Caps Have 23 Active Players

Eight new players grace the line-up for the Washington Capitals this season, including two rookies... Nicklas Backstrom (Dale C.) and David Steckel.

The Capitals have raised their expectations to make a solid run to the playoffs, especially since they have upgraded in almost every position, except for goaltending. Michael Nylander (Chris) and Backstrom should provide the team with a pair of quality playmaking centres for the scoring prowess of Ovechkin, Semin and Kozlov. It's a very exciting time for Caps fans going into the year.

In no way is Olaf Kolzig (Dennis) the wrong guy for the job in net, hence no upgrade, but with some upgrades on the blueline, he'll hopefully face less than the 30+ shots a night he faced last season on a regular basis. His numbers are sure to go up with the team getting better.

Alexander Semin	Michael Nylander	Alexander Ovechkin
Chris Clark	Nicklas Backstrom	Viktor Kozlov
Matt Pettinger	Boyd Gordon	Brooks Laich
Matt Bradley	Brian Sutherby	Donald Brashear
Eric Fehr	Tomas Fleischmann	David Steckel

Tom Poti	Brian Pothier
Shaone Morrisonn	Milan Jurcina
John Erskine	Jeff Schultz
Mike Green	Steve Eminger

Olaf Kolzig

Brent Johnson

The active 23-man roster for the Capitals will run the team $33.5 million, just a little shy of the cap minimum. But like most other teams, there are usually bonuses that can count against the cap if players are to hit certain targets. You have to know that Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin and Nylander all have some sort of scoring bonuses included in their contract.

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