In Part 1 of this month’s Capitals mailbag, I answered your questions on AHL Hershey’s playoff run, options at No. 8, center depth, trade speculation and other pressing matters as an important offseason gets underway in Washington.

In Part 2, I’m tackling everything else, from retired jerseys to Reverse Retros. 

As always, thank you for participating. 

(Questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity)   

When will Peter Bondra’s No. 12 hang in the rafters? — Eric S.

I get asked about this a lot. And, unfortunately, I don’t have a great answer. 

But here’s something to chew on: In 2024, the Caps will celebrate 50 years. And I suspect they are going to go big with it. 

To me, that would be the perfect time for the organization to honor franchise pillars like Bondra and Olie Kolzig with a jersey retirement ceremony.

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But you also need to ask yourself this: How many retired numbers are too many? They’ve already hung the jerseys of Dale Hunter, Rod Langway, Mike Gartner and Yvon Labre in the rafters. And Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom figure to be going up soon after they hang up the skates. I have to imagine that’s on the mind of whoever makes that decision.

Me personally? I think there’s room in Cap One’s rafters for Bondra and Kolzig.    

What is the team’s game plan for next year with Hunter Shepard? He’s obviously a huge key to Hershey’s success, but he is a UFA this summer and it’s hard to see a path to the NHL in Washington for him. — William A.

Shepard and Zach Fucale are both set to become UFAs this summer, but I don’t see both getting re-upped. I don’t know this for sure, but I’ve got to imagine Shepard has earned an extension with his play this season and that next season the Bears will pair the 27-year-old farmhand with prospect Clay Stevenson, who played well for Hershey and ECHL South Carolina and is well-regarded internally. 

Is Connor McMichael ready for Washington? Is there a chance that Evgeny Kuznetsov is traded and McMichael gets a legit chance to settle in the middle six? — Tim S.

The more I talk to people in Hershey and Washington, the more certain I am that McMichael will be penciled into a spot with the Caps next season. Consistency is still a concern but he’s shown enough in Hershey this season. It’s his time.

Could he step into Kuznetsov’s spot? My gut says no. While it felt like Kuznetsov and the Caps had reached the end of the road a couple of months ago, I’m starting to get the sense that the team might now be leaning toward seeing how he responds to new head coach Spencer Carbery before making a decision. High-end centers are hard to find and Kuznetsov, when sufficiently motivated, is a top player who meshes well with Ovechkin.

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As for McMichael, he can play center and left wing and that flexibility figures to serve him well. 

Are the Caps going to have their prospect game at the Capital One Arena this year? — Dennis C.

There will not be a prospects game at Cap One this year. Development camp is probably going to run July 1-5 and the building is booked. And with the July 4 holiday coming mid-camp, attendance was a concern. Camp details are currently being hammered out so stay tuned.

Several years ago, the team had a prospect tournament where they played other teams in Florida. Do you know if that is happening this year? — Dennis C.

The Caps made the decision to stop participating in those rookie tournaments. The reason? Way too many injuries.

Also, what do you think GM Brian MacLellan would give up our eighth pick for? — Colin R.

Teams have called MacLellan about moving back. There’s a reason for that: This is a deep draft that’s particularly good at the top end of the first. 

My gut says they make the pick. As I wrote in Part 1, the Caps desperately need to introduce some high-end talent to their pipeline. The top-heavy team is also in dire need of a stud on a rookie salary.

This is their chance to get one. 

Do the Caps regret giving Sonny Milano his deal considering his numbers dropped big time after signing his new deal and they could’ve used that money this offseason for a top-six forward? — Mike D.

I don’t think so. Lots of Caps struggled after the roster got hollowed out at the trade deadline. Milano also had a disjointed March due to illness and a shoulder injury.

Internally, Milano is viewed as a third-line player with offensive upside. He’s also signed to what the team considers a low-risk deal at $1.9 million per for the next three years.  

Are the Caps more interested in seeing Alex Ovechkin break Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record, or seeing him do it in a Caps’ uniform? In other words, would they trade Ovechkin at some point if that significantly improved his chances of becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer? —Patrick R.

I don’t see that being a thing.  

Ovechkin has three seasons on his current contract and needs to score 73 goals. I’m thinking he gets it done at some point during the 2024-25 season.

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If — if — something were to cause him to fall way off pace, I’m willing to bet he’d opt to extend his deal in D.C. before the team contemplated trading him or he asked out.  

I believe that many fans have responded that we really like last season’s black Reverse Retro jersey. What are the NHL rules/guidelines on how many optional jerseys a team may have in a season and what is the minimum number of games that each different jersey must be worn, or is it up to the team to decide? — Guy C.

The black screaming eagle jersey was indeed stunning. I’m not a big uniform guy, but that one even made me go, “Wow” every time they wore it. The Caps, by the way, went 4-2-1 in the black unis and Ovechkin terrorized goalies in it. So I know the players wouldn’t mind if the team brought them back.

But I’m hearing the Caps are only going to wear the traditional red and white next year while mixing in the blue ‘W’ alternate. Last year, the Caps wore a franchise record five uniforms — red, white, blue, black and the Weagle uniform that debuted in the Stadium Series. The league was looking to recoup some of the revenue it lost during COVID-19 with the Reverse Retros. From here on out, I suspect most teams will be back to wearing home, away and an alternate. 

And, yes, the league does have a say in how many jerseys a team can wear and how often they can wear them.  

Taking a break from summer Caps rebuild drama, let’s get into the hot tub time machine and have a fantasy re-draft question. Tom Wilson is now a veteran. Knowing what we know now, do GMs draft Wilson higher, lower, or in the same 16th position in the 2012 draft? — Brendan M.

There were some good players in that draft — Filip Forsberg (I know, sorry!), Tomas Hertl, Morgan Rielly, Hampus Lindholm, Teuvo Teravainen, Jacob Trouba, Jaccob Slavin and Matt Dumba, to name a few. 

I’d have to think Wilson would be selected at least 10 spots higher, knowing what we know today. He’s a unicorn — a first-line winger, a feared heavyweight as well as a leader on and off the ice.

I mean, if he’d gone in the top-five, I don’t think the team that drafted him would have been disappointed in retrospect. 

Man, there were a few whiffs, too, with No. 1 pick Nail Yakupov leading the way. 

I’ll also say this: Having covered NHL drafts going back to the late 1990s, predicting which 18-year-olds are going to make great pros and which ones are going to be busts is an incredibly inexact science. Sometimes I scroll through hockeyDB.com’s year-by-year draft lists just for fun.

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I know journalists don’t often want to be the story, but I’m wondering how you are feeling about the Caps these days? How does it compare to when you first started as Caps beat writer? Do you have any regrets? Any things that still get you excited? — Ryan T.

I got the Caps beat at The Washington Post in the summer of 2004. I covered the Caps drafting Ovechkin aaannnd then the league shut down for a year. So, it didn’t get off to a great start. Haha.

I don’t have any regrets, really. I’ve had the opportunity to cover a generational talent who was the center of the hockey universe for a while. I got to cover a young team as it came of age and eventually won a championship, which kicked off the craziest few days of my professional career. And, as the Ovi Era winds down, I’ll hopefully get to cover an all-time great break a record no one ever thought would be approached much less surpassed. 

What still gets me excited? Plenty. Games vs. the Penguins and Rangers. Saturday nights in big markets like Montreal and Toronto and New York. The trade deadline. Day 1 of free agency. Telling stories no one has heard before.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get to do what I’m passionate about. And in a business that’s been contracting for a while now, I don’t ever take that for granted. 

(Top photo of Sonny Milano and Alex Ovechkin: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)