Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all are well rested and ready to tackle whatever February throws at you.

Well, the frustration of Stuart Armstrong’s departure from the Vancouver Whitecaps has not subsided within the fanbase and the revelation that the Caps earned a fairly paltry fee from Sheffield Wednesday hasn’t helped.

I alluded to the dilemma the team is in on Friday but Axel Schuster made the choice explicit following Armstrong’s departure: the team can either replace Armstrong and proceed with the plans to add another U-22 player or it can roll with just Ryan Gauld and Andres Cubas as DPs and sign two more U-22 players, plus nab an extra $2 million in General Allocation Money.

My reflective reaction was that, well, a win-now team should naturally sign a third designated player. The Caps need the top-end talent to compete with the other elite teams in the Western Conference and maximize Gauld’s abilities.

But the more I think about it (and Caleb Wilkins made a persuasive argument for this in his story on Friday), the 2-4-2 option makes a lot of sense. That’s even before you get into the realistic consideration that this ownership group is unlikely to put any meaningful capital into acquiring a new designated player.

Given how shallow this team is, an additional $2 million in allocation money would go a long way to strengthening the core of the team, something that other teams (Minnesota United, for example) have done to good effect. Incidentally, the Loons are kicked around as a potential trade partner for Canadian forward Tani Oluwaseyi, a move that makes too much sense on paper to actually happen in practice.

An additional U-22 spot would allow the Caps to bolster their depth and take a fairly risk-free roll of the dice on a young player. And Gauld and Cubas are as rock solid of DPs as you can get.

There are a couple problems here, though. The same reasons why this team couldn’t maximize a third DP spot exist for the $2 million GAM as well. That’s because the additional Garber-bucks are discretionary — the ownership has to pony up those additional dollars and I’m not convinced that would happen.

Axel Schuster also made it sound like the Caps were going to weigh their options and think things through. Fair enough. But to maximize the additional GAM on the trade market, you seemingly would want to move before the start of the regular season. That clock is ticking — and that’s before you think through the struggle this team is going to have getting anyone in before they travel to Saprissa later this month.

Many outsiders were surprised that the Caps went for three DPs last year, given this ownership group’s spending habits. One wonders if now is the time for things to even out. In any event, if you’re a neutral, Armstrong’s departure will certainly make the Caps more interesting from a roster building standpoint. For fans? Perhaps not so much.

Shameless Self Promotion

As the Caps weigh their options in the transfer market, Caleb Wilkins has some ideas on what comes next.

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To celebrate Black History Month, the Caps have rolled out a pretty sick kit, which they will wear in preseason and against Saprissa at BC Place.

Ismael Kone has suitors as he is set to depart Marseille on loan; Tajon Buchannan has officially landed at Villareal.

Sporting KC have acquired Dejan Jovelic, making him the first player dealt under MLS’ new cash trade rules.