(Heavily re-edited as I had a daylong brainfart and timmyv38 reminded me that it's only a 23-man roster. Whoops. Did I ever try to forget about NHL hockey after last year or what? Heh.)

There are a couple moving parts going on with the Caps' rumored/pending signings and trade and something will have to give.

There's speculation that the Caps will sign Eric Belanger pending a trade, the Caps are looking to sign Canucks' defenseman Willie Mitchell , and now that Tomas Fleischmann trade has two scenarios.

Let's assume Eric Belanger signs for $1.85 million since he's apparently waiting for a trade to happen to bring him in.

Let's also assume that Marcus Johansson ($900,000) makes the team, but will be probably be trading car rides to Hershey with Mathieu Perreault ($716,667).

If Mack and Belanger join us, and the Caps trade Tomas Fleischmann for Edmonton defenseman Sheldon Souray, the Caps are in the cap hole by $231,000.

If Belanger signs and the Caps trade Fleischmann for Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieska, the Caps have $1.4 million in cap space available.

Either way, the Caps cannot sign Belanger, have Johansson join the team, trade for either Bieska or Souray AND sign Willie Mitchell for let's say $2.5 million plus bonuses for both roster and salary restrictions.

The Belanger, Bieska plus Mitchell scenario puts the team at about $1 million over the cap, then you'd be forced to send a player down for roster limit. Sending either Alzner or Carlson down won't get you under the cap, and sending both down is possible and leaves you with an extra D men, but who wants to see Sloan and Erskine on the ice regularly? Johansson is your extra forward.

The Souray plus Mitchell scenario puts Washington at about $2.7 million over the cap when Belanger and Mack are with us.

Bonuses complicate the scenarios as Johansson could earn bonus money in his entry-level deal and I imagine Perreault also has some bonus potential. Would the Caps want to go into 2011-2012 with a bonus penalty? Even with winning the Cup, probably not.

How much would Willie Mitchell sign for? Teams are probably want to sign him much less than his $3.5 million salary he made last year due to his season-ending concussion. A $2.5 million I offered is still risky if beyond a Mitchell injury recover bonus, Johannson and/or Perreault, Alzer and Carlson, Varly and Neuvy all rack up bonuses on their entry-level deals.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement provides for performance bonuses for players who have played more than 400 games and in the last year spent 100 days or more on injured reserve list. They would have to sign a one year contract to receive the bonus.

Mitchell has played 585 career games and Jan. 17 was the first day after his concussion. The Canucks made it to the playoffs, losing to the Blackhawks on May 11, marking Mitchell down for 114 days on injured reserve.

Seeing how General Manager George McPhee has said he prefers short-term deals because they motivate players, look for that type of contract to be signed by Mitchell if he signs here. Though I would wager that Mitchell would be signing that type of contract anywhere. What would his base salary be and how much bonus money could he earn?

Other factors to consider is that we have a few players on two-way contracts, but sadly their names aren't Erskine, Sloan and King.

If McPhee wants most of what's out there, someone has to go with Flash, but it looks like the strongest possibility is the Bieska trade with having Belanger and Johansson or Perreault on the team. I'd still would want to shed more salary for some more breathing room, but then you get into a discussion of "is giving up Flash plus Erskine or Sloan for Bieska too much?"

What do you want to see happen?

I'd like to say before you read any further that I am not an alarmist, and if anything, I'm soliciting a good forecheck from the Rink to dig into something I saw on NHL Network the other week.

Essentially, are the Capitals looking to have an ECHL affiliate in Richmond, Va.?

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Hershey Bears fans are not the only AHL fans scratching their heads, wondering why the first outdoor minor league hockey game would be hosted in Syracuse, N.Y. The rival Manitoba Moose (you know — the ones who lost to the Bears in the Calder Cup Finals?) were approached, too. But according to their general manager, the math didn't add up.

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For people like me who have the Wii, we have the disadvantage of only being able to play NHL2K10, so this thread is to exchange friend codes and get a feel if anyone wants to start leagues or online gaming.

I bought the Wii Speak to see how well this works, so don't Wiive me behind. (Ha, ha. I know that's horrendous — it's late.)

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It looks like Semyon Varlamov is in the trial mood of late to test how different goal pads will suit him this year having three sets (two actually worn) spotted so far. For goalies like myself, the right fit makes the difference. But aesthetics and originality count, and fans would agree.

Which will he wear and which do you want him to wear?

via assets.sbnation.com

Above, you have JP's photo from the first day of camp of last year's NikeBauer Supreme One95 leg pads and what appears to be either new One100 or Vapor blocker and glove, along with a Warrior stick.

via www.goaliestore.com

Here you have an employee of The Goalie Crease posting new Bauer Supreme One100 gear that he has in someone's living room. Other photos can be found here, including one featuring Varlamov's embroidered name (which isn't that hard to ask the factory to do). Though in this Flickr shot I found, he's wearing the One100 blocker with the Supreme pads at training camp.

You'll find a lot of Bauer stuff this year sans Nike now that Bauer is in production with its independent owners. Mainly a wordmark change. Bauer also owns Itech, so some Itech goalies will now be Bauer goalies. Chris Osgood made this switch in the playoffs.

via i1022.photobucket.com

And above is a one-time used edition of his Vaughn Velocity pads thanks to last year's Upper Deck collection. (Apparently nobody took photos of Rookie Camp Day 2 except for the Post, which lacks direct links to images.) He later switched to a mix of Hershey and Caps colors opting for the chocolate with navy blue. This year's edition is virtually the same with the exception that the blue and red are flipped, according to the Post's Dan Steinberg's photo.  

I like variety of goal equipment designs for the team's back-up and starter. Having Jose Theodore wearing (and presumably keeping) the Velocity line, I'd like to see Varly go with the new Bauer line just to give me something different to look at.

It looks like Varly is definitely trying out various pads and maybe he'll stay with Vaughn and go with old faithful, though some argue only his catcher needs replaced.

What would you like to stare at for 60 games this season?

In the spirit of one of the biggest "Let’s Play GM for the Day" days of the year, let’s celebrate July 1 by playing poor man’s GM and see if we should sign Chris Chelios.

The ageless wonder Chris Chelios is leaving Detroit due to cap restraints and want to go to the Eastern Conference. And I have just the team in mind.

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Yet they’re getting the same press coverage though only 100 and some out of how many millions people have this mild flu.

Fortunately the prescription for Caps fever is a cheap cowbell and not a $75 flu shot.

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