Confirmed with Link: Capitals sign Justin Schultz to 2 year deal 4 Mil AAV

[tenken00]

And here I was sitting thinking "phew we got Laviolette. Bye bye stretch pass, nice knowing you." Lol

 

[Capagonia]

Hahaha I LOL'd so hard at the first response, which was "Gormley would love this signing."

EDIT: Seriously, I'm tearing up over here laughing about Gormley staring at the camera, deer-in-headlights-style, the most awkward human being ever captured on live television. Thank u for this much-needed lol in these dark times.

Omg I forgot he even existed until I saw this post. The wooooooooooorst.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

Haven't been this angry since George resigned another Schultz. Terrible acquisition GMBM, however I still support you and every GM has a stinker. Shameful signing though.

 

[marcel snapshot]

So, with Kempny not in the mix, we’re basically swapping Gudas for Schultz + some more money (and sure maybe a wee bit too much more based on what what Shatty got and his body of work in the playoffs). But in terms of a pure swap-out for Gudas, using Holtby/Henk’s money to obtain a D guy who can skate, pass, and generate offense - after a playoff failure that featured, among other things virtually zero offense from the back 5x5 - maybe does not seem completely vomitorious (which should be a word if it’s not).

 

[um]

I was proven wrong BIG TIME with the signing of Orpik. I hope I’m wrong again.

 

[pman25]

Relying on a bottom-six of Panik-Eller-Sprong and Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway for scoring in crunch time is some kind of strategy.

Doesn’t look that bad? And then we have some guys who could reasonably push for bottom six time like McMichael, AJF, Pinho

also it’s kind of a problem if we’re relying on the bottom six to score in crunch time. That feels like a top six responsibility.

 

[4thTierSport]

My initial thought is maybe having him in better suited role might help.

 

[EroCaps]

Trade Jensen for Savard pls.

 

[Hivemind]

How so? Orpiks contract was almost universally hailed as over paying and too much term when he signed it. I don't even have to look, I know I trashed GMBM for it in that thread. I was wrong then, it turns out, happy to admit that. Brooks even ended up playing one extra year past his original deal here IINM.

So basically, people are trashing just the rate, but NOT the term, on this deal. If Shultz returns to form, the price is great. If he doesn't, its turrible.

So we'll see.

I'm not going to get into the whole Orpik debate for the 1000th time on this board. I don't agree with your take. Orpik also didn't play beyond his original deal, he was dealt to Colorado and bought out after the cup, then signed back here for cheaper. That one year deal would have been the final year of his deal if Colorado hadn't bought him out.

Even ignoring that large portions of the hockey world, both inside and outside of the Caps fandom, still think that Orpik contract was a bad deal, the logic of using that deal to support this one don't hold up. First off, just because another deal was opposed doesn't mean that this one will be good. Everyone on HFB instantly knew the Jack Johnson deal in Pittsburgh was bad, and guess what, it was. Next off, as you point out, this isn't simply another aging/poor player. This is one that has fallen off a cliff. But even if he returns to form, this is basically a market rate deal for him. There's really not much upside for him to out play this contract. When he's good, he's a solid 2nd pairing defenseman. And he's being paid like a solid 2nd pairing defenseman. But there's significant risk that he won't be that.

 

[Corby78]

Prove me wrong Lavi/GMBM

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

I’m honestly fine with this. AAV is higher than I’d like but he’s a right handed shot who can skate well and pass the puck. We had three top 4 defensemen before this signing and if Schultz can bounce back he’ll round out the group pretty nicely. Jensen on the third pair should solidify the bottom pairing as well and not force him to take on too much.

There has to be another move coming and I’ll be kinda pissed if it’s Panik. Trade Hagelin, please.

 

[tenken00]

I’m honestly fine with this. AAV is higher than I’d like but he’s a right handed shot who can skate well and pass the puck. We had three top 4 defensemen before this signing and if Schultz can bounce back he’ll round out the group pretty nicely. Jensen on the third pair should solidify the bottom pairing as well and not force him to take on too much.

There has to be another move coming and I’ll be kinda pissed if it’s Panos. Trade Hagelin, please.

I'm starting to feel the same way. Yes, we are paying him a lot, but the team as a whole is improved over last year. I dont know if we were bidding against other teams or not. But its only a two year deal.

I like to think the biggest signing for the D was Laviolette anyways.

Edit: I also would like to keep Panik over Hagelin, but I'm afraid its Jensen that is going to be moved.

 

[Hivemind]

I’m honestly fine with this. AAV is higher than I’d like but he’s a right handed shot who can skate well and pass the puck. We had three top 4 defensemen before this signing and if Schultz can bounce back he’ll round out the group pretty nicely. Jensen on the third pair should solidify the bottom pairing as well and not force him to take on too much.

My issue with this is twofold.
Schultz used to be able to skate well, but he's had knee and ankle injuries that have severely reduced his mobility. I'm not optimistic that he's going to be the mobile player he once was.
Siegenthaler-Jensen is the worst pairing that Jensen has been on. The two of them just don't have chemistry, and have struggled together.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

I’m assuming we had to give Schultz a higher salary in exchange for less years also he can be left exposed to Seattle with the $5 million real salary next season.

I believe Dillion cannot be exposed with his no movement

 

[Langway]

There has to be another move coming and I’ll be kinda pissed if it’s Panik. Trade Hagelin, please.

No idea why anyone wants to keep Panik. He may have rebounded later in the season but mainly in a fourth-line role and IMO he'll never be a highly productive third-liner ala Connolly/Burakovsky. If they trade Hagelin then perhaps very shortly we'll be pining for a functional penalty kill. Better I think to dish Panik, who remains a suspect fit for what they need, put Hagelin on the fourth-line where he belongs largely as a specialist and invest cheaply on the third-line with more upside. The best thing Panik has is that he's somewhat of a heavy player but I don't see him ever really sticking. The case for keeping Jensen is much like that in keeping Hagelin. They're very useful depth role players and defensive presences. On this team that's valuable. Maybe if the core group were better in that area.

Dillon doesn't have any no trade/no move protection.

 

[tenken00]

No idea why anyone wants to keep Panik. He may have rebounded later in the season but mainly in a fourth-line role and IMO he'll never be a highly productive third-liner ala Connolly/Burakovsky. If they trade Hagelin then perhaps very shortly we'll be pining for a functional penalty kill. Better I think to dish Panik, who remains a suspect fit for what they need, put Hagelin on the fourth-line where he belongs largely as a specialist and invest cheaply on the third-line with more upside. The best thing Panik has is that he's somewhat of a heavy player but I don't see him ever really sticking. The case for keeping Jensen is much like that in keeping Hagelin. They're very useful depth role players and defensive presences. On this team that's valuable. Maybe if the core group were better in that area.

Dillon doesn't have any no trade/no move protection.

Like Jensen, Panik was the only other player that has played better as the season went along in the train wreck that was 2019-20. That counts for something in the Todd Reirden era of teamwide every player decline. Makes you feel like you can perhaps squeeze a bit more out of Jensen and Panik.

 

[francaisvolantsparis]

D is set for the regular season. If we have to add someone, it will be at the trade deadline.

 

[bur and 666 others]

I'm so sad. I was laughing when Pitts was signing this garbage for big bucks and he was actually serviceable for them. He's done done done. Would rather prefer they rolled with the kids.

 

[HTFN]

Like Jensen, Panik was the only other player that has played better as the season went along in the train wreck that was 2019-20. That counts for something in the Todd Reirden era of teamwide every player decline. Makes you feel like you can perhaps squeeze a bit more out of Jensen and Panik.

I could be crazy but wasn't it from switching wings? 3RW to 4LW, at least at first, and I want to say there was even a quote that he preferred the left side. It seemed like he instantly started finding his spots and becoming the guy they signed on offense and we were all crowing about how much chemistry the new fourth line had, but I don't know if Panik ever made it up to 3LW full time.

 

[tenken00]

I could be crazy but wasn't it from switching wings? 3RW to 4LW, at least at first, and I want to say there was even a quote that he preferred the left side. It seemed like he instantly started finding his spots and becoming the guy they signed on offense and we were all crowing about how much chemistry the new fourth line had, but I don't know if Panik ever made it up to 3LW full time.

He is a natural LW. But because of Hagelin already taking that role on the 3rd line, he was moved to RW. He was moved to 4LW after Kovalchuk, but he was playing better even before the Kovy trade. The Caps only played 10 regular season games between the trade deadline and the shutdown, and I think Kovalchuk started a few games on the 4th line at first. I could be misremembering that though.

 

[Hivemind]

No idea why anyone wants to keep Panik. He may have rebounded later in the season but mainly in a fourth-line role and IMO he'll never be a highly productive third-liner ala Connolly/Burakovsky. If they trade Hagelin then perhaps very shortly we'll be pining for a functional penalty kill. Better I think to dish Panik, who remains a suspect fit for what they need, put Hagelin on the fourth-line where he belongs largely as a specialist and invest cheaply on the third-line with more upside. The best thing Panik has is that he's somewhat of a heavy player but I don't see him ever really sticking. The case for keeping Jensen is much like that in keeping Hagelin. They're very useful depth role players and defensive presences. On this team that's valuable. Maybe if the core group were better in that area.

He's a useful player in general, even if he was snakebit early last year. Panik has a history of being productive in the recent past, and has been a 20G+ guy before. He's still on the right side of 30, so a rebound is more likely than some of the other options they have in house. Of all the recent depth splurged by GMBM, he seems the most likley to live up to his prior reputation. He reminds me a lot of Joel Ward, who also wasn't very productive in the first of his four years in Washington but rebounded to become a key depth piece.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I guess we'll see. But it's strange to have this 4M deal come out of left field when Holtby walked for 4.5M.

dude they spent Holtby’s salary slot months ago in terms of planning....

 

[Langway]

He's a useful player in general, even if he was snakebit early last year. Panik has a history of being productive in the recent past, and has been a 20G+ guy before. He's still on the right side of 30, so a rebound is more likely than some of the other options they have in house. Of all the recent depth splurged by GMBM, he seems the most likley to live up to his prior reputation. He reminds me a lot of Joel Ward, who also wasn't very productive in the first of his four years in Washington but rebounded to become a key depth piece.

He hit 20 once playing at times with Toews and some pretty high-end players in Chicago. To his credit he hasn't been a big PP guy but he hasn't topped 15 goals in any other season. I don't see what his strength is as a player. He's got decent size but...he's just decent. Much like Schultz is just a rough outline of what's needed without a great deal of substance there.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

My issue with this is twofold.
Schultz used to be able to skate well, but he's had knee and ankle injuries that have severely reduced his mobility. I'm not optimistic that he's going to be the mobile player he once was.
Siegenthaler-Jensen is the worst pairing that Jensen has been on. The two of them just don't have chemistry, and have struggled together.

We thought the same thing with Niskanen too and he bounced back last year with Philly. I agree injuries are a concern though so we'll see how it goes. I think there's some upside to the signing, and I think he'll be a better fit on PP2 than Orlov (assuming Ovi plays all two minutes like he normally does).

Willing to see how things look under a different coach before I make any declarative statements about who has chemistry with who but point taken.

 

[g00n]

dude they spent Holtby’s salary slot months ago in terms of planning....

Not the point. You think they knew "months ago" he was going to sign somewhere for 4.5x2? And went shopping for a 4M 2nd pair D-man instead of trying to figure out how to keep Holtby for 2 more years, maybe on a slight hometown discount, while shopping for cheaper D?