Capitals To Do's

This season the Capitals have been injured and mediocre. As a noted Caps blogger I figured they would want my advice at this difficult time. As we approach the trade deadline I will share five things the Caps should do.  

Trade as many UFAs as possible:

The Capitals have a roster full of unrestricted free agents (UFAs) and realistically they can't sign all of them. They should trade players that they know they won't re-sign, like Lars Eller or Nick Jensen. Better to get a return then watch them leave for nothing. Look what they did with Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway. Washington got three draft picks and Criag Smith (who could be traded this week too) to help retool the team. Just do that more please.

Call up prospects like Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre

The season isn't going anywhere, mostly thanks to all the injuries that have impacted the Capitals the most of any NHL team. At least, that’s what I’m hoping is true as a Caps fan. At this point in the season, they should call up their young guys. McMichael, Lapierre, Lucas Johansen, Alexei Protas, Joe Snively and other younger players should be on the ice so the Caps can see what they have for the future.

Fix the power play

The Capitals power play is broken. It’s not good even when Alex Ovechkin is on the ice, and it doesn't exist at all when he’s not. Whether it’s a coaching problem, injuries or just bad luck, the Caps have been unwatchable with a man advantage. Fans should say "oh yay a power play” with something other than sarcasm. Please, fix the power play so Ovechkin can hopefully break Wayne Gretzky’s goal record.

Trade Anthony Mantha

Mantha has been bad in Washington and it's time to pull the plug on this failed experiment. In 105 games with Caps, Mantha has 22 goals 33 assists for 55 points which is half a point a game pace. He looks like he should be good, but he isn’t so the team should see if anyone else cares enough about his potential to take him off Washington’s hands.

Get younger

It's time to get younger. The team is old and slow and is getting outplayed nearly every game. It's frustrating because this team has younger players scratched while Peter Laviolette decides  to play 35 year old Matt Irwin instead. If you were going to do that then why the heck did you bring back Lucas Johansen? The Caps need to get faster because they are just physical, and teams can beat them to pucks to avoid hits. Being physical doesn’t do any good if you can’t catch up to the other team.

There are your five do's for the Capitals trade deadline. See you next time!