No team over the last 14 seasons has won the Cup with an average age over 28.3. The Caps were the oldest team in the league during the 2020-21 season (30). The Capitals are already without Backstrom (hip), Tom Wilson (knee), and Carl Hagelin (hip/eye) long-term. Display your spirit with officially licensed Lightning T-shirts and long sleeve tees from the ultimate. Injuries have already been a concern during Training Camp as the team saw TJ Oshie miss the first day of Training Camp due to core surgery over the offseason and injure his shoulder during the Capitals’ fifth preseason game. Shop Tampa Bay Lightning shirts and tees at Fanatics. The team did give roster spots to prospects Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, and Joe Snively, but its unclear if any will have a significant role on the team. Dylan Strome, 25, will get a chance to center the second line with Nicklas Backstrom out. The Capitals replaced its young tandem in net with veterans Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren, which should give the team much more stability in net – a problem in past regular seasons. The Tampa Bay Rowdies were an American professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida, that competed in the original North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1975 to 1984. Ovechkin is more than a decade past it.Īfter getting first-rounded in the playoffs four consecutive years, the Capitals mostly decided against a youth infusion in 2022-23, opting to sign or acquire more veteran players and losing several young prospects in the process: Ilya Samsonov (non-tendered QO), Vitek Vanecek (trade), Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (waivers), and Brett Leason (waivers). All of those players are at least a few years past the traditional peak-performance age. Dowd, Jensen, Johansson, and Kuemper are 32. The average age of an NHL player this season is 27.4.Ĭap Friendly’s full list of NHL roster ages can be seen on their Depth Charts Twitter account here.Īccording to Peter Hassett’s season preview article, how the Capitals manage its veteran-ness could be the biggest factor in how successful the team is this season.Īs I’ve revisited a few times throughout this preview series, the team’s age decay is their biggest risk going into 2022-23. The Tampa Bay Lightning (29.1), Toronto Maple Leafs (29), and Calgary Flames (28.9) round out the top five. CapFriendly Depth Charts October 11, 2022Ĭap Friendly’s research shows that the Capitals and Penguins are the only teams in the NHL with an average age in the thirties. The only team older is the Pittsburgh Penguins (30.3), who, like the Capitals, are married to their superstar core until retirement. In practice, they've been extremely unimpressive in their first couple of games, suspect goaltending or not.The Washington Capitals could potentially have a big season, but if they’re going to raise the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history, they’ll have to slay Father Time (which I’m told is nearly undefeated).Īfter making their Opening Night roster official on Monday, the Caps will enter the 2022-23 season as the second oldest team (30) in the NHL per Cap Friendly. On paper, the Lightning look like a team with enough roster talent to survive digging a few ugly goals out of their own net. It has to be concerning for the Lightning that in the first week of the season, the opposite has happened. The Lightning are not doomed by any stretch of the imagination.īut when injuries force unknown quantities into the crease, it often takes a whole team stepping up to compensate. There is plenty of time for Tampa Bay to find its legs, and any goalie is capable of getting hot - even ones without much of an NHL track record. Getting Vasilevskiy back projects to change the Lightning's fortunes in a significant way, but that's weeks away - and if they keep playing like they have lately, things might be looking grim by then. They probably will, but their ceilings don't seem particularly high, and their floors could even be a touch lower than what we've seen so far. It's possible that Johansson and Tompkins play better in the weeks to come. The team's goaltenders have a cumulative GSAA of -1.8, but even if we take two goals off the Lightning's ledger, they'd still be allowing four per game. While we're dealing with a small sample, getting thoroughly outplayed by teams that are not exactly powerhouses isn't a great look.
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