Well, As I approach the All-Star game, my Washington Capitals team has beaten and clawed it's way to a 26-15-6 start, good for a comfortable 3rd position in the Metropolitan Division.

I have made quite a few moves so far in the season, mostly to address team depth after the changes that took place in the offseason. (see last post for offseason transactions).

Players like Kenneth Peluso, and Jan Satan are my most recent ones (the Pikkarainen deal mentioned earlier was a week 2 move). I have been hesitant to do too much and sacrafice my top prospects. A few guys like Andrei Ovechkin and Jarrod Conner are getting looks to see if they have a future with the team or not in replacement roles as well.

Currently my organizational depth chart looks as follows:

Washington Capitals (Shot=Overall)
#	CENTERS	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
47	Boris Glebov (SNP)	28	6'2"	205 lbs	85	Belarus
75	Eugene Bylsma (TWF)	22	6'1"	198 lbs	84	USA
95	Ruslan Kapitanov (TWF)	28	6'4"	225 lbs	82	Russia
82	Orlando Sipotz (PWF)	23	6'6"	250 lbs	80	Canada
94	Toby Gelech (SNP)	20	6'4"	211 lbs	79	Canada
88	Andrei Ovechkin (SNP)	23	6'2"	205 lbs	78	Russia
90	Dean Sugihara (TWF)	22	6'2"	211 lbs	75	Canada
52	Jerome Iginla (SNP)	22	6'2"	185 lbs	75	Canada
#	LEFT WINGS	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
18	Bradley Boulerice (SNP)	25	6'2"	205 lbs	87	Canada
92	Reginald Drummond (SNP)	27	6'3"	218 lbs	81	USA
17	Jan Satan (TWF)	27	6'4"	220 lbs	80	Slovakia
58	Tim Fata (GRN)	24	6'4"	222 lbs	80	Canada
57	Kenneth Peluso (PWF)	26	6'1"	226 lbs	79	Canada
#	RIGHT WINGS	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
93	Valentin Zykov (SNP)	28	6'2"	217 lbs	88	Russia
83	Bryant Gudbranson (TWF)	25	6'0"	188 lbs	87	Canada
21	Vic Breen (SNP)	27	6'2"	204 lbs	79	USA
53	Bo Horvat (PWF)	28	6'2"	203 lbs	80	Canada
45	Shawn Forney (PLY)	21	6'1"	203 lbs	77	Canada
#	DEFENSE	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
74	John Carlson (TWD)	34	6'3"	212 lbs	86	USA
4	Oleg Khomutov (TWD)	28	6'4"	212 lbs	85	Estonia
8	Lasse Pikkarainen (TWD)	27	6'1"	192 lbs	85	Finland
2	Alan Aubry (TWD)	27	6'4"	216 lbs	81	USA
3	Lou Hamhuis (TWD)	27	6'4"	212 lbs	80	USA
81	Mikael Ohlund (OFD)	27	6'3"	210 lbs	80	Sweden
44	Phil Baltisberger (TWD)	28	6'1"	216 lbs	80	Switzerland
40	Blake Roach (DFD)	20	6'6"	218 lbs	80	Canada
71	Jarrod Conner (TWD)	23	6'6"	219 lbs	76	Canada
37	Kim Johansson (TWD)	26	6'3"	210 lbs	78	Sweden
#	GOALIES	AGE	HT	WT	SHOT	BIRTH PLACE
34	Kelly Schaeffer (BUT)	23	6'4"	206 lbs	89	USA
31	Robert Renberg (HYB)	26	6'2"	190 lbs	80	Sweden
32	Henrik Backstrom (BUT)	27	6'3"	207 lbs	80	Sweden
30	Lee Dubnyk (BUT)	26	6'4"	206 lbs	77	USA

And while the Depth Chart looks good, the injuries have mounted up, and the evidence in that is found in the Statistics:

Capitals Midseason Stats Stats - 2023-24
Skaters	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	GW	PIM	SOG	SPCT
Bradley Boulerice	47	11	25	36	2	0	16
Reginald Drummond	47	20	13	33	8	1	14
Valentin Zykov	45	12	20	32	4	4	6
Bryant Gudbranson	46	4	26	30	0	1	17
Eugene Bylsma	46	9	19	28	10	4	22
Oleg Khomutov	47	2	22	24	4	0	22
John Carlson	47	5	14	19	7	1	71
Bo Horvat	48	11	8	19	7	3	9
Lou Hamhuis	34	4	12	16	5	0	2
Tim Fata	47	9	7	16	3	0	34
Mikael Ohlund	40	6	9	15	-5	0	8
Boris Glebov	17	7	5	12	5	4	12
Andrei Ovechkin	16	2	8	10	1	0	0
Ruslan Kapitanov	44	3	7	10	2	2	13
Alan Aubry	46	3	7	10	9	1	23
Kenneth Peluso	39	7	2	9	-10	1	14
Jan Satan	35	4	4	8	3	2	11
Lasse Pikkarainen	31	2	6	8	1	1	12
Orlando Sipotz	47	3	5	8	-2	1	32
Vic Breen	18	3	3	6	4	0	2
Goalies	GP	W	L	T	GAA	TOI	SV	SV%	SHO
Kelly Schaeffer	35	20	9	0	2.10			.924	4
Robert Renberg	15	7	6	0	2.26			.919	2

As you can see from those statistics, scoring is down with the loss of top line center Boris Glebov for the majority of the season thus far.

One huge bright side is the performance of Drummond, who was a relative wildcard with only 10 games of NHL experience and 0 points in those games prior to the season. He grew in the offseason and as a 27 year old rookie is having a breakout performance, and has even earned my only spot in the All-Star game this season. If he can keep the production up, he could easily become a permanent 2nd line center, given his size matches perfectly into the team mold.

Another bright spot has been Eugene Bylsma. After spending the offseason debating whether or not to trade the young center, he's emerged as a terrific two-way center like originally planned. He leads the team in faceoff percentage at 55.0% and also in takeaways with 49. While the offense is still coming, it seems as though he's responded to the challenge of the impending NHL arrival of Gelech, who is currently leading the Hershey Bears in scoring.

Downside though, Zykov has taken a massive step back and hasn't meshed as well with Bradley Boulerice as last season. Boulerice has played decently for the most part, but Zykov's production is way down. My other right wing Gudbranson is also struggling to score, even though he's been on a solid shut down line with Bylsma and Drummond. If he keeps dishing to Drummond it won't be a big issue, but if the newcomer stops scoring, Gudbranson's spot could be in jeopardy.

In the AHL my 3 main prospects, Toby Gelech, Blake Roach and Shawn Forney have been doing extremely well. All 3 appear well on their way to be joining the team next season. Roach and Gelech probably should be on the team as it is, but I decided to give them a year of development rather than play them on the 4th line/3rd pairing this year. Both of these 2 appear to be stars in the making for Washington, while Forney has continued to impress in his 3rd AHL season. With the current top 6 right wings struggling, he is eagerly waiting for his chance to play, which could come as soon as the end of the season in the lead-up to the playoffs, pending injuries.

Hope you enjoyed this update. I will likely be playing more games down the stretch run than I have been. Managing the team came first, now that I am happy, playing is in order.

We march on the the Trade Deadline! and then Playoffs!

See you on the Year End Wrap Up!