Confirmed Trade: [WSH/TOR] Rasmus Sandin for 2023 BOS 1st round pick and Erik Gustafsson

[Phion Keneuf]

Couple problems here; let’s examine.

1-You’re referencing Tom Gulitti. Do better, try harder.
2-Name a Capital who has played well defensively in 2023.
3-The Capitals Blue-line literally featured two guys who don’t belong on an NHL roster (Matt Irwin and Gabriel Carlsson) and a guy who has spent the majority of the season in the AHL (Alexeyev).
4-The Capitals are not good. Good players will carry a Minus for the Capitals for the rest of the season as the Capitals are likely to be outscored at Even Strength for the rest of the season.
5-Sandin’s principle role on the Caps for the foreseeable future is to QB the PP (and learn to be a good distributor to #8 while Carlson is out). Guess where PP goals don’t show up?

Evaluating Sandin by his +/- might suit your narrative but it is incredibly naive and not particularly informative.

Sandin is playing De Facto 1D minutes for the Capitals, who are, again, quite bad. He’ll be a Minus for the rest of the season, he’ll also be a 1D. I’d expect that experience will do him plenty of good when the Caps have a semi-competent D-Core next season and Sandin can transition to playing less than super-human 1D minutes on a Lottery Team (which is precisely where he is today).

John Carlson is back. Best Sandin can do is 2D.

Even then, you can’t argue he’s good defensively. Maybe average at best.

 

[Field of Dreams]

Wish Sandin all the best but as he showed us this offseason, he's a mercenary.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

My bad....nice pick up for a late 1st and expiring contract

Thing is though Sandin had asked for trade and i remember when STL was in a similar situation with Dunn and nobody gave them the 1st rounder they wanted and eventually he was lost for nothing so sometimes you got to take the best offer so the player can move on

But they didn't have to here because

A there is no expansion draft so he couldn't be lost for nothing

B he's under contract next year so he couldn't be lost for nothing.

C even if he wasn't he's an RFA so he couldn't be lost for nothing.

 

[StephenPeat]

John Carlson is back. Best Sandin can do is 2D.

Even then, you can’t argue he’s good defensively. Maybe average at best.

John Carlson is back? That’s new to literally everyone, John Carlson included.

Carlson isn’t back, for anyone who’s actually informed.

It’s questionable whether Carlson will return at all this season.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Couple problems here; let’s examine.

1-You’re referencing Tom Gulitti. Do better, try harder.
2-Name a Capital who has played well defensively in 2023.
3-The Capitals Blue-line literally featured two guys who don’t belong on an NHL roster (Matt Irwin and Gabriel Carlsson) and a guy who has spent the majority of the season in the AHL (Alexeyev).
4-The Capitals are not good. Good players will carry a Minus for the Capitals for the rest of the season as the Capitals are likely to be outscored at Even Strength for the rest of the season.
5-Sandin’s principle role on the Caps for the foreseeable future is to QB the PP (and learn to be a good distributor to #8 while Carlson is out). Guess where PP goals don’t show up?

Evaluating Sandin by his +/- might suit your narrative but it is incredibly naive and not particularly informative.

Sandin is playing De Facto 1D minutes for the Capitals, who are, again, quite bad. He’ll be a Minus for the rest of the season, he’ll also be a 1D. I’d expect that experience will do him plenty of good when the Caps have a semi-competent D-Core next season and Sandin can transition to playing less than super-human 1D minutes on a Lottery Team (which is precisely where he is today).

24 mins a game are not super-hero level 1D minutes.

Being on a bad team shouldn't be a situation where you just hand wave a players weaknesses. Jake McCabe was on the ice for more goals for than against while with Chicago, a team much worse than Washington.

1 issue with having Sandin as your #1 PPQB is that he's the last man back but has footspeed issues.

I'm not hoping the kid will fail, but right now he looks exactly like he did in Toronto but with a bit more puck luck and a lot more TOI. We couldn't afford the goals and chances against, but Washington is willing to so they can see what they have.

He thinks he worth a lot more than Gustafsson, but if he's a PP merchant, is he?

 

[Peasy]

John Carlson is back? That’s new to literally everyone, John Carlson included.

Carlson isn’t back, for anyone who’s actually informed.

It’s questionable whether Carlson will return at all this season.

Why you got Caps reporters saying he could be cleared for contact in a few days and possibly return next week (this was said last week). Obviously not much left in the season but seems possible he returns before it ends.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

Why you got Caps reporters saying he could be cleared for contact in a few days and possibly return next week (this was said last week). Obviously not much left in the season but seems possible he returns before it ends.

Seems very likely . I’ve read Thursday is a possibility so the poster chastising about Carlson being out for the whole year looks pretty silly .

 

[StephenPeat]

Why you got Caps reporters saying he could be cleared for contact in a few days and possibly return next week (this was said last week). Obviously not much left in the season but seems possible he returns before it ends.

A fractured skull, a lost season, and he may be cleared for contact in a few days suggests exactly what I said.

He’ll take contact in practice this week, it’s inconceivable he’s in the lineup on Thursday, there’s little if any incentive to rush him.

John Carlson is factually NOT back in the Caps lineup. It’s exactly like I said it is; questionable if he’ll return this season.

 

[StephenPeat]

Seems very likely . I’ve read Thursday is a possibility so the poster chastising about Carlson being out for the whole year looks pretty silly .

I was “chastising” you because you were wrong. Your statement was “Carlson is back.” Factually Carlson has not played a single game since before Christmas so NO he is NOT “back.”

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

I was “chastising” you because you were wrong. Your statement was “Carlson is back.” Factually Carlson has not played a single game since before Christmas so NO he is NOT “back.”

Wrong poster bud as I never said he’s back. Try again . You said it’s questionable if he returns this season , whereas there doesn’t seem to be a question at all , and he’s very much inching towards that goal .

 

[Ovi895]

Wish Sandin all the best but as he showed us this offseason, he's a mercenary.

Wonder how you feel about Marner, Nylander, Tavares and even Matthews who have all been much more merc in pursuit of their current contracts

 

[Ovi895]

I was very skeptical of the trade at first but its hard to discount what he has done in a bigger role so far. His supposed lack of speed does not stand out at all on our glacial team where he's one of the fastest players lol. Also him finally breaking our management's terrible 15 year OCD streak of CAN'T HAVE LEFT SHOT ON THEE PP MUST HAVE RIGHT HAND SHOT TO FEED OVIE ONE TIMERS THERE IS NO OTHER WAY that left Carlson and Orlov having the opposite Caps legacies of what each of them deserved; that's worth a first rounder on its own and then some.

Looks like he's developing into a Ryan Ellis type player, who took a while to get there but at his peak was an effective high scoring #2 despite being considered small and slow by virtually everyone

 

[Antropovsky]

Couple problems here; let’s examine.

1-You’re referencing Tom Gulitti. Do better, try harder.
2-Name a Capital who has played well defensively in 2023.
3-The Capitals Blue-line literally featured two guys who don’t belong on an NHL roster (Matt Irwin and Gabriel Carlsson) and a guy who has spent the majority of the season in the AHL (Alexeyev).
4-The Capitals are not good. Good players will carry a Minus for the Capitals for the rest of the season as the Capitals are likely to be outscored at Even Strength for the rest of the season.
5-Sandin’s principle role on the Caps for the foreseeable future is to QB the PP (and learn to be a good distributor to #8 while Carlson is out). Guess where PP goals don’t show up?

Evaluating Sandin by his +/- might suit your narrative but it is incredibly naive and not particularly informative.

Sandin is playing De Facto 1D minutes for the Capitals, who are, again, quite bad. He’ll be a Minus for the rest of the season, he’ll also be a 1D. I’d expect that experience will do him plenty of good when the Caps have a semi-competent D-Core next season and Sandin can transition to playing less than super-human 1D minutes on a Lottery Team (which is precisely where he is today).

So you're saying at the moment there is no real way to determine if he's been &$&% or if he's been good?

 

[Ovi895]

So you're saying at the moment there is no real way to determine if he's been &$&% or if he's been good?

No, there's currently no way to determine if he has been extremely good or just very good

 

[Antropovsky]

No, there's currently no way to determine if he has been extremely good or just very good

He's been on the ice for 13 of the teams last 16 even strength goals against. There are 6 defensemen in a game... The math doesn't add up to say everyone has been as bad as he has. And your saying he's either been very good or extremely good?

 

[Ovi895]

He's been on the ice for 13 of the teams last 16 even strength goals against. There are 6 defensemen in a game... The math doesn't add up to say everyone has been as bad as he has.

Given his partner and deployment and where the team is at that's about where you would expect any D in his shoes. He's basically in the Quinn Hughes position where he's playing top minutes with a Schenn/Bear caliber D on a very defensively porous team that has purged itself of virtually every defensively capable player they could going into the deadline. While not being Quinn Hughes. The capitals from the beginning of the year are down Orlov, Carlson, Johansson, Eller, Hathaway and only having Wilson back as a capable defensive forward to make up for all of that. Despite all those goals against he's not looking like some Jack Johnson like pylon getting spun around on them.

 

[Antropovsky]

Given his partner and deployment and where the team is at that's about where you would expect any D in his shoes. He's basically in the Quinn Hughes position where he's playing top minutes with a Schenn/Bear caliber D on a very defensively porous team that has purged itself of virtually every defensively capable player they could going into the deadline. While not being Quinn Hughes. The capitals from the beginning of the year are down Orlov, Carlson, Johansson, Eller, Hathaway and only having Wilson back as a capable defensive forward to make up for all of that. Despite all those goals against he's not looking like some Jack Johnson like pylon getting spun around on them.

...in that case every player on a bad team could be called very good to extremely good. In that case why are bad team's bad?

I have no idea how any player whose been on for 13 of their teams last 16 even strength goals could be called "extremely good to very good"

 

[Ovi895]

...in that case every player on a bad team could be called very good to extremely good. In that case why are bad team's bad?

I have no idea how any player whose been on for 13 of their teams last 16 even strength goals could be called "extremely good to very good"

Does every bad player on a bad team go above PPG as a defenseman since joining that team? Is Erik Karlsson a bad player?

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

Does every bad player on a bad team go above PPG as a defenseman since joining that team? Is Erik Karlsson a bad player?

This is PDO driven. The caps are shooting 15.1% 5 on 5 with him on the ice. For reference, he's been between 8-9.9% in his career. He's also being extremely sheltered. 76% ozone starts. Karlsson is a fantastic player because although he gets minuses because of his team, he still drives play and without being extremely sheltered. It's an asinine comparison to compare him to Sandin.

 

[Yackiberg8]

Couple problems here; let’s examine.

1-You’re referencing Tom Gulitti. Do better, try harder.
2-Name a Capital who has played well defensively in 2023.
3-The Capitals Blue-line literally featured two guys who don’t belong on an NHL roster (Matt Irwin and Gabriel Carlsson) and a guy who has spent the majority of the season in the AHL (Alexeyev).
4-The Capitals are not good. Good players will carry a Minus for the Capitals for the rest of the season as the Capitals are likely to be outscored at Even Strength for the rest of the season.
5-Sandin’s principle role on the Caps for the foreseeable future is to QB the PP (and learn to be a good distributor to #8 while Carlson is out). Guess where PP goals don’t show up?

Evaluating Sandin by his +/- might suit your narrative but it is incredibly naive and not particularly informative.

Sandin is playing De Facto 1D minutes for the Capitals, who are, again, quite bad. He’ll be a Minus for the rest of the season, he’ll also be a 1D. I’d expect that experience will do him plenty of good when the Caps have a semi-competent D-Core next season and Sandin can transition to playing less than super-human 1D minutes on a Lottery Team (which is precisely where he is today).

Gustaffson and TVR's defensive metrics appear to be pretty good.

Evaluating Sandin by any defensive metric he is the worst on the team.

 

[B A T M A N]

Gus -2 tonight against the leagues worst offense.
Sandin 26 min TOI 1A.

Ouch.

 

[Marner980]

Let’s not kid ourselves guys, Sandin is a heck of a d-man and Dubas and Leafs will definitely kick themselves. Sandin is going to be top-pairing d-man in this league for a very long time even if his defensive isn’t the best. There is not much separating him with say a guy like Morgan Rielly whom I would think Sandin will be better than very soon in maybe a year or two.

Late first and Gus is a very low ball offer for him with what he will do in the near future unless the pick Leafs draft ends up becoming a star.

 

[Tap on the Ankle]

Rasmus Sandinejad

 

[Ovi895]

How many D have the Leafs developed and graduated since Rielly? All I can count is Sandin, Liljegren and Holl. With both Liljegren and Holl being right shot defensive D. Sandin is the only offensive D they developed other than Rielly and he was never given the same opportunities on a rebuilding team Rielly got to play top minutes and develop his game. At 23 being given a very long leash in the NHL for the first time ever its not unlikely he takes major steps forward

 

[B A T M A N]

Wasn't he in the Bouchard/Dobson draft? These players are super young and still developing. Oilers fan hate on Bouchard at times but understand you can't trade a D this young just because he's not yet "perfect". Dubas made a mistake, and it may cost him his job.