Quote:
Originally Posted by lBATEMANl
I'm interested in how the Capitals did during your save. How'd Braden Holtby, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jakub Vrana, and John Carlson do especially?
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WASHINGTON CAPITALS
The Washington Capitals have never won a Stanley Cup and throughout their history have been one of the least successful franchises. Washington joined the league in 1974 and suffered through a dismal 11-63-6 inagural season with a bunch of castoffs from other teams including goaltenders Wayne Thomas and Gilles Gilbert along with skaters Gerry Monahan, Craig Cameron, JC Tremblay and Rejean Houle.
Players would come and go over the next decade but the Caps would miss the playoffs every year. Rock bottom was an 11-62-7 seasons in 1981-82 but they followed that up with a 30 win season and snuck into the playoffs for the first time in 1982-83. The leaders on that team were Ryan Walter, Rick Green, Robert Picard and goaltender Jim Bedard along with an 18 year old rookie defenseman by the name of Scott Stevens. Washington's first playoff series would be short-lived as the Caps were knocked off in 4 games by the Islanders in the best of three preliminary round series.
Despite Stevens emergence as a leader on the blueline Washington would not make the playoffs again until 1988-89. The would win their first playoff series, beating Philadelphia 4 games to one in the opening round before succumbing to Pittsburgh in 5 games in the next round.
They would miss the playoffs the next two years but the addition of of Peter Bondra (416 career goals in 1211 games with the Caps), who scored 42 goals, led the Caps back to the post-season in 1991-92. Young goaltender Olaf Kolzig was coming into his own as a starter at this time but his play was not enough to prevent the Caps from being swept in the opening round of the playoffs that year.
Washington would miss the playoffs the next 3 seasons but begin a run of three straight playoff appearances starting in 1996-97. Stevens was dealt to Vancouver for Mike Peca as the playoff streak began and Sergei Gonchar would replace him as their top blueliner. Bondra continued to lead the team offensively with Jason Allison taking on a bigger role but the the Caps could not advance past the first round of the playoffs in any of those seasons.
In 1998 the Caps dealt Peca to Colorado in a deal that brought Ron Tugnutt to Washington. Despite being 31 when he was acquired Tugnutt would spend a decade in the Caps net and lead them to their best post-season performance in team history...but that was nine years later.
Tugnutt's first 7 years in Washington saw the Caps miss the playoffs each season. Gonchar continued to be their top player until the arrival of Alex Ovechkin in 2004-05. Ovechkin would score 24 goals in 61 games as a rookie and follow that up with 3 straight 40-goal seasons despite having very little in the way of a supporting cast. Ovechkin would play 1205 career games, all with the Caps, and finish with 457 goals and 918 points.
In 2007-08 the Caps made their deepest playoff run in franchise history as Nik Backstrom and Tugnutt carried them past Washington in 5 games and Pittsburgh in 6 to reach the conference final. Washington's dreams would be crushed in 4 straight games by the eventual Cup champion Montreal Canadiens. The 20 year old Backstrom led the team with 15 points in their 15 playoff games while Miroslav Satan had 12, Gonchar 11 and Ovechkin had 10 points.
However, instead of lifting the Capitals to higher things the club went into another funk - missing the playoffs altogether for the next 6 years.
It was 2014-15 before the Caps rached the post-season again. Ovechkin and Backstrom were still the offensive leaders but a newcomer emerged as their number one goaltender. Braden Holtby joined the Caps as 20 year old in 2009-10 and would take the starters job the following season. He would not relinquish that role until his retirement after the 2023-24 season. In all Holtby played 696 regular season games for the Caps, going 337-280-48. Pittsburgh would be Holtby and the Caps nemesis as 3 straight years Holtby led the Caps to the playoffs only to be eliminated by the Penguins on all 3 occassions.
The Caps would make one more playoff appearance with their core group from those three playoff runs, but fell in the conference sem-finals in 2021-22. They only made the post-season 3 more times, falling to the Islanders in the first round in 2024 and again in 2025. Their best run came in the 2032 post-season when the Caps reached the conference finals for the first time in their history, but were beaten in 5 games by Buffalo. That club would be composed entirely of fictional players who entered the game after 2017.
As for their history, well Holtby was the top goaltender in franchise history, winning 337 games and leading the team with 47 career shutouts with number two being Vitek Vanecek, who in real life is a young player with Hershey. Vanecek would take the reigns from Holtby and go on to win 250 games in his career despite being on some bad Washington teams.
Ovechkin was a very good player but never became a superstar- although Filip Forsberg did, winning an Art Ross Trophy with a 100 point season in 2015-16 and finishing as the team's all-time leader in goals and points. Nicklas Backstrom also enjoyed a very productive career.
I talked about Holtby but as for the others you asked about
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EVGENY KUZNETSOV
Played 915 games with the Capitals, his only NHL team, and scored 233 goals and 756 points. His best season was 2020-21 when, at the age of 28, he had 34 goals and 87 points.
JAKUB VRANA
Never made the NHL as he spent his entire 9 year career in Hershey, playing 589 AHL games and recording 315 points. He disappeared after the 2022-23 season at age 26 so I assume he would have gone back to Europe to play after getting sick of life in the minors.
JOHN CARLSON
Had a very productive career, being named a first-team all-star 3 times and winning a Stanley Cup with the Islanders in 2022. The much travelled Carlson played just one season in Washington but it was later in his career. After a decent rookie season in the AHL, Carlson was dealt to Buffalo along with Evgeni Nabokov in exchange for Jaroslav Halak prior to the 2009-10 season. He would split that season between Buffalo and the AHL, appearing in 15 games for the Sabres and scoring his first NHL goal.
In his second season he spent the entire year in the NHL but was dealt from Buffalo to Dallas at the trade deadline for Louie Eriksson. His stop in Dallas was also a year and a half before he was moved again - this time to the Chicago Black Hawks.
Now 22 years old, Carlson would play his best hockey in the Windy City over the next 7 years. In 2012-13 he had 62 points and helped the Hawks reach the Stanley Cup finals. He would also be nominated for the Norris Trophy and be named a first team all-star for the first time.
After seven solid seasons in Chicago he was dealt to Washington in September of 2019. He would play 70 games for the Capitals that season and score 10 goals and 32 points but that would be his only year with the Caps. He signed with the Islanders as a free agent and would help New York win the 2023 Cup.
Carlson would play 1013 NHL games, scoring 164 goals and 675 points. He made the Stanley Cup finals 3 times, winning the Cup once, while recording 77 points in 121 career playoff games.