Capitals re-sign Marcus Johansson for one year, $3.75M
All day we waited to find out how much Marcus Johansson would make in his new contract. We waited, and waited to hear how an arbitrator ruled off a Wednesday hearing
Instead, we found late Friday the Washington Capitals re-signed the forward to a one-year $3.75 million contract. Such would be a per-year raise for the forward, who made $4 million over two years in his last contract.
The 2009 first-round pick was a restricted free agent. Last season he had 47 points in 82 games.
Is $3.75 million too much? Is this too little. As Japers’ Rink showed a couple of days ago, he’s a second-line forward. He scored 20 goals last season. And let’s face it, this is second-line money.
The first thing to note is that Johansson has scored goals at 5-on-5 like a second-line forward over the course of his career. While Johansson has seemed overly deferential offensively when playing with Ovechkin and Backstrom, he’s been effective away from them.
In the grand scheme of things, a second-line forward scoring 20 goals is pretty normal.
Johansson filed for $4 million in his arbitration ask, while the Capitals went for $3 million. So this number is obviously closer to Washington’s. In his last three full seasons, Johansson has notched 44 points or higher.
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Said the Washington Post:
Nearing his 25th birthday, which will come around the start of his sixth NHL season, Johansson enjoyed a career offensive campaign under Coach Barry Trotz, notching 20 goals in 82 games, including 17 at even strength, and posting a 53.1 percent even-strength shot attempt differential, by far the best of his tenure with the Capitals. For comparison, Johansson recorded only five even-strength goals in 114 games between 2012-13 and 2013-14.
Getting goaltender Braden Holtby ($6.1 million per-year over five years) and Johansson under contract for under $10 million total seems like a steal for general manager Brian McLellan, who has locked up his players to pretty reasonable contracts this offseason. Earlier in the offseason, the Caps re-signed Evgeny Kuznetsov for two years at $6 million.
Throw in Justin Williams’ UFA two-year $6.5 million deal and it has been a solid summer for McLellan, who also traded for T.J. (SO)shie.
Per General Fanager, the Caps have $469,041 of salary cap space. But that’s with three goalies on their roster. Put one in the American Hockey League and that drops significantly. This seems like a very well put together roster going into 2015-16.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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