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Tag: Matt Niskanen

  • NHL Trade News – Capitals Trade Niskanen to Philadelphia for Gudas

    NHL Trade News – Capitals Trade Niskanen to Philadelphia for Gudas

    Today in NHL news the Washington Capitals have traded veteran defenseman Matt Niskanen to the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Radko Gudas.

    This trade comes at a time where the Capitals are looking to shed some salary going into the offseason so they can re-sign players and take a look at who they may have interest in going into July 1st with free agency opening up.

     

    For the Capitals they send Niskanen to Philadelphia with two years left on his contract with an AAV of $5.75 million, and in return receive Gudas who has one year left on his deal with an AAV of $3.35 million, but as part of the trade the Flyers retain 30% of his salary which would shed $1.005 million from his cap hit helping the Capitals clear $3.405 million in cap space with this trade.

     

    Now looking at this trade in-depth a little bit more outside of contracts and salary cap space, we take a look at what both players bring to the table for their new respective teams starting off with Matt Niskanen going to the Flyers.

     

    Now with Niskanen going to the Flyers, he will add a veteran presence on the blue line that will help elevate their very young core that features Shayne Gostisbehere, Robert Hagg, Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, and Sam Morin, all of which are players born no earlier than 1993 (Average age is 24 years old amongst the five defensemen). Niskanen having won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with the Capitals will bring valued knowledge and experience to the Flyers dressing room as well, and will be used to help mentor the young defense on how to handle those high pressure situations. So for the Flyers, getting a skilled veteran defenseman who has a Cup is very valuable to this young team. Plus as Niskanen admitted in his conference call today, he may not be a number one defenseman anymore, but he sees himself as a really good support piece for the Flyers, and that he can still play top four minutes.

     

    Now for the Washington Capitals and the addition of Radko Gudas, they are picking up a solid defensive defenseman that was single handedly the Flyers best defenseman all season long. With Gudas you’re going to get a lot of grit and a lot of hits. Some of which has landed Gudas in trouble with NHL Player Safety, but overall Gudas will be a really good fit for the Capitals. Having just turned 29 on June 5th, Gudas is younger than Niskanen, 32 turning 33 in December, and can step in and play those top four minutes that Niskanen was playing for the Capitals. Also with the pending departure/retirement of veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik, it is more logical to see Gudas taking Orpik’s place in the lineup over Niskanen’s which some could say was taken care of with the Nick Jensen trade and signing right before the trade deadline.

     

    So if we look at the Capitals defensive pairings, this is what they looked like before Michal Kempny’s leg injury:

     

    John Carlson – Michal Kempney

    Dmitry Orlov – Matt Niskanen

    Brooks Orpik – Nick Jensen

     

    With Jonas Siegenthaler and Christian Djoss as spare defensemen, we would see Djoos fall out of favor during the playoffs and Siegenthaler rise during the regular season and again during the 3 games he played in the playoffs. Now with that said, here is what we could see next season for the Capitals defense pairings:

     

    John Carlson – Michal Kempny

    Radko Gudas – Dmitri Orlov

    Nick Jensen – Jonas Siegenthaler

    Christian Djoos

     

    Djoos in my opinion would start the season as the seventh defenseman with Siegenthaler starting the season on the third pairing with Jensen. Now with that said I could easily see Gudas and Jensen flipping spots in the lineup pending on who they are playing or how one of them is performing over the other. Plus we have to put into factor about Kempny and how he will be once he returns from his leg injury, so that will play a factor into things as well. Also Gudas is a guy who we can put onto our penalty killing unit in Orpik’s place given how he plays with that same style as Orpik, and know that he can be relied on in that aspect of the game.

     

    Overall when I look at this trade that swaps Niskanen with Gudas, it makes a lot of sense in several aspects both on and off the ice. The Capitals get some cap space relief, while also getting a solid defensive defensman in Gudas, and at the same time the Flyers get a Stanley cup champion who can help elevate their young defensive core and take them to the next level. So overall a solid trade for both teams.

     

    And lastly to end this piece, the Capitals said it best on Twitter today:

     

  • Game Recap – 2/7/2019 – Colorado Avalanche v. Washington Capitals

    Game Recap – 2/7/2019 – Colorado Avalanche v. Washington Capitals

    Colorado Avalanche (22-22-8 52pts) v. Washington Capitals (29-18-6 64pts)

     

    Game Recap:

    The Washington Capitals would have a slightly shaky start as the Colorado Avalanche would force Pheonix Copley to make some big saves early, but it would be the Capitals who would get the first goal of the game as TJ Oshie would throw the puck to the net and Andre Burakovsky would tip it in for his seventh of the season. The Capitals would get their first powerplay opportunity when Mikko Rantanen would be called for tripping, and it would look like Nicklas Backstrom would have scored on the power play to get a two goal lead, but the referee would call it no goal as he had already blew the whistle. To end the period the Capitals would be on the penalty kill when Devante Smith-Pelly would be called for high sticking.

     

    To open the second period the Capitals would finish off the penalty kill, but it would be Nathan MacKinnon scoring 35 seconds into the period to tie the game at one. The Capitals would challenge offsides, but would lose the coach’s challenge, which was the right decision as the play was onside, resulting in a delay of game penalty that the Capitals would kill off as well. The Capitals would get another power play opportunity when Ian Cole would be called for tripping Travis Boyd, and this time the Capitals would make it count when Evgeny Kuznetsov would knock it a loose puck in the crease to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead. The Avalanche would not do themselves any favors though as Nikita Zadorov would be called for interference and then after they killed that penalty, MacKinnon would be called for tripping, but the Avalanche would kill off that penalty too.

     

    The Capitals would kick start the third period with a Matt Niskanen goal when he would blast a Jakub Vrana rebound on net, and it would have gone over the net if it were not for hitting Semyon Varlamov’s blocker and dipping into the net. The Capitals would get another power play opportunity when Gabriel Landeskog would be called for holding, but once again the Avalanche would kill the penalty and Landeskog would put in hard work down low to to feed Mikko Rantanen to get the Avalanche within one of the Capitals. Then the fireworks would explode as an unnecessary hit from Ian Cole to Kuznetsov would bring in Tom Wilson as the two would scrap forcing themselves out of the game. However, the Capitals would get a three minute powerplay out of all this.

    After the Avalanche killed the three minute powerplay for the Capitals, a horrible play by Lars Eller on an odd man rush would turn the puck over to the Avalanche as Colin Wilson would score a goal Pheonix Copley would love to have back to tie the game and force overtime.

     

    Overtime would be fast paced and almost looked like it was going to go to the shootout, but it would be Alex Ovechkin feeding Evgeny Kuznetsov with the breakaway pass to score the game winner and continue the Capitals new winning ways.

     

    Lineups:

    Colorado Avalanche:

    Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen

    Matt Nieto — Carl Soderberg — Matt Calvert

    Alexander Kerfoot — J.T. Compher — Colin Wilson

    Sven Andrighetto — Sheldon Dries — A.J. Greer

    Ian Cole — Erik Johnson

    Nikita Zadorov — Tyson Barrie

    Patrik Nemeth — Samuel Girard

    Semyon Varlamov

    Philipp Grubauer

    Scratched: Anton Lindholm, Gabriel Bourque

    Injured: Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder), Mark Barberio (head)

     

    Washington Capitals:

    Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie

    Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson

    Andre Burakovsky — Lars Eller — Brett Connolly

    Chandler Stephenson – Travis Boyd — Devante Smith-Pelly

    Michal Kempny — John Carlson

    Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen

    Brooks Orpik — Madison Bowey

    Pheonix Copley

    Braden Holtby

    Scratched: Nic Dowd, Dmitrij Jaskin, Jonas Siegenthaler

    Injured: Christian Djoos (thigh)

     

    First Period:

    Capitals Goal – 6:31 – Andre Burakovsky (7) from TJ Oshie (15) and Matt Niskanen (13)

    Avalanche Penalty – 13:40 – Mikko Rantanen 2 minutes for Tripping

    Capitals Penalty – 18:14 – Devante Smith-Pelly 2 minutes for High Sticking

     

    End of 1st – COL – 0       WAS – 1

    Shots              09                12

    Faceoffs         11                07

    Hits               07                  13

    PP                 0/1                 0/1

     

    Second Period:

    Avalanche Goal – :35 – Nathan MacKinnon (28) from Tyson Barrie (34) and Gabriel Landeskog (26)

    Capitals Penalty – :35 – Bench (Ovechkin) 2 minutes for Delay of Game (Failed Coach’s Challenge)

    Avalanche Penalty – 7:06 – Ian Cole 2 minutes for Tipping

    Capitals PPG – 8:38 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (11) from Alex Ovechkin (22) and John Carlson (41)

    Avalanche Penalty – 13:27 – Nikita Zadorov 2 minutes for Interference

    Avalanche Penalty – 16:31 – Nathan MacKinnon 2 minutes for Tripping

     

    End of 2nd – COL – 1        WAS – 2

    Shots               25                 27

    Faceoffs          20                 18

    Hits                 10                  24

    PP                   0/2                  1/4

     

    Third Period:

    Capitals Goal – :34 – Matt Niskanen (8) from Jakub Vrana (16) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (36)

    Avalanche Penalty – 2:40 – Gabriel Landeskog 2 minutes for Hooking

    Avalanche Goal – 5:10 – Mikko Rantanen (24) from Gabriel Landeskog (27)

    Avalanche Penalty – 11:18 – Ian Cole 5 minute major for Fighting

    Capitals Penalty – 11:18 – Tom Wilson 5 minute major for Fighting

    Avalanche Penalty – 11:18 – Ian Cole 5 minute major for Interference

    Avalanche Penalty – 11:18 – Ian Cole Game Misconduct

    Capitals Penalty – 11:18 – Tom Wilson 2 minutes for Instigating

    Capitals Penalty – 11:18 – Tom Wilson 10 minute Misconduct

    Avalanche Goal – 17:53 – Colin Wilson (10) from Matt Calvert (12)

     

    End of 3rd – COL – 3         WAS – 3

    Shots              35                   39

    Faceoffs        27                    26

    Hits               18                     31

    PP                 0/2                    1/6

     

    OT:

    Capitals Goal – 4:12 – Evgeny Kuznetsov (12) from Alex Ovechkin (23)

     

    End of OT – COL – 3         WAS – 4

    Shots              37                   42

    Faceoffs        27                    27

    Hits               18                     33

    PP                 0/2                    1/6

     

    Next Up:

    Washington (30-18-6 66pts) v. Florida (22-22-8 52pts)

    Colorado (22-22-9 53pts) @ NY Islanders (31-16-6 68pts)