The problem is the Capitals had plenty of cap space to adequately address the wing position in the offseason, but instead foolishly overpaid Wilson by $500k. $500k more in cap space could have yielded Versteeg, Parenteau, Stempniak, etc. instead of Connolly. Wilson is not a $2M forward in the NHL and he's not snakebit. He just doesn't create anything (worst points/60 on the team, second worst shots/60 amongst forwards on the team, behind another grossly overpaid forward in Winnik).
There's nothing wrong with giving guys like Sanford or Vrana a shot to see if they can produce at an NHL level, but they are the furthest thing from sure things while guys like the ones I mentioned have proven year after year to produce at good clips.