I’m not so sure about him choosing to leave, though, vs. the organization not re-signing him. I imagine if he’d been willing to take a paycut in exchange for a couple years, maybe something would have happened. But his agent did him absolutely no favors with the Capitals organization. If Sasha really wanted to be re-signed, he would have told his agent to shut the hell up and not say the things he did that made the break with the franchise seem so much more inevitable. It’s not like the Caps just tossed him out on the street with his equipment bag.