Dobber's offseason fantasy hockey grades – Washington Capitals

For the last 18 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 19th annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Gone – Michael Raffl, Zdeno Chara, Brenden Dillon

Incoming – None

Left but then came back – Vitek Vanecek

Impact of changes – Looking at the above list, one would think that there wouldn't be too many changes, and on the surface you would be right. However, there are a lot of secondary pieces who will see changes in how they are deployed this upcoming season.

Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong should be settled in as the third line wingers this season instead of battling for the last spot in the top-six. With a full season of better deployment, both should be able to eschew their slow starts from last season. Having some consistent depth scoring won't likely keep teams from keying in on Alex Ovechkin and Niklas Backstrom, but it will allow the team to rack up a few more goals when the big guns are shut down.

On defence, Michal Kempny also returns after missing the entire 2020-21 season with a knee injury. He adds a bit more of a mobile element to the lower end of the Caps' blueline, though he won't push John Carlson or Justin Schultz off of either power play unit. With the loss of Brendan Dillon and Zdeno Chara though, it means that there will be a lot more defensive zone starts to go around. The brunt of it won't fall on those offensive defencemen, but they may still see their offensive zone starts fall a little.

Ready for Full Time –

Alex Alexeyev – Before being loaned to the KHL for the 2020-21 season, Alexeyev was viewed as more of a player with second-pairing upside, and maybe not a high fantasy ceiling. His confidence with the puck grew in Russia though, and he finished as the second highest scoring defenceman on the team, while playing in every single game and showcasing an excellent two-way game.

The 21-year-old then returned to play in 12 AHL games at the end of the year, putting up nine points, and again showing that his upside may end up being a number-two in the NHL. This all being said, the amount of defencemen that the Capitals have in the way (seven NHL defencemen) may end up pushing Alexeyev to the AHL for the year to continue to marinate.

Connor McMichael – The top prospect in the Capitals' system is likely going to be graduating soon, as he showed that he could thrive at the AHL level last season to the tune of 27 points in 33 games. He could be sent back to the AHL this season, and that may be where he starts the season, barring an injury to a top-nine winger as there just isn't a spot in the top-nine. If anyone was going to force their way onto the Caps roster though, it would be McMichael, who, despite always seeming to have average scouting reports, just finds ways to score in bunches at every level. He's a smart player that gets to all the right areas, and uses an above average shot to finish off a lot of plays. When he finally gets time with the top power play unit, it will be impossible to take him off of that unit again, but that may not be until next year.

Fantasy Outlook:

This team is almost the exact same team as it was last year, and there isn't a lot of room for internal growth. The incumbent top power play unit of Ovechkin, Backstrom, T. J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and John Carlson will continue to score goals almost at will, but as the group ages they won't be able to control the pace of play as well at evens. Their goaltending is solid, and a healthy Ilya Samsonov should solidify the crease despite a little less help in front of him.

Anthony Mantha is a bit of a wildcard, as he cooled off mightily after the adrenaline of his new team wore off. Him and Tom Wilson bring the peripherals on top of completing the scoring threat on the top two lines. These two won't quite hit the same point totals as the other four in the top-six, but they will add more hits and shots than your average 60-point guy. The problem is that between Mantha's injuries and Wilson's proneness to suspensions, neither can be relied upon to play more than 65 games.

Carlson should continue to be a 65- to 70-point defenceman, and be a top-10 defenceman in fantasy drafts. Should he miss time, Justin Schultz would see a big bump in production, but otherwise he should surpass 40 points on the second power play unit. That's how it goes with Washington though, the top options are great, but barring injuries, the secondary guys are fringe fantasy players.

Grade – B- (last year was B-)