The Washington Capitals re-signed forward T.J. Oshie to an eight-year, $46 million contract, the team announced Friday.
Oshie was set to be a free agent July 1, but the move keeps the 30-year-old in Washington. Oshie will be making an average of $5.75 million per year, an increase from the $4.175 million per year he was making over the last five years.
“T.J. is an invaluable member of our team and we felt it was imperative for us to re-sign him in a competitive free agent market,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said in a news release. “T.J. is a highly competitive player with a tremendous skill set; he epitomizes the kind of player our team must have in order for us to continue to put ourselves in a position to compete in this League.”
On a conference call with reporters, Oshie said after the season was over, he sat down with his agent and decided he wanted to stay in Washington. He said talks of a new deal really escalated over the last few days.
“I was kind of a nervous wreck for a while,” Oshie said. “Everything worked out exactly how I wanted it to. I couldn’t be happier with staying and re-signing. I’m looking forward to it.”
The Capitals first acquired Oshie in the summer of 2015 when they traded forward Troy Brouwer, Pheonix Copley and a draft pick to the St. Louis Blues.
In Washington, Oshie has been a highly productive player and stabilized the first line playing alongside Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Last season, Oshie scored a career-high 33 goals and had 23 assists in just 68 games. During his first season with the Capitals, Oshie was also productive, scoring 26 goals.
At his closeout interview in May, Oshie expressed his desire to stay with the Capitals. He reiterated those thoughts Friday and listed three reasons for staying: the average length and money of the contract the Capitals were offering, his family and the ability to compete for a Stanley Cup.
Oshie said once the terms were met, it was “almost like a no-brainer for me.”
Since Oshie joined the Capitals, Washington has won back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies, awarded to the team with the most points during regular season. Oshie, though, found out about the demons of the Capitals’ postseason firsthand, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round in each year.
The painful playoff experiences didn’t give Oshie a reason to shy away from re-signing, however. Oshie and his agent looked at the Capitals’ roster and felt like a core was still in place to win a Stanley Cup.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll be able to win a Cup here in the next couple of years,” Oshie said.
Oshie’s agent and MacLellan had a brief discussion during the season about a potential contract extension, but nothing materialized. Initially, the Capitals were unsure if they could re-sign Oshie considering the team’s financial situation.
MacLellan was hoping that the salary cap, previously set at $73 million, would be $77 million for the upcoming season, but the NHL announced the cap would be $75 million — creating doubt Oshie would be back.
But the two parties agreed to a deal and it’s a win for both. Without Oshie, the Capitals would have had a large hole at the right wing and there were limited options on the market to replace him. At 30 years old, Oshie gets a long-term contract and financial stability for the next eight years.
The Capitals can now focus their attention to re-signing their restricted free agents — Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Dmitry Orlov, Philipp Grubauer and Brett Connolly — and look to potentially acquire a top-four defenseman. The Capitals lost defenseman Nate Schmidt, who was expected to fill that role, to the Vegas Golden Knights’ expansion draft Wednesday.
Washington, according to capfriendly.com, has around $19 million of salary cap room remaining. That figure will be substantially smaller if the Capitals re-sign their RFAs, which MacLellan said last month was the priority.
Oshie, meanwhile, is set to be in Washington through the 2024-25 season.
“There’s a very slim chance I’ll be going through this again,” Oshie said.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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