Coming Soon To An Arena Near You?

As you've probably read, the Islanders have announced that they will buy-out the remainder of center Alexei Yashin's contract. Naturally, our thoughts turn to whether or not we'd like to see Yashin here in D.C., so let's take a look at some of the pros and cons of such a move:

Pros

• He's a legitimate first-line center and more talented than anyone currently on the roster at that position.
• He will cost significantly less than other top centers on the market.
• He has some chemsitry already with Alex Ovechkin (recall the Turin Olympics).
• He wouldn't have the huge contract or the burden of the captaincy to live up to.
• A change of scenery likely would do him good.

Cons

• He's Alexei Yashin.

I'm going to go against the conventional wisdom on this one and say that, if the price and term were right, it wouldn't be the worst move this team has ever made to sign Yashin. Then again, the possibility of signing Yashin, drafting Alexei Cherepanov, banking on Simeon Varlamov, changing the team's primary color to red... it all has a certain flavor to it, doesn't it? Hope you like borscht!

UPDATE (6/6, 7:16 pm): OK, I've made up (changed?) my mind and am now firmly in the "no at any cost" camp after reading this:

The rumblings around the National Hockey League was that [Ryan] Smyth would listen to the Islanders proposals, but he had no intention in re-signing there because of his disdain for Yashin and his lethargic ways.

If the guy's such a disease that free agents won't even consider signing where he's playing, I certainly wouldn't want him on my team. Let someone else roll the dice - someone who can afford to swing and miss (to mix metaphors).