The smell of Washington Capitals hockey is in the air and that means there's still some hot questions ahead of training camp
Washington Capitals hockey is here babes. Tomorrow the players are doing their physicals and off ice testing and then on Thursday the team hits the ice. There's still plenty of questions after the team announced the training camp roster last night.
Can Jakub Vrana make the roster?
The Caps made an interesting move at the end of the summertime as they signed Jakub Vrana to a PTO. NHL.com writes this about him
"The 28 year old had six points (two goals, four assists) in 21 games for the Blues last season. Vrana has 209 points (110 goals, 99 assists) in 367 regular season games for the Blues, Red Wings and Capitals and eight points (three goals, five assists) in 38 playoff games. He won the Cup with the Capitals in 2018"
- NHL.com
He's been a journeyman since the trade for Anthony Mantha and now that Mantha got traded at the trade deadline it was a smart move by Chris Patrick to scoop V right back up. Every player needs a chance to succeed and V has shown he can do it in Capitals red, white, and blue.
It'll be intersting seeing that speed from Vrana up close once again if you happen to make it up to training camp.
Can Oasiz Wiesblatt burst onto the scene?
Oasiz Wiesblatt has a unique story from development camp and rookie camp as a free agent invitee. The 20 year old has impressed brass with his skillset. He has one disabilty which is deaf but as he told Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, he wasn't just there to impress.
""It sounds like they liked me quite a bit, but anyone can say that and people can say they like you... just got to make sure that I'm working hard and doing what I can to prove that I belong here""
- Oasiz Wiesblatt
What makes the Caps organization stand out is the team culture and camaraderie along with the high standards and the wave of youth that's coming into the system.
Wiesblatt would add in the same article:
"It's awesome. These guys want to win and I know that they got a really rich history... I think it would just be really cool to play in Washington. I know they're a great organization, they've treated me with the utmost respect. First class organization. I'd love to play here, but who knows?"
- Weisblatt
It's an inspirational story and one to keep an eye on come training camp time.
Can Alex Ovechkin do it?
Again, who knows? That's why we're here. Alex Ovechkin turned 39 if you're reading this on this fine Tuesday afternoon. As we know, he enters his 20th season in the NHL and will begin the year 42 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL history.
Ovechkin made his Capitals debut on Oct. 5, 2005 and is D.C.'s longest tenured athlete. In DC Sports history only Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators and Darrell Green of the Washington Redskins played in at least 20 seasons with the respective team.
The Caps note that while Ovi resumes his chase for the all time goals record he also approaches a major assists milestone as he enters the season three assists shy of 700 career assists and can become the sixth player in NHL history to reach the milestone.
Ovechkin is also 50 points shy of 1,600 career points and 74 games shy of 1,500 games played. It wouldn't surprise us to see him reach the goal mark as early as this season. But even if it takes him two years to reach the milestone that's OK as there's two seasons left on his current contract.
Can the Caps win a tough Metropolitan Division?
The Caps made Grade A offseason moves according to Sean O'Leary of The Score. He writes this in the opening paragraph
"The Capitals appear set on being much more than a team content to be on the playoff bubble while watching Alex Ovechkin chase down the all time goal record. Washington was more active than arguably any other team this summer and looks to have improved throughout the lineup."
- O'Leary/The Score
Obviously the big move was acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Darcy Kuemper. But as our contributor CJ writes, what kind of PLD are the Caps going to get exactly?
Giving up Kuemper meant the Caps had to get another goalie and they did just that in The Sphere of Las Vegas as the team signed Logan Thompson. It looks on paper that Charlie Lindgren could be the starter but that's another matchup to watch as we're 48 hours from the start of training camp.
It is going to be an interesting season. It will be historic either way.
