Welcome to our offseason initiative — 30 teams in 30 days.
From July 16 until Aug. 14, we’ll be dedicating each day to a new team by recapping the offseason and looking ahead to 2012-13.
There will also be a series of posts looking at key stories, player profiles and burning questions regarding each squad.
Today, that squad is the Washington Capitals.
The Caps will be a different-looking team from the one that took to the ice in 2011-12. The new look starts behind the bench, where rookie head coach (and former franchise great) Adam Oates takes over for Dale Hunter, who led the Caps to within a game of last year’s Eastern Conference finals.
Oates will be aided by a pair of new assistants -- Calle Johansson and former Caps assistant Tim Hunter -- and together, they’ll be in charge of molding a team that lost All-Star defenseman Dennis Wideman and former 40-goal scorer Alex Semin during the offseason.
As for additions -- Washington didn’t bring in a ton of new faces this summer, but there are a few. The most notable is Mike Ribeiro, acquired at the draft in exchange for Cody Eakin and a second-round pick. A playmaking center, Ribeiro should slot in nicely on the Capitals’ second line and give them the depth down the middle they lacked last season.
In other moves, the Caps re-signed two-time Norris nominee Mike Green and retained the services of key depth forwards Jay Beagle and Mathieu Perreault.
So yeah, stick around throughout the day as we take a closer look at the Washington Capitals. I’m sure we’ll mention Alexander Ovechkin at some point.
