Washington Capitals' Best Sales Pitch for Top Free Agent Targets

In roughly one month, free agency in the NHL will begin and the Washington Capitals—if they know what's good for them—will be looking to make a big splash by signing one of several high profile free agents who will be available.

As for potential free agents the Caps might be targeting, I have written a couple of articles on the topic over the past few weeks, including this one.

Whether the Caps are going to go after players like Tyler Bozak, Pascal Dupuis, Mark Streit or perhaps someone else, the biggest obstacle the team will face is limited cap space.

The Caps have only about $6 million in cap space available to them at the moment—and that does not include the Caps re-signing restricted free agents such as Karl Alzner or Marcus Johansson, never mind trying to sign Mike Ribeiro to an extension, or keeping Matt Hendricks in D.C.

In reality, when all is said and done, the Caps might have as little as $2-3 million to work with once free agency begins. That is not a lot to work with at all.

With that being said, the Caps are not going to be able to outbid teams with much more cap space. Within their own division there are three of the Top 10 teams with the most cap space available next season: the New York Islanders with the second most cap space available, the New Jersey Devils with the third most space available and the Columbus Blue Jackets with the ninth most cap space available.

So what is a team to do in order to lure a top free agent to town when they can't afford to pay him as much as the competition? The Caps will have to appeal to something different, and something deeper. For the Caps to land a difference maker this offseason, they are going to have to make one heck of a sales pitch.

What sort of sales pitch might work? Here are three things the Caps need to pitch to any potential top free-agent target this offseason.

There's No Place Like Home

One of the best selling points the Caps can make is that playing in Washington D.C. offers someone the opportunity to play in front of one of the most passionate and rabid fan bases in all of the NHL.

Say what you will, but the idea of playing in front of a packed house each and every night has got to be appealing to just about any top free agent.

As far as Washington D.C. goes, the Capitals are the most popular franchise in town that does not go by the nickname Redskins. No, no team in D.C. can rival the Redskins as far as popularity, but the Caps are a solid second; ahead of the disappointing Nationals and the underachieving Wizards.

From 2008 through the present, the Caps have sold out the Verizon Center an incredible 177 consecutive times. The recent lockout had no discernible impact upon the Caps' attendance figures. Whereas the Caps were ranked a dismal 28th in attendance as recently as 2006, that is clearly no longer the case with this franchise.

In 2011-12 the Caps ranked 12th in attendance in the NHL and averaged 18,506 per home game. There is a waiting list for tickets for home games, something that has only been seen in D.C. with the Redskins. And those 18,506 fans who show up for each home game know very well what it means to "Rock The Red."

This past season, the Caps attendance numbers dropped ever so slightly and they ranked 14th in the NHL in attendance. That still puts them in the upper half of the NHL and the fan base in Washington is absolutely starving for a Stanley Cup or, for that matter, any real level of playoff success.

For whatever top free agent who might want to come to Washington, he can rest assured that he will get to play in front of a home crowd that is electric at the worst of times and overflowing with enthusiasm the rest of the time.

While home ice advantage is downplayed a lot in the NHL, playing in front of a supportive, excited and passionate crowd has to be at least somewhat appealing to most of the top free agents who will be available on July 5.

The Future Is Now

While there is certainly something to be said for leading a bad franchise back to the playoffs or making them a contender again, there is a lot to be said for a free agent joining a contending team and then trying to get them to the next level.

Any top free agent contemplating coming to Washington can feel confident that he is coming into a pretty good situation with a very good hockey team that can most definitely compete for a Stanley Cup.

Make no mistake about it, despite the Caps' repeated playoff failures, they are not in any sort of rebuilding mode—far from it actually.

The Caps are a team that have made the playoffs six consecutive seasons and they have won their division in five of those six seasons. The Caps have won 221 games over the past five seasons. There is a culture of winning with this franchise—at least in the regular season.

In 2013, the Caps won 15 of their final 20 games to win the Southeast division title. They played one bad game in the playoffs and, unfortunately, it was Game 7 against the New York Rangers. Other than that though, the Caps were playing quite well down the stretch as the season came to an end.

And yes, the Caps have a history of playoff disaster. But if one wants to look at things from a different perspective, the Caps have fallen one game short of the Eastern Conference Finals in two of the six seasons they have made the playoffs and fell one game short of advancing to the Eastern Conference Semifinals on three other occasions.

The team has played in a Game 7 a remarkable seven times in the past six seasons. Unfortunately for the Caps, they have lost five of those seven matchups. Still, a "glass is half full" approach shows that the team has been very close to breaking through, and that the team is still very good.

Without question, things will be harder this year as the Caps move to a much tougher division complete with old rivals such as the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers. But the team will still be very competitive.

With the right addition, the Caps might be much more than just competitive next season. That is another strong selling point for any of the top free agents about to be available.

Be a Difference Maker

A final selling point for the Caps to make to any top free agent is that he can come to D.C. and help the franchise do something it has never done before—win a Stanley Cup.

It is no secret that the Caps have never won the Stanley Cup. They have not even played for the Cup since 1998. To make matters even worse, they have not even made it to the Eastern Conference Finals since that run to the Cup Finals in 1998.

The Caps have endured one playoff failure after another over the course of their history and the past six seasons have not been kind to them at all.

The Caps blew a 2-0 series lead against Pittsburgh in 2009, a 3-1 series lead against Montreal in 2010 and a 2-0 series lead against the New York Rangers in 2013.

As mentioned previously, they have lost in Game 7 five times in the past six seasons. As bad and unlucky as the franchise's history was in the '80s and '90s, it can be argued that things have been even worse the past six seasons.

If any free agent came to Washington and was the difference maker that, at a minimum, led the Caps to the Conference Finals, he would immediately be a hero.

If he actually helped the Caps win the Stanley Cup—well then John Riggins, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien would have to welcome that man into the pantheon of the most beloved sports heroes in D.C. sports history.

Are there other franchises in similar positions as the Caps, searching for that elusive Stanley Cup title? Sure. One can make a strong case for other tortured franchises such as the San Jose Sharks or St. Louis Blues.

But the Caps are just as hungry as any franchise when it comes to winning the Cup, perhaps more so.

And if this particular selling point is of interest to a free agent, then the Caps lack of success might give them a leg up as far as bargaining against their other divisional rivals. With the exception of the Columbus Blue Jackets, every other team in the Caps' new division has had more success than the Caps.

The Pittsburgh Penguins just won a Stanley Cup in 2009 and have won the Cup three times.

The Philadelphia Flyers just played for the Stanley Cup in 2010. and have two Cup titles to their names—back in 1974 and 1975.

The New York Rangers won the Cup in 1994 and were in the Eastern Conference Finals a season ago.

The New York Islanders have not had a ton of recent success—but they did win the Stanley Cup four seasons in a row from 1980-83.

The New Jersey Devils played for the Stanley Cup a season ago and have won the Cup on three occasions.

Even the Carolina Hurricanes won a Stanley Cup back in 2006.

For any top free agent, coming to Washington and leading the Caps to a Stanley Cup offers him not just the opportunity to be a difference maker...

It offers him the chance to be a legend.