Cue the Ice Cube. Today was a good day. The Caps get Nicholas Baxter locked up,

officially five years, $46 million, with an AAV of $9.2 million. Alan May, we've talked with Brian

McClellan. We've known this was coming. We knew they'd never let him wear another jersey. But when you woke up in the morning and you got the text or the email that said it was done, what went through your mind? Thank goodness. Because when I look at this, there's no thing that I would rather see than Baxter and their careers as Washington Capitals. Never wear another jersey. It puts it a rest.

We don't have to talk about it. We don't have to go through a summer of negotiations. I think it's

good for everyone involved, every teammate, the coaching staff, and all the fans in this fan base who

have gone to those games, watched us on television and cheered for this team. You had to have Nick

Baxter locked up.

I'm Rob Carlin, the Capitals Talk podcast on a special day in Capp's history starts now.

He's scores!

Simply that's safe to do you.

It's not a dream.

It's not a desert barrage.

It's Lord Stanley and he is coming to Washington.

As a player, I mean, I thought it was important to get it done before the season was over.

So I'm thankful for organization that they made this happen this early.

So earlier you can get it done, I mean, the better off you are.

What's up, Caps fans? It is time for another edition of the Caps Talk podcast, an emergency

podcast as the Caps lock up Nicholas Baxham for five years, really to the end of his career.

And this is a message sent to Nick, to Ovi,

whose contract is up next year, to the leadership that you talked about with John Carlson and

Tom Wilson, who are also locked up of Gennikuznetsov, all those guys for getting the Brayden

Holpey situation. You know, you don't want to even entertain a thought of Nick going anywhere else. And we're going to hear from Nick. He sits down with Alan and I in just a bit, but he never thought about that. He never wanted to even consider being anywhere else, and they found a way to get this done. The number one signal, the first signal, was that he became his own agent. And there's going to be no animosity. They're not going to get bent out of shape, saying things and attacking each other. So you knew that it was going to get done. It was just a matter of the term. He probably wanted longer. He probably wanted to go to the 19 years. The caps kind of do responsible. They pay him a little bit more. But the most important thing is he got locked in and locked down and it sends messages to everyone. How important it is to have your great leadership group. And maybe he's not in five years. Maybe he's not the first line center. Maybe he's the second or the third. That's all right. He's a team player through and through. He'll nurture everybody. And it'll also be the guy running the power play still. If you were able to chip into the brains, so forget the words that they're saying,

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