Caps Under Contract, Restricteds And Unrestricteds

OK, so who's still a Cap? Olie Kolzig? Yes (for now - buyout rumors are everywhere, though I tend to doubt them). Peter Bondra? No. Jason Doig? Maybe. Bobby Carpenter? Hell, he could be. Here's the list from the Caps site.

But here's the list of most of the team's current status. As of right now, the Caps have $7,045,000 committed to salaries for 2005-06 after the 24% rollback (though that number does not include around $150,000 that Darcy Verot's salary will be bumped up in accordance with the new League minimum). And for that money, they have the following players under contract:

Olie Kolzig
Alexander Semin
Boyd Gordon
Darcy Verot

In case you're wondering, that trio of forwards accounted for 11 goals and 19 assists at the NHL level in 2003-04 in 130 games. In 2004-05, Semin had 19 goals, 11 assists in 50 games for Tolyatti Lada (second on the team to Viktor Kozlov); Gordon had 17 and 22 in 80 games for Portland in the AHL (fourth on the team behind Whitfield, Willsie and Mink); and Verot had 1 assist and 189 PIMs in 36 games for Portland.

The team has a healthy number of key restricted free agents, including:

Josef Boumedienne
Jason Doig
Jared Aulin
Steve Eminger
Jeff Halpern
Stephen Peat
Matt Pettinger
Brian Sutherby
Trent Whitfield
Brian Willsie
Brendan Witt
Dainius Zubrus

Finally, the following are unrestricted free agents, most of whom have probably played their last game in a Capitals (and, for some, NHL) sweater:

Bates Battaglia
Jean-Luc Grand Pierre
Craig Johnson
Kip Miller
Brad Norton
John Gruden
Sebastien Charpentier
Matthew Yeats

These lists obviously do not include Ovechkin or many minor leaguers (Ouellet, Fehr, Morrisonn, Laich, etc.), but it's plain to see that GM George McPhee will have his work cut out for him, starting this weekend.