Colorado Avalanche: Top Five Potential Unrestricted Free Agents for Team to Consider
By Ross Sellers
T.J. Oshie
The Washington Capitals are going to have some cap problems with a couple different free agents this summer.
They made a trade for Kevin Shattenkirk at the deadline, and they are unlikely to be able to maintain his services.
T.J. Oshie is also set to become an unrestricted free agent (UFA) this summer, and the Caps are unlikely to be able to hold onto him either.
The Capitals currently have $748,710 in cap space right, according to CapFriendly. They also have 11 players on their current roster who have expiring contracts this summer.
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Those players include T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Karl Alzner, Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Orlov.
That list makes up a bunch of the Capitals’ current top-end talent. And, they need to re-sign names like Kuznetsov, Burakovsky, Alzner, Schmidt and Orlov before they worry about signing any of their other big names.
After they sign those names, they won’t be able to hold onto T.J. Oshie. He will be looking for a raise beyond his current cap hit of 4.175 million, and Oshie will get it on the open market.
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That’s where the Avs come in. Instead of spending 5.3 million on an aging veteran like Jarome Iginla, they would be smart to direct that money to a player like Oshie.
However, Oshie will also be looking for term on top of that money, so the Avs need to be careful. He is still only 30 years old, but the Avs would be making a poor decision to sign him longer than three years.
Oshie would certainly be a great addition on the second line, but only at the right price and with the right term.