Caps Trade Prospects: Forwards (Updated)

Here is the second half of my trade prospects summary:  Forwards.  I believe there are several forwards that might interest the Capitals and I'm going to run down the list of who I think is of interest and available.  Some are more likely than others, of course.  Rumor has it George McPhee is in the market for a center, which is no surprise.  There are a lot of names being bandied about, but I don't suspect any team with real playoff aspirations will trade away a player as valuable as a big #2 center.

Doug Weight, NY Islanders (Age:  39)

5'11, 196, Shoots: Left

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $2.2 million, UFA for 2010-11

2009-10 Stats:  31 GP, 1-14-15, -1, 6 PIM, 15:45 TOI/G (4:18 PP, 0:10 SH), 51 Shots, Won 46.6% of 118 Faceoffs

Pros:  Experience.  Doug Weight is a great team leader, as evidenced by the "C" he wears, and is well respected around the league.  He can pass very well and he doesn't take a lot of penalties.  His career numbers are 1,215 Games, 276-746-1022, -55, 958 PIM.  He won a Stanley Cup in 2006 with Carolina, so he's got the goods, and he's a 4-time all-star with a 100 point season on his resume, not to mention six 20-goal seasons and ten 40-assist seasons. With 1-2-3 in his last 2 games, he seems to be getting in a groove.  He also has 23-49-72 in 97 playoff games.  He could be a depth scoring center for us with just a little gas left in the tank.

Cons:  Age.  He's missed half the season with injury, too.  He's not exactly setting the league on fire this year.  Those 20-goal seasons?  None since 2000-01.  He's not exactly going to bring a ton of goal scoring to the team.  You'd think he'd have more than 15 points, and only 5 powerplay assists, in 31 games with 4:18 of PP time per game, too.  Don't count on him to carry the team, or win many faceoffs for that matter.

Asking Price:  It depends on interest, but he should be affordable.  Then again, he's been overrated before.

Eric Belanger, Minnesota Wild (Age 32)

5'11, 187, Shoots: Left

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $1.75 Mil

Stats:  60 GP, 13-22-35, -1, 28 PIM, 15:45 TOI/G (2:22 PP, 1:41 SH), 120 Shots, Won 57.6% of 722 Faceoffs

Pros:  He can win faceoffs by the truckload.  He can play on the powerplay or the penalty kill.  He's having a career year offensively. He has 3-6-9 on the powerplay, too. He doesn't take a lot of penalties.  He has played 617 NHL Games with 119-174-293 and only 279 PIM.  He also has 30 playoff games with 2-4-6.  He also has only 19 Giveawayas to 31 takeaways.

Cons:  His career year doesn't mean a lot of scoring, he's matched his usual production of 35 points with a quarter of the season to go.  He won't exactly set the world on fire, either.

Asking price:  Higher than we'd want because he'd probably be attractive to a team in real need of a checking forward who wins faceoffs, not every team has that.  He isn't doing much better than Brendan Morrison except in faceoffs and he's not much younger or bigger.  This looks like a sideways trade.

Saku Koivu, Anaheim Ducks (Age 35)

5' 10, 178, Shoots:  Left

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $3.25 Mil

Stats:  53 GP, 12-21-33, +6, 28 PIM, 18:20 TOI/G (2:27 PP, 2:08 SH), 89 Shots, Won 52.1% of 814 Faceoffs

Pros:  Experience, leadership, toughness, class.  He won the King Clancy Trophy for leadership on and off the ice in 2007.  He was an All-Star in 1998.  He is one of the classiest players in the league.  He had been captain of the storied Montreal Canadiens for the past ten years.  The Finn is an adept playmaker and has been the #1 center in Montreal for a decade, no small feat for a small skater, and his accolades include turning Richard Zednik into a 30-goal scorer.  He is tough as they come, having survived stomach cancer in 2002 to return in time for the playoffs and win the Masterton Trophy for perseverance.  He has 203 goals and 471 assists for 674 points in 845 games to go along with 48 points in 54 playoff games.  This season he is killing penalties (1-1-2 while shorthanded, too) and is making use of his powerplay time with 3-7-10.  He also has a respectable 4 game winning goals.  He is a very good faceoff man, to boot.  He also had a fine Olympics and added a bronze medal to his trophy case which already includes bronze in 1994 and 1998 and a silver in 2006.  The only time Finland hasn't medaled in the last 16 years was when he was sick in 2002, and he is one of the greatest players in Finnish history.  

Cons:  Durability.  Koivu had a long series of incomplete seasons after his rookie year in which he failed to play seventy games six years in a row.  There is no doubt as to his quality, the doubt for me lies in his age durability. He's missed several games to injury this season, too.  He's had some seasons with high penalty minutes, too.  He's not exactly a large player, either.  

Asking Price:  High.  A lot of teams will be after Koivu, and you can bet Anaheim will want a good return if they're this close to the playoffs.  Then again, I wanted him in the offseason, so maybe I am overestimating.  

Wingers to trade for:

Owen Nolan, (RW) Minnesota Wild (Age 38)

6'1, 214, Shoots: Right

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $2.75 mil

Stats: 56 GP, 14-14-28, E, 25 PIM, 16:30 TOI/G (2:29 PP, 1:11 SH), 125 Shots, Won 47.8% of 289 Faceoffs

Pros:  It's Owen Nolan, the same one who called his own shot in the 1997 All-Star Game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSb_5PHRb1w).  He is still playing the powerplay, with 3-4-7, and has 1 SH Goal on the year.  He's a 5-time All-Star and former Captain with 1,183 NHL Games under his belt, not to mention the 420 goals and 880 points, oh and 1,778 Penalty Minutes. He's also seen action in 65 playoff games with 21-19-40, including a memorable 1999-2000 season when he had 8-2-10 in 10 games.  Good production from him isn't that long ago, he had 25-20-45 just last season, in only 59 games.  He's the nasty physical winger any team can use, but especially a team that should go far in the playoffs.

Cons:  Age.  He's not the force he used to be, no matter how much we want him to be.  His physical style of play has caused him many injuries over the years and he's spent a lot of summers rehabbing instead of working out. 

Asking price:  It's Owen Nolan, it's going to be pretty high for what he is.

Fredrik Modin, (LW) Columbus Blue Jackets (Age:  35)

6'4, 218, Shoots:  Left

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:

Stats:  23 GP, 2-4-6, -6, 12 PIM, 14:47 TOI/G, (0:47 PP, 1:43 SH), 35 Shots

Pros:  Experience:  He's got 222 goals and 447 points in 837 NHL games, he doesn't take dumb penalties, and he's got Olympic Gold (2006) and a Stanley Cup on his resume (2004, 8-11-19 in 23 GP with Tampa Bay).  He's had five 22+ goal seasons with three teams, including seasons of 32, 29, and 31 goals with Tampa.  If his rocket shot holds up (2001 NHL All-Star Game Hardest Shot Winner), he might still have a little left in the tank, a la Sergei Fedorov.  He played fairly well in the Olympics with 1 assist in 3 games.   He's got to be eager for a new chance and should mesh well with the team.

Cons:  Age.  Fredrik Modin is an enigma right now.  He's on his last legs in Columbus and has been plagued by injuries this year and the last two (106 games combined in 3 seasons). He's missed almost 2/3 of this season with injuries.  I don't see him as a regular, but he'd be a good depth scoring forward, which I'm sure we could use for a long playoff grind.  His last 20 goal season was 2006-07.

Asking Price:  As we have already seen, the Columbus Blue Jackets are a more than willing trade partner, and Modin's trade value will never be lower than it is now, especially with a $3.25 Million Cap Hit.  If McPhee was ever looking for a bargain, this would be it.

Keith Tkachuk (C/W), St. Louis Blues (Age at playoffs: 38)

6'2, 235, Shoots: Left

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $2.55 Mil, No Trade Clause

2009-10 Stats:  55 GP, 12-16-28, -4, 46 PIM 14:07 TOI/G (2:48 PP, 0:35 SH), 109 Shots, Won 56.9% of 580 Faceoffs

Pros:  He's Keith Tkachuk, he's a fairly durable player who can be a regular cotributor even at this age. He has only once not hit the 20-goal mark, and that was a 15-goal season in 41 games.  He scored 25-24-49 in 79 games last year.   Big, tough, strong net-crashing player who is good on the powerplay (5-4-9).  He's played 1,189 games and has scored 537 goals, 212 on the powerplay, and 1,061 points along with 2,209 Pentaly Minutes.  He has added 28-28-56 in 89 playoff games.  He wins lots of faceoffs.  He was team captain in Phoenix, too, so he's got those great leadership qualities.  Plus, he's got a great nickname:  Walt.  

Cons:  Age.  He's not the player he once was.  Even when he was in his prime, he has only been past the second round of the playoffs once.  He's not going to blaze by anyone with his speed or kill tons of penalty time, and he's only playing 14 minutes a night.  He also has been known to be out of shape at times.  He's also got a broken finger right now which will keep him out for at least a week.

Asking price:  It'll have to be high to even get St. Louis management to ask him to waive his No Trade Clause.  In the past, his asking price has been high, and there must be several teams interested in his services, but he does seem to like being in St. Louis.  

Wildcards: 

Richard Park, (RW) NY Islanders (Age:  33)

5'11, 190, Shoots: Right

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $750,000

2009-10 Stats:  62 GP, 6-13-19, -20, 18 PIM, 15:23 TOI/G (0:17 PP, 2:17 SH), 113 Shots, Won 50.4% of 752 Faceoffs

Pros:  He's quick and he kills penalties. He's not bad on faceoffs.  Why am I writing about him then?  He makes $750K and is UFA at the end of he year.  He also has 652 regular season games of experience with 92-123-215 and 38 playoff games with 3-5-8 and a trip to the Conference Final with Minnesota in 2003.  He would bring depth and a little experience and a little sneakiness to the lower lines.  He is a fierce competitor and always seems to do well against the Caps.

Cons:  He's redundant and doesn't score much.  He won't add much value to the team in an area we don't already have. 

Asking Price:  It's gotta be low, which is right up McPhee's alley, and that's the only reason he's on this list.

Vyacheslav Kozlov, (LW) Atlanta Thrashers (Age: 37)

5'10, 190, Shoots:  Left

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $3.67 mil, UFA for 2010-11

2009-10 Stats:  52 GP, 8-16-24, -16, 31 PIM, 15:26 TOI/G (3:28 PP, 0:02 SH) , 110 Shots

Pros:  Slava Kozlov is an amazing offensive player, he's been a big-time scorer for a long time, with a 76 point season just last year.  He is very experienced, with 1,179 NHL games, 356 goals (99 on the PP) and 851 career points and only 702 PIM and is a career +95.  He also has those two Stanley Cup rings from Detroit in 1996-97 and 1997-98, the latter of which was won at MCI Center.  He has 118 Playoff Games under his belt with 42 goals and 79 points to show for it, along with a +12 and only 82 PIM.  He's got the credentials and is another Russian to add to our stable.  He is a powerplay wizard, to boot, with 3-9-12 on the PP this year, half his production and he finished second in powerplay points last season with 12-31-43.  

Cons:  He's unmotivated this year, having been a healthy scratch for a long time now. He's old and is another Russian who doesn't play defense (no PK time and a horrid -16), making him redundant.  Will he be ok with going from being a healthy scratch in Atlanta to a healthy scratch in DC?  Who knows, and I'm not sure McPhee is even looking at him.

Asking price:  Higher than we'd like.  He's within the division and Waddell is selling only to get return, he wants to make the playoffs and Kozlov could help with that.  John Anderson may also be warning Bruce Boudrea off about him.  This is what makes him a wildcard.  Would we give up that much for a depth player that's high risk/high reward and fiddle with team chemistry?