This is just patently and abjectly false. Have you seen the market right now? There are two obvious features that stand out; veterans with term and $$ are outlandishly expensive to move, so far in Free Agency mostly mediocre players have signed and they’ve largely been overpaid.
Given these two considerations I’m frankly completely satisfied that the Capitals haven’t jumped into either market. They could potentially trade Mantha or Kuznetsov to “actually compete.” It’s likely they’d lose those trades in a significant way. They could have signed some FAs and overpaid, I’m glad they didn’t. There are some trade targets out there (ex. DeBrincat) but if trading teams are asking for future 1sts I’d prefer the Caps stay far, far away.
The Caps have a veteran team and can still compete and win games. Caps fans have been imploring the team to play the young players they’ve drafted. They brought in Spencer Carbery to do just that. I’d rather the team and management take a measured Wait-And-See approach rather than making brash moves in trades or FA when the market is pretty clearly stacked against you. The Caps don’t have a ton of tradeable value assets, best to just let the ones the do have marinate and see what the rest of the roster can do in a season where perhaps most of the team can be healthy.
He’s clearly a 2nd Pairing DMan, even allowing the theory he’s a 5-6D is in stark contrast to his career-to-date and is particularly poorly informed. The key is getting coaching to play him that way and partner him with someone to take advantage of his strengths and not put laser focus on his weaknesses.
"Patently and abjectly false" -ehh?
We know they told Ovechkin they won't sell off with him there, so that's very much not "patently and abjectly false."
YOU claim this team can compete, yet it's essentially the same roster as last year (minus their best all-around D in Orlov) that missed the playoffs. This isn't a team that's going to compete.
You claim they're giving spots for their younger players to finally get an opportunity, yet they signed a 34 year old Max Pacioretty and traded for a 30 year old Joel Edmundson, both of which are occupying those slots.
It's a roster that GMBM specifically said needed to get younger and faster, yet their additions this year have been more old, injury-prone players. I don't adding a 34 year old Max Pac coming off of two achilles injuries is going to make this team faster, do you? Joel Edmundson wasn't fast even when he was young and healthy. This team isn't any younger or faster than last year.
Even GMBM admits this off-season has not gone according to plan. He literally said "nothing panned out" during his press conference a couple days ago.
Sometimes you have to eat a "lost" trade to free up the resources to make further moves that improve the team. GMBM has done that before. But he's unwilling to at this juncture, because they aren't actually aiming to contend right now. Heck, even you tacitly admit they aren't seriously aiming at contention right now with your personal resistance towards giving up 1st round picks. You know exactly why the Caps would be hesitant to give up 1sts, because they aren't actually going to go much of anywhere with this roster and those 1st round picks could end up as more Top 10 picks.
This is a franchise that's stuck on cruise control. It's all about the 894 chase right now, they just can't say that out loud.
As for Fehervary, he's played minutes, but he hasn't done particularly well in those minutes.