{"id":130002,"date":"2022-06-22T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=130002"},"modified":"2022-06-21T16:37:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T20:37:48","slug":"washington-capitals-eyeing-top-free-agents-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/06\/22\/washington-capitals-eyeing-top-free-agents-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals Eyeing Top Free Agents Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The rumour mill keeps on churning faster and faster. With the draft and free agency approaching, teams are trying to get their ducks in a row. Everyone is aiming to improve and make the right moves to signal the direction that they are headed in. Today we focus on the Washington Capitals who need centres. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/backsni02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nicklas Backstrom<\/a> out for the foreseeable future, their attention has shifted. With free agency just around the corner, they can focus on Nazem Kadri and JT Miller.<\/p>\n<h2>Washington Capitals Eyeball <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kadrina01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nazem Kadri<\/a>, JT Miller<\/h2>\n<p><em>Rumour: Elliotte Friedman reports that the Washington Capitals are in on Nazem Kadri and JT Miller<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Why These Players Are Worth Targeting<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Elliotte Friedman on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DonnieandDhali?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DonnieandDhali<\/a> on the Canucks : Lots of teams are around VAN. Capitals lost Backstrom, I have heard Kadri and Miller connected to them,<br \/>\nMiller will be a big contract, VAN is worried about term.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DhaliwalSports\/status\/1539311364514017281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Washington Capitals need centres. Nicklas Backstrom has been the backbone at the centre position for his entire career in Washington. With him going down with an injury, there is a gaping hole at the position. The attention has shifted to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/canucks\/\" target=\"_self\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> centre JT Miller and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/avalanche\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a> centre Nazem Kadri.<\/p>\n<p>Both players have warranted big deals after the stellar campaigns they put forth. JT Miller had a career season and was one point say from hitting the century mark. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statmuse.com\/nhl\/player\/j.t.-miller-4751\/career-stats\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In 80 games played he scored 32 goals and 67 assists for a total of 99 points<\/a>. He would average 1.23 points per game and average 3.53 points per 60 minutes. This is the first time surpassing the 30-goal mark and his highest point total since 2019-20, where he potted 72.<\/p>\n<p>Nazem Kadri is another player on the radar. Like Miller, he had himself a career year with the high-flying Avalanche. In 71 games played he went on to score 28 goals, 59 assists and a total of 87 points. He was clutch for Colorado in the playoffs up until surgery, where he tallied up 14 points. Kadri has surpassed the 50-point mark four times in his career and scored 30 goals twice. Kadri is just a hard-nosed center who plays hard every night and had really discovered his offensive side.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nazem Kadri: Trade to Colorado was a &#8216;blessing in disguise.&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MWChaFSOgM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/MWChaFSOgM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Tj8LcsQfMw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Tj8LcsQfMw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 theScore (@theScore) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theScore\/status\/1198427544447594496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 24, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Why Signing At Least One Is Important<\/h3>\n<p>Centres in the NHL don&#8217;t grow on trees. Granted, Backstrom has been a star calibre player for them for a very long time. But with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/o\/ovechal01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Ovechkin<\/a> still playing at a high level that he is, they must get a centre to play with him. The term does not have money for both, but they can put pen to paper for one of them. Term could be a factor, but these are the centres they are eyeballing to replace Backstrom. Up until this season, Backstrom has eclipsed the 50-point mark for four seasons in a row so getting a centre to try and replicate that while this team is still contending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rumour mill keeps on churning faster and faster. With the draft and free agency approaching, teams are trying to get their ducks in a row. Everyone is aiming to improve and make the right moves to signal the direction that they are headed in. Today we focus on the Washington Capitals who need centres. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4194,"featured_media":130004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4547,4548,15],"tags":[5373,235,3877,1404],"class_list":["post-130002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-capitals","tag-jt-miller","tag-nazem-kadri","tag-nhl-rumours","tag-nicklas-backstrom"],"modified_by":"Connor Lapalme","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}