The Capitals lost their coach Monday, but planning has already begun for the 2012-13 season. Unfortunately for general manager George McPhee, the specter of collective bargaining negotiations between the NHL Players’ Association and league owners leaves him with a limited idea about important matters like the salary-cap number for next year. It is currently at $64.3 million. Does that rise or fall? No one knows. “The labor situation is nothing that I can comment on or want to get involved in,” McPhee said. “I run a hockey department and will let [team president] Dick Patrick and [owner] Ted Leonsis worry about that stuff. … I’m just going to try and make good hockey decisions.”
Easier said than done. The first order of business is deciding what to do with the team’s own unrestricted free agents. Dennis Wideman, Mike Knuble and Jeff Halpern all said they were open to returning.
Alexander Semin, however, seems like a different story. His agent, Mark Gandler, told ESPN.com on Monday that Semin will test the free agent market on July 1 and that it appears unlikely he will return. In previous conversations with Gandler, it was clear that Semin was unhappy with his role — limited ice time overall and almost no time on the penalty kill, where he has excelled in the past. Does that change with Hunter gone?
Goalie Tomas Vokoun, meanwhile, said he will not be back after an unexpected rough season that ended in March thanks to a groin injury.
Knuble and Halpern weren’t thrilled with their roles late in the season, either. Halpern, 36, was a healthy scratch from March 23 until Game 6 of the second round when he was inserted to the lineup for an injured Jay Beagle. Knuble, 39, missed several games in February and was limited to a fourth-line role in the postseason. Both said Monday they want to play another year — whether that’s here is in question.
“It’s kind of going into the summer when you’re a free agent … go about it the same way as far as training, preparing,” Halpern said. “It obviously wasn’t the finish of a season that I personally would have liked. The team was doing well, but as far as for my own personal career and future, you hope that there’s a lot of other opinions out there.”
– Brian McNally
