Boyd Gordon Signed; Another Look At How the 2010-2011 Caps Roster is Shaping Up

Yesterday, the Capitals signed 26 year old, RFA Center Boyd Gordon to a one yar, $800,000 contract. With the signing the Capitals now have a projected roster with 23 players, 13 Forwards, 7 Defensemen, and 3 Goaltenders that has a projected hit against the salary cap of $50.1M Million. That leaves them $9.1 M of space against the Salary Cap of $59.4M for the 2010-2011 season. Right now here's what the Capitals Roster looks like (Cap Hits in parentheses, "deep backups" not on the Cap Hit Roster but part of the 50 contract max) this:

Forwards ($34.05M):

A. Ovechkin ($9M) - N. Backstrom ($6.7M) - M. Knuble ($2.8M)

A. Semin ($6M) - M. Perrault ($0.745M) - B. Laich ($2.1M)

J. Chimera ($1.88M) - D. Steckel ($1.1M) - M. Bradley ($1M)

K. Aucouin (0.512M) - B. Gordon (0.8M) - S. Pinizzotto (0.538M)

- Backup: T. Bruess ($0.875M), Deep Backup: M. Johansson ($0.9M)

Defensemen ($14.12M):

M. Green ($5.25M) - K. Alzner ($1.68M)

T. Poti ($3.5M) - J. Carlson ($0.816M)

J. Erskine ($1.25M) - T. Sloan ($0.700M)

Backup: J. Finley ($0.850M); Deep Backup: J. Godfrey ($0.846M)

Goaltenders ($2.368M):

S. Varlamov ($0.865M)

M. Neuvirth ($0.865M)

Backup: B. Holtby ($0.638M), Deep Backup: D. Sabourin ($0.525M).

That's a total hit against the salary cap of approximately $50.1M for a 23 man roster (the "deep backups" aren't counted against the cap or the 23 man limit as this analysis pre-supposes they will reside in the Locker Room in Hershey. I just included them to list who the Capitals have under contract for next year at this point that would be available if necessary. Of course this list doesn't let include the 5 RFAs who have been tendered qualifying offers that remain unsigned (Zach Miskovic, Jay Beagle, Andrew Gordon, Chris Bourque, and Patrick McNeill) or the three RFAs who have filed for Arbitration (Eric Fehr, Tomas Fleischmann, and Jeff Schultz). Assuming the Capitals end up with all eight (8) unsigned RFAs under contract, they'll liklely still have some space available under the Cap with which they might find a second line center if they need one, either now or before the trade deadline. However, any significant additions to the Blue Line Corps and/or the Goaltending situation would likely require at least some re-engineering to the lineup that affects the forwards. To be sure the signings of the RFAs will result in the movement of folks around, especially on the lower half of the depth chart.

All of the above said, you can see just how deep the Capitals organization is by looking at this roster which has NONE of those eight RFAs in the line-up. Even without any of the current RFAs you have a lineup which features a mature and seasoned group of young guns that includes a two time Hart Trophy Winner/three time finalist and a two-time Norris Trophy finalist, another guy who scored 100+ points last season, and a fourth guy with 30+ goals, not to mention two other 20+ goal scorers, and an already accomplished young goaltender. My point being is that even if they only end up keeping four of the eight RFAs after they resign them, this team is still going to be loaded with talent.

Is it September yet?

LETS GO CAPS!!!