Should We (The Capitals) Be Concerned That We Signed TJ Oshie For Basically A Decade And He's Not Scoring Anymore?
I feel like the Caps coverage on the site has been lacking lately/for years so figured I’d step in here and be the company man for the job. Let’s get to it.
Back in June, we signed TJ Oshie to an 8-year, $46 million contract. Everybody tried telling us that we shouldn’t want to be locked into TJ Oshie until he’s 39 years old. Everybody tried telling us that he’s never going to have another 30-goal season again and that we’re out of our minds for giving that kind of term out to a 31-year-old who is over valued based on one shootout performance in the Olympics. But if there’s one thing that Washington Capitals management understands, it’s how to manage talent. Just look at that Filip Forsberg trade. Martin Erat was just named to the Czech Republic Olympic team for Pyeongchang. Is Filip Forsberg going to the Olympics? Didn’t think so.
So sure, maybe it was a risk to give TJ Oshie an 8-year deal but it was a risk that we were willing to take. And it looked like that risk was going to pay off when TJ Oshie put up 6 goals in the first month of the season. Brian MacLellan looked like he got a steal with Oshie only coming in at $5.75M AAV. But since November 20th, 2017, TJ Oshie has only scored 1 goal. One singular goal in 65 days and it came against the Arizona Coyotes in an overtime loss. Yikes. That is, how you say, not good.
It’s just a shame. Because I like TJ Oshie. I think he’s a nice enough guy with a rocket for a wife and his kids are cute as could be. But let’s be real with ourselves. The Washington Capitals never have any issue with the regular season. Our biggest issue is that everybody seems to disappear as soon as the playoffs roll around. Ovi will still do his thing but Kuznetsov is going to end up on a milk carton. Carlson is going to get walked on a nightly basis. Holtby is going to fall apart. Tom Wilson is going to spend 48 minutes a night in the penalty box. We signed TJ Oshie because we thought he’d be a guy who we can rely on in the playoffs to produce. But when you score one goal in 21 games and it comes against the Arizona Coyotes, well that’s not exactly doing wonders for my confidence. Maybe he can turn it around in 2022.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. OUR YEAR!