The final contract question of the Capitals’ offseason was answered today, when an arbitrator awarded Shaone Morrisonn a one-year, $1.975 million dollar contract. The deal itself is more than fair for both Morrisonn and the Capitals, but it does create a salary cap crunch for the team.

Assuming the Capitals retain this roster, with the exceptions of sending Quintin Laing to Hershey, Brian Pothier being on long-term injured reserve, and keeping Karl Alzner with the club, the team’s salary cap situation breaks down as follows:

Forwards: $37,510,962
Defensemen: $14,582,639
Goaltenders: $5,312,500
Buyouts: $250,000

Total: $57,656,101
Salary Cap: $56,700,000

…putting the Capitals $956,101 over the cap.

There are several contracts that could be second-guessed here: Fedorov at four million, Brashear at 1.2 million, and Erskine at all are the ones that stand out the most. But there’s no use worrying about what’s already done. So what are the Capitals’ options moving forward? The answer to that question depends largely on the development of Karl Alzner and the health of Chris Clark. With that in mind, here are several possible salary cap scenarios:

Scenario #1
Key Points: Karl Alzner isn’t ready to play regular NHL minutes come October.
Transactions: Alzner is sent to Hershey.
Salary Cap Implications: Alzner’s $1,675,000 cap hit doesn’t count towards the Capitals while he’s in Hershey, bringing the overall cap number down to $55,981,101, giving the team $718,899 in cap space to start the season. Of course, if the team decides to call up Alzner at a later date part of his cap number will count for 2008-09. But that’s a situation the team deals with when it occurs.
Positives: The team gets under the salary cap without having to move anyone.
Negatives: The Caps’ defense would probably be better off if Alzner is ready to step into the lineup for John Erskine.

Scenario #2
Key Points: Chris Clark isn’t healthy enough to start the season
Transactions: Clark is placed on long-term injury reserve.
Salary Cap Implications: The Capitals would get cap relief from Clark’s $2,633,333 putting them at $55,022,678, $1,110,566 under the cap.
Positives: The team gets under the salary cap without having to move anyone.
Negatives: The team would miss Clark’s leadership, as well as his grinding style of play and secondary scoring skill. Uncertainty about how close Clark might be to coming back would make it difficult to acquire a backup, since Clark’s salary counts at a pro-rated amount once he starts playing.

Scenario #3
Key Points: Alzner is not NHL-ready and Chris Clark is hurt to start the season.
Transactions: Alzner is sent to Hershey and Clark goes on the long-term injury list.
Salary Cap Implications: The team starts out with $4,308,333 in cap relief, giving them $3,352,232 in cap space.
Positives: No one has to be moved and the cap space is enough to acquire a decent player.
Negatives: The team doesn’t start the season as strong as they look like they might. The unsure nature of when Alzner would be ready and Clark’s injury means it’s not obvious how much is available to spend on replacements.

Scenario #4
Key Points: Alzner is NHL-ready and Clark is fully recovered, but the team wants to keep all its players.
Transactions: Alzner is sent to Hershey.
Salary Cap Implications: Same as the first scenario: the team’s cap number goes to $55,981,101 giving them $718,899 in cap space.
Positives: The team gets its salary cap relief and keeps its depth.
Negatives: If Alzner is good enough to play a regular shift in the NHL the team will be weakening itself by not playing him instead of John Erskine.

Scenario #5
Key Points: Alzner is NHL-ready and Clark is fully recovered, and the team wants to keep Alzner in the NHL.
Transactions: There would be a number of options in this case but the most likely (and probably best) moves would be for the team to either trade, waive, or demote both John Erskine and Tomas Fleischmann.
Salary Cap Implications: Erskine’s $537,500 and Fleischmann’s $725,000 come off the books, netting the Capitals $1,262,500 in savings, putting them at $56,393,601, which would be $306,399 under the cap.
Positives: Provided everyone is healthy this scenario gives the Capitals the best twenty-man on-the-ice lineup. Erskine is a borderline NHLer and Fleischmann is behind Clark, Alexander Semin (if he plays on the right), Eric Fehr, Matt Bradley on the depth chart. Boyd Gordon and Brooks Laich are both better options capable of playing on the right side as well.
Negatives: Losing Erskine and Fleischmann would hurt the team’s depth. It’s unlikely the Capitals would get much in return for either player but it’s unlikely Fleischmann would clear waivers as well. Some in the organization think Fleischmann is poised for a breakout season so it may hurt to lose him in the long run.

Of course there are other possible scenarios; someone could get hurt in training camp or someone else could be traded. But these five are probably the most likely.

According to Tarik, Eric Fehr has accepted the qualifying offer extended to him by the Capitals.

Don’t quote me on it, but my understanding of the restricted free agent/qualifying offer situation is that Fehr was in the range where a qualifying offer consists of a ten percent raise, in Fehr’s case a salary increase from $800,000 to $880,000 (assuming the figures given by Sporstnet.ca are correct). UPDATE: Tarik is now reporting that Fehr’s contract is worth $735,000; all the figure here have been changed to reflect that.

If that’s the case, and the numbers on nhlnumbers.com are accurate, the Capitals have about $330,000 $475,000 in cap space counting Brian Pothier salary about $2.83 $2.98 million in cap space excluding Pothier’s salary. Is $2.83 $2.98 million enough to get both Shaone Morrisonn and Boyd Gordon (who George McPhee says is close to signing) under contract? Or will an expendable part, perhaps John Erskine, Tomas Fleischmann or Fehr have to be moved before opening night? The answer to that question likely rides on the result of Morrisonn’s arbitration hearing.

Suddenly July 24th has become the most important date for Caps fans for the rest of the summer.

A pair of Caps signings were announced today: Brooks Laich has signed a three-year contract worth $2.067 million per year and Sergei Fedorov has signed a one-year, $4 million dollar deal.

While each signing makes sense in terms of the fairness of the dollar value, the additional 6.067 million dollars in salary cap space puts Washington in a salary cap crunch situation: according to nhlnumbers.com, the Capitals are now just $1.18 million below next season’s $56.7 million cap - and Shaone Morrisonn, Eric Fehr and Boyd Gordon are all without contracts for the 2008-09 season.

Obviously there’s no way Morrisonn, Fehr and Gordon will all fit under the salary cap given the team’s current salary structure. In fact, as is it’d be unrealistic to expect to even get Morrisonn alone re-signed without exceeding the cap.

The wild card in this situation is Brian Pothier, who is still recovering from a serious concussion suffered as the result of a body check by Boston’s Milan Lucic. According to George McPhee, Pothier is expected to start new season on the long-term injury reserve list, which would prevent his salary from counting against the salary cap as long as he was physically unable to play. If Pothier is unable to play at all next season the team will find itself with an additional $2.5 million in salary cap space. Under these circumstances, the Capitals would have approximately $3.7 million in cap space to devote towards signing their remaining restricted free agents. Even then it may still be a tight squeeze for the team. Just how close a squeeze depends on what kind of contract Morrisonn ends up signing or being awarded, should he wind up going to arbitration.

What makes the most sense for the Capitals to do at this point is to make an effort to get Morrisonn under contract for $2 million or less, which would probably still afford the team enough cap space to re-sign both Gordon and Fehr. Should they be unable to come to an agreement with Morrisonn, the team would be best served to take a “wait and see” approach and wait until Morrisonn’s July 24th arbitration hearing, determine what impact his salary for next season has on their plans and move forward from that point.

If Morrisonn’s arbitration decision makes it infeasible to re-sign both former first round draft picks, it is most likely Boyd Gordon will be the odd man out. The signing of Fedorov means that the Capitals already have three top-flight centers (Nicklas Backstrom and Michael Nylander being the others). That, plus the fact that the Capitals have a effective checking line center and penalty killer already under contract for next season in David Steckel, suggest Gordon would struggle to find much playing time on the team. Additionally Fehr is two years younger, has more offensive upside, is a more physical presence and plays what is arguably the forward position with the least depth for the Capitals.

Should the team still find itself in salary cap trouble if Gordon is dropped, or if McPhee and his staff decide they want to keep both Gordon and Fehr, it is possible a veteran could be waived or bought out to free up space, with John Erskine being the player most likely to be deemed expendable. It is also possible the Capitals could become involved in the trade market, but most of the Caps young talent is going to be off limits and most of the team’s veterans are worth more than what they would bring in via a trade. Thus if any trade were going to occur, it would likely be of the rights to either Fehr or Gordon.

Two news items of interest to Capitals fans broke yesterday, one good and one not so good.

The good news is that in all likelihood both Brooks Laich and Shaone Morrisonn will be back with the Capitals next season:

Tarik El-Bashir just reported that Brooks Laich and Shaone Morrisonn have filed for arbitration. While the arbitration process (pronounced “pro-cess,” of course, for the Canadians out there) includes evidentiary submissions of an often-contentious nature, this comes as welcome news.

By filing, Brooks and Shaone are no longer eligible to sign offer sheets from any other team. So we no longer have to worry about another general manager throwing the Capitals’ whole salary structure out of balance, signing up a fine player like Brooks to a Dustin Penner-style offer sheet, and forcing management to make a painful decision.

While neither Laich nor Morrisonn is likely to steal the show on a team like the Capitals, each brings more to the table that their respective hockey skill: Laich for his ability to play any of the three forward positions and to play in any role and Morrisonn is the anchor that lets Mike Green be the dynamic offensive force he’s capable of being.

In other news, Matt Cooke has signed a two-year, $2.4 million contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins, essentially to serve as a replacement for Jarkko Ruutu. While it has been taken as a given that Cooke would be playing his 2008-09 hockey elsewhere ever since Matt Bradley signed an extension with the Capitals, it’s worth nothing that Cooke will only be making $100,000 more than Bradley next season. Given that Cooke is probably a better penalty killer and has more offensive upside, would it have made more sense for the Capitals to dish out the extra cash and keep him instead of Bradley? Or does Bradley’s physical presence making him the better signing?

Around the (Inter)net

Rumor has it that John Tortorella is being considered to coach the United States in the next Olympics, an idea that will probably work out almost as well as having Don Waddell as general manager did in Torino…Shaone Morrisonn will play tonight…The odds on what team Peter Forsberg will return to (originally linked to from Kukkla’s Korner)…Brian Sutherby’s now 22 games into his Anaheim Ducks tenure and still without a point. That second round draft pick is looking pretty good right now, isn’t it?…James Mirtle tracks how well each team would have to perform to make it to 95 points and all but ensure a playoff birth (The Capitals would have to go 18-11-1; the team is 19-8-4 since Bruce Boudreau took over)…Speaking of Boudreau, here’s some love for him from the Rocky Mountain News…On Frozen Blog takes a look at media coverage a little closer to home.