Capital Acquisitions (Updated)

The Capitals have acquired RW Scott Walker from the Carolina Hurricanes for a 2010 7th round draft pick [story]. 

The Capitals have acquired C Eric Belanger from the Minnesota Wild for a 2010 2nd Round Draft Pick.

The Capitals have re-acquired D Milan Jurcina from the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 2010 6th Round Draft Pick

The Capitals have acquired D Joe Corvo from the Carolina Hurricanes for Brian Pothier, Oskar Osala, and a 2nd Round Pick.  [Story]

5'10, 196, Shoots: Right

2009-10 Cap Hit: $2.5 million, UFA in 2010-11

2009-10 Stats:  33 GP, 3-2-5, -4, 23 PIM, 9:50 TOI/G (0:27 PP, 0:22 SH), 50 Shots

Pros:  Experience:  Walker is a true veteran with 820 NHL games under his belt.  He has scored 149 goals 39 PP, 12 SH) and 394 points in those games with 1,153 PIM.  He also has 29 playoff games under his belt with 1-7-8, which includes a trip to the Eastern Conference Final last year.  His playoff run included a wonderful punch on defenseman Aaron Ward http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynS7OUUCLx8.  His is well respected for his leadership, briefly serving as the captain of the Nashville Predators in 2003.  He has three 20+ goal, 50+ point seasons under his belt, but that seems to be behind him. He seems to be an insurance policy on Jason Chimera because of the groin injury and he might have a few goals left in him before he's done.  He shouldn't be disruptive to team chemistry and shouldn't complain about lack of ice time or being a healthy scratch.

Cons:  Age, he's 36.  Injuries are another concern, especially with his rough style of play.  He missed a large chunk of this season after having shoulder surgery, and he has had concussion issues in the past.  His production has dipped considerably, and he's not playing many minutes per night.  His contributions on ice would be limited.  He is a $2.5 million role player at this point.

Price:  Low.  If we get 30 games out of Scott Walker, I think that will be more than an average 7th round pick would play. He was off my radar mostly because I didn't think he'd have much left in the tank.

Eric Belanger, C, 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.

My predicted 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.

Actual asking price:  A second round pick.  It may not sound like much, but McPhee is hitting on a lot of second-rounders these days.  It seems like Minnesota got what they wanted.

Milan Jurcina, D, Columbus Blue Jackets/Washington Capitals, (Age: 26)

6'4, 236, Shoots: Right

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit:  $1.375 Mil, UFA for 2010-11

2009-10 Stats:  44 GP, 1-6-7, +2, 24 PIM, 17:40 TOI (0:23 PP, 2:12 SH), 88 Hits, 59 BkS, 16 GvA, 6 TkA, 49 SOG

Pros:  Familiarity: we know what we're getting in Juice, he was here earlier this season and had been a Cap for a while.  He's got size and strength, he hits hard, and he's got that playoff experience now.  He's got a booming shot.  He doesn't have the snarl of an Andy Sutton, but he's close in size and does a lot of the same things well.  He should be feeling pretty good about himself coming off an impressive showing by Slovakia in the Olympics, with 7 GP, 2 PIM and a -1 rating in 16:38 of ice time.  Captain Hook doesn't seem to be taking as many penalties this year as in the past, either.  He's a right handed shot.

Cons:  That sports hernia might be a problem.  He's not very fast.  He has issues with defensive zone awareness.  He doesn't shoot enough. 

Asking Price: A 6th Round Draft Pick is lower, I believe, than the 4th round choice we gave up for him initially.  It's a fair price for him and it doesn't hurt the Caps much, since the number of games we'd get out of Jurcina is about what we'd get out of an average 6th round draft pick. 

Joe Corvo, D, Carolina Hurricanes (Age: 32)

6'0, 204, Shoots: Right

2009-10 Salary Cap Hit: $2.625 Mil, UFA for 2010-11

2009-10 Stats:  34 GP, 4-8-12, -6, 10 PIM, 25:13 TOI/G (4:38 PP, 3:23 SH), 19 Hits, 45 BkS, 16 GvA, 17 TkA, 76 Shots

Pros:  Joe Corvo plays a ton of minutes in Carolina and has been a 37+ point defenseman since the lockout and has scored 13 or more goals three times in the last four years.  He logs a ton of special teams time, and is another right-handed shot for the Capitals, and he doesn't take penalties.  At 32, he's in his prime, even if he is on a struggling team this season.  He has good size and is very good with the puck.  He shoots a lot, and with 4-2-6 on the powerplay this year, he's still making use of his time.  He has good playoff experience, going to the Stanley Cup Final with Ottawa in 2007 and the Conference Final with Carolina last year.  His career totals are 468 GP, 66 Goals (30 PP), 212 Points, +43, 184 PIM.  His playoff totals are 38 GP, 4-12-16, 10 PIM.

Cons:  He is coming off an injury; Karl Alzner sliced his ankle tendon in a game against the Caps and he has missed almost half the season.  He's not very physical, he's only logged 19 hits. 

Cost:  Very high.  I did not think George McPhee would make a deal of this magnitude for Corvo, within the division.  Corvo is very, very good, and I think ultimately he was worth what we paid to get him, especially considering the climate.  He is an obvious upgrade over Pothier for about the same money, and a second round pick is justified here, but I didn't see McPhee trading away such an experienced defenseman.  Carolina is not going to the playoffs, and Pothier was a way for us to shed salary, so Carolina wanted something else, and the got a pretty good prospect in Oskar Osala.  Osala was supposed to be our next power forward and had been struggling to adapt to the North American game somewhat, but with a 23-goal, 37-point AHL rookie campaign to go with a 6-goal, 10-point Calder Cup Run, and 15 goals and 29 points this season, he seemed to be doing pretty well.  I didn't think we would give up Osala at the trade deadline. I'm sure he was a demand from Jim Rutherford since he probably could have gotten another nice prospect from another team for Corvo.  I didn't expect us to be willing to go this high for him, which is why I considered Zidlicky a more likely pickup, (an equivalent talent), because I would have expected us to trade Francois Bouchard their direction, a prospect I didn't see panning out with us.  I guess when Zidlicky signed with Minnesota, McPhee had to go another direction and had his hand forced by a talented GM within the Southeast.  Overall, a good trade, but we'll see what the subtraction of Pothier will mean.