The Washington Capitals signed forward Evgeny Kuznetsov to an eight-year, $62.4 million contract extension, the team announced Sunday. He gets a massive raise to $7.8 million per year through the 2024-25 season.
Capitals sign Evgeny Kuznetsov to 8-year, $62.4 million contract extension
That’s a massive $7.8 million per year for the Capitals center.
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
The deal includes a modified no-trade clause in the final six years, per The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan.
Right after it went down, the Capitals also traded forward Marcus Johansson to the Devils for a pair of draft picks. Johansson had two years at a $4.583 million cap hit remaining on his deal, which Washington could no longer afford after the costly contracts it gave out to Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, and Dmitry Orlov this summer.
Kuznetsov, 25, entered restricted free agency with a lot of leverage given his performance over the past two seasons. The center established himself as one of the Capitals’ best two-way players with 136 points over 164 games.
Washington paid up big-time for that, as Kuznetsov is now one of the more expensive players in the NHL. Only Alex Ovechkin has a higher cap hit on the team, which has loaded up on expensive contracts over the years.
Now the Capitals have eight players making at least $5.1 million next season: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Oshie, Orlov, Nicklas Backstrom, Braden Holtby, Matt Niskanen, and Brooks Orpik. They also have John Carlson at $3.97 million and Lars Eller at $3.5 million.
To put it lightly, the Capitals have put themselves in a cap crunch. Even after trading Johansson to New Jersey, they still have $9.23 million in cap space with just 14 players under contract. Adding another eight or nine guys at that price won’t be easy, but Washington will try to figure it out.
See More:
