The Capitals have signed three free agents and traded away a great young goalie for high draft picks today. They've added a center, Jeff Halpern; a wing, Joel Ward and a defenseman, Roman Hamrlik.
All are great competitors, year in and year out. All are likely to play multiple years in Washington.
At the NHL draft, the Caps just traded away their top pick for Chicago winger Troy Brouwer, who has not yet signed a contract, but can probably expect to receive a contract somewhere between those awarded to Ward and Laich. That's somewhere between three and four million dollars of cap space.
After signing him, the Caps obviously also want to lock up their other restricted free agent, Karl Alzner. Alzner is likely to also earn around three million.
The Capitals currently have two million dollars of space under the salary cap.
They have sent mixed signals about whether or not they intend to re-sign Matt Bradley. Jason Arnott has yet to sign with another club.
Both trade-deadline acquisition Dennis Wideman and free agent signing Hamrlik tend to play the point on the power play, a role for which the Caps pay Mike Green.
Green and brilliant play-making winger Alexander Semin have shared the brunt of fan wrath over recent playoff failures.
Semin does not give interviews in English, preferring to speak through interpreter Dimitry Chesnokov. Chesnokov recently reported that Simeon Varlamov planned to leave the NHL for the KHL, which prompted a "frustrated" blog-post from Caps owner Ted Leonsis.
Leonsis has been talking about trades all summer, but McPhee said the Varlamov trade came up by surprise, meaning that wasn't the trade the club had in mind.
NHL clubs are allowed to operate 10% above the salary cap during the summer, so there is no rush, but we can only assume that one of the Caps stars is on the trading block.
Based on the seriousness with which the Caps have pursued offensive defensemen over the past few years I would have guessed Green. Given that Leonsis just publicly called out Semin's interpreter, the tea leaves are currently looking mixed.
I've written great praises of both players in the past, and I stand by them. It will be interesting to see whether this summer sees the Caps keeping their core together while adding small pieces or drastically rebuilding one of the top teams in the league.
Tom Poti missed most of last season, so there is a chance that the Caps can get around the salary cap by keeping him on their injured list for most of the upcoming season. They would have to sign both Brouwer and Alzner at 2.5 or less to make this work. Restricted free agents don't have much leverage, so this is possible, but it would be impressive.
Just as likely, based mostly on Leonsis' constant mumbling about change, the Caps are optimistic that they will find salary cap relief and an influx of different talent as the summer progresses.
No comments:
Post a Comment