The Capitals could be finished with winger Alexander Semin, an unrestricted free agent whose agent this week made it clear his client isn’t happy with how the team deployed him this season. No surprise that Semin felt constricted in former coach Dale Hunter’s conservative system. But a lot of his teammates seem fine with it, and Washington is unlikely to hire a new coach who thinks otherwise.
Caps general manager George McPhee could make use of Semin’s $6.7 million salary and add other pieces to help. In fact, he has a potential top-six replacement in the organization already with Evgeny Kuznetsov, a Russian phenom who turns 20 on Saturday and was ranked as the world’s top prospect by the Hockey News this spring. One problem: Kuznetsov, the team’s first-round draft pick in 2010, isn’t coming over. He’s decided to stay in Russia and play in the KHL for at least one more year and maybe two — though nothing has been signed yet, apparently.
McPhee has expressed concerns in the past about bad habits players can develop playing in the KHL. The reluctance here could also be from internal pressure on Kuznetsov to stick around for a better chance to make the Russian Olympic team when it hosts the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
“We’ve talked to the agent. It doesn’t appear that [Kuznetsov is] going to make it over for next season,” McPhee said. “He’s a young guy. He’s only 20 years old so we understand why he might not want to leave yet. But at some point he’ll want to come to this league. It’s the best league in the world. He’s a heck of a player so when he’s ready to come we’ll be ready for him.”
– Brian McNally
