Hockey Trade Rumors

The Washington Capitals are years away from competing for a playoff spot never mind the Stanley Cup. After pillaging their entire roster of almost all their veteran players the team turned to their best young players with an eye to the future. The result was yet another finish towards the bottom of the standings and a another top 5 pick in the draft.

Just a couple of seasons back the team had more well known talents such as Jagr, Witt, Klee, Kolzig, Bondra, Konawolchuk, Grier, Lang, Nylander, Gonchar and Johansson. They were a playoff team. Now only Kolzig remains and you’ll need to carry a program to figure out pretty much the balance of the Capitals roster these days.

However there is one player who has quickly made quite a name for himself around the league. This player is of course Alexander Ovechkin. Alex the Gr8 has certainly exceeded all expectations in his rookie season. Yes he was projected to do well, but a 50 goal, 100 point player as a rookie? That is astonishing. He has become one of if not the most exciting players to watch in the NHL. He has scored some dazzling goals and showed off his skills that are unmatched by most. The best part is that he can really mix it up and give and take punishment. He is fearless in that regard and it results in him willingly going to scoring areas and staking his spot on the ice. Pretty much every part of his game is awesome. And it is great for the league to have him and fellow rookie Sidney Crosby start their battle that should last for years to come.

But one player does not make a team. One player cannot make up 20 percent of the offence and be involved in roughly 40 percent of the goals scored. The man needs help and until the Caps find some, the team will not be going too far any time soon.

The Caps will have plenty of cap room to work with if they choose to spend money to find help for Ovechkin rather than wait for someone within to develop. However like this year, the Caps will likely stay close to the cap floor. The team has of late supposedly incurred several losses which is why much of the team was gutted and it would suprise no one if that happened again this year, especially missing the playoffs again.

Certainly on the priority list is to find a way to bring back UFAs Jeff Halpern and Chris Clark. Halpern is perhaps the team’s best two-way forward and is one of the few leaders that remain. Clark emerged as a 20 goal man with more playing time and has earned a decent contract. He played with energy, led the team in plus/minus and led by example.

But like most of the Caps forwards on the current roster, they are not natural goal scorers. The team is full of good skating, hard working checker types like Matt Pettinger, Brian Sutherby, Ben Clymer, Brian Willsie. They give an honest effort and all this past year managed to get double digits in goals but they are far from scoring threats. The team has more players like this on the horizon in Brroks Laich and Boyd Gordon. Both are terrific skaters and trained well in the defensive part of the game. They should mesh well into coach Glen Hanlon’s defence first approach. But again, the team needs offence.

The only other true offensive threat is veteran Dainus Zubrus. That is not saying much as it took Zubrus 10 years to finally have a 20 goal season. He has the size and speed but seems to not quite have the finish. But he has been an excellent tutor for Ovechkin in helping him adjust to NHL life.

The hope is to have one of their many skilled young forwards emerge as another offensive option for the Caps. The team has plenty to choose from, whether or not they turn out as expected remains to be seen.

Leading the group is Eric Fehr. He is a sniper. He is kind of a reminder of a young Glen Murray or John Leclair. He can score in bunches and it is usually around the net where he can use his size and strength.

Another player whom the Caps have not forgotten is Alexander Semin. A contract dispute has prevented the team from keeping a close tab on the skilled Russian who has stayed home the last couple of years. He is still very much a part of the plan as he has the speed and skills to keep up with Ovechkin. Them on the same line is what the Caps envision but if they cannot get him under contract, perhaps using him as trade bait is an option.

There is plenty of hope Tomas Fleischmann will turn into a decent player. He has great speed to go with skill and was leading the farm team in scoring. If he wishes to reach the next level, he will need take advantage of his skating as he is not a very big guy.

Chris Bourque has the best bloodlines among the Caps prospects. He is the son of course of Hall of Famer Raymond Bourque, the great Bruins defenceman. The younger Bourque is a tenacious hard working player who never gives up. Despite his small stature he is willing to battle. He hockey smarts and vision are reminiscent of his father.

Jakob Klepis is another highly skilled forward who certain to get a long hard look with the big club very soon. He has the tools, skating, passing, hard shot, he just needs to put it together consistently in order to reach the next level. If you find the glass half full, you will notice that he has already been with 3 organizations and in high demand.

As you can see, the Caps boast plenty of highly skilled prospects on the horizon. If any or all of them can develop as projected, the Caps in a couple of years should not have the trouble scoring goals as they do now.

Their scoring troubles are why the coaching staff has turned to a more defensive approach. I think this bodes well for them in the future to learn and get better at that side of the game. But what needs to be done is to improve their blueline.

There are a ton of young defencemen either with the team now or on their way. That bodes well for the future, but for now, the struggles will continue having so much youth learn on the job. They stripped themselves of so many veteran blueliners that there really isnt anyone to show their young D the ropes.

Steve Eminger is a very solid two-way blueliner who can be steady in his own end, but has the skills to be a good puck mover. But only in his 2nd year he has basically won by default the job of their top Dman.

The same can be said for youngster Shaone Morrisson. He has the potential to be both an offensive threat and a tough defender. The offensive numbers didnt come this year, but he has been quite solid defensively and will only get better. But again he should not be thrust into a top end role so quickly being just a rookie.

The team handled the Mike Green situation well. He was terrific in training camp and made the team. He was given a fair shot but when they realized he was a bit overwhelmed as a 20 year old, they quickly sent him back to the farm. He will likely one day be their top offensive blueliner, thanks to his skill level and skating ability.

I certainly hope the MCI Center is big because I am not sure if it can house at the same time Joe Finley, Jeff Schultz and Sasha Pokulok. Finley is 6’7 and 235 lbs and is just a teenager, Schultz just turned 20 and is 6’6 and 215. Pokulok is the shortest of the 3 at 6’5 and 235. These 3 towers, if they can all develop, may form the big defensive wall the team is currently lacking. That is their game and that is what the Caps need. I do not think that Ivan Majesky, Mathieu Biron, Nolan Yonkman and Bryan Muir quite cut it.

See that is what the Caps have for now, journeymen blueliners or good young blueliners. No middle ground. If they could somehow add a couple of established guys, it could make a world of difference. They at least need to bring in a couple of blueliners for guidance if anything.

The team has Olaf Kolzig in goal to save their bacon most nights. There is nothing wrong with having a front line goalie do that because that is his job. But at some point he needs help and at age 37, he wont be around forever. I am not sure how long Kolzig can keep up playing at a high level in front of a suspect blueline and a forward corps that has 1 scorer.

The team has no good young goalie of substance other than Maxime Daigneault but he is not very high on the prospect list for the Caps. It is an area they will need to address.

Things are not bad in the Capital. George McPhee has done a good job slashing payroll and rebuilding from the ground up. Glen Hanlon has also been fine teaching the youngsters. They do have a franchise guy to build around. There is also a number of solid youngsters here and on the horizon. But rebuilding can only go on for so long and sooner than later they will need results. They certainly cant go another year with a no name defence and 1 source for scoring. Gr8 is simply not enough.