and points, faces perhaps a reduced role after all the moves already made and any that may still come?
“Above all, O wants to win. I know sometimes we lose track of that because of the individual accolades, but he genuinely wants to win,” Carbery said. “As we improve the forward group, if he plays a little less and we’re a better team, he is going to raise his arm and go, ‘yes, I love this.’”
And, with two more former 30-goal scorers in Kyrou and Tuch aboard with three returning 20-plus scorers, Ovi would be one of six forwards with that scoring potential – and leaning on their depth overall could make the Caps better in all phases, and Ovi perhaps more dangerous than ever on the power play.
“Can we bring guys down, like maybe O is playing 17 minutes versus 19, but he’s now more effective and efficient, and his minutes are higher quality,” Carbery said. “It’s a little more quality versus quantity, and now, you get 12 forwards you can roll out there who are maybe playing a couple minutes less, but now you’ve got more effective minutes.”
