Capitals, Ristolainen, Ruff, Gibson, Summer Regrets, Kraken, Wild, Predictions, Fedotov

Topics in this edition of the mailbag include what might be next for Washington, Lindy Ruff’s future in New Jersey, some summer moves that teams might want a mulligan on, and more.  If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in last weekend’s column.

2012orioles: Will the Capitals do anything with their LTIR money?

KRB: Only 22.5% of teams outside of a playoff position at American Thanksgiving make the playoffs. Washington may be outside looking in at that cut-off date, Peter Laviolette’s contract expires at the end of this season, and only Carlson is signed of their D corps, beyond this year. Are the Caps sellers at the deadline? Too early to speculate?

As we did with the Los Angeles questions last week, let’s combine the Washington ones.

I fully expect Washington will use their LTIR money, it just might not be the way you think.  For starters, they’ve already used some on claiming Nicolas Aube-Kubel from Toronto.  The rest is going to depend on Nicklas Backstrom.  If he’s able to return later this season (he skated today which is certainly promising), they’re going to need what’s left of Connor Brown’s LTIR money to try to get cap-compliant to be able to activate him.  (They’ll have to get a bit creative to free up the rest of the room from there.)  But if Backstrom can’t return in-season, then yes, they’ll be able to go out and add another piece.  LTIR space doesn’t bank like regular cap space does so in theory, they could do something sooner than later but knowing the uncertainty with Backstrom, I suspect they’ll wait for a little while until they have a firmer understanding of when he might be able to come back.

I have a hard time thinking Washington is going to be sellers unless things really go off the rails and they have no choice but to move some expirings at the deadline.  And even in that scenario, it’d be a one-year sell with an eye on getting back into the mix in 2023-24.

As bad as the early season has gone, they’re just three points out of a playoff spot heading into today’s games.  Tom Wilson is going to be back before too long and that will be a significant boost to an injury-depleted forward group so there’s a bit of room for optimism on the horizon.

There was speculation last month that Laviolette would be the next coach to sign an extension.  Perhaps the sluggish start gives GM Brian MacLellan pause but I don’t think Laviolette’s contract situation is going to play much of a…