In Columbus tonight for the fifth of six pre-season games:
- Live updates: NHL, ESPN
- Projected lines
LGC!
Dowd!
One of the few still with us from the 2018 cup run, and I’m thankful for that!
Dowd was brought in during the 2018 offseason to replace Jay Beagle, who I am very thankful was on the cup-winning team before he left. There were quite a few recent names I was sad to see miss out - Ward, Laich, Green… Even Karl Alzner, guy was dead weight his final season with us, but before his injury in the 2016 second round totally crippled him he was our best defenseman for many seasons.
But yeah, Dowd has been absolutely spectacular in his role, his contract has been insane value. As much as I’d like to see him re-sign after this season, the guy could be a perfect fourth-line center for a championship team, and the caps almost certainly will not be that team before he ages out of his usefulness. I’d root for him to get that.
Dowd was brought in during the 2018 offseason to replace Jay Beagle
Oh, wow—my memory’s a little fuzzy. Thanks for this little nugget of history!
It was an open secret even before the playoffs began that Beagle had played himself out of us being able to afford re-signing him. Vancouver still gave him more than I was expecting.
When he first got to the team I just knew him as that idiot that got injured by picking a fight significantly out of his weight class. Thought he was a plug and would be back in the minors very soon. Eight or nine years later and this man can do no wrong. Caps legend.
We’ve had our fair share of issues over the years but we’ve been spectacularly stable with the fourth-line center position for almost fifteen years. Beagle to Dowd. Most teams have probably gone through ten in that timespan. (Almost tacked on top-line left wing as equally solid, but then I remembered Oates had the big man playing on the right.)
I’m pretty sure Dowd signed with the team after the run.
But, yeah, there aren’t many left - Ovi, Carlson, Wilson, Backstrom (technically), and Oshie (technically)…
