Click here for a nice article about our signing of Mike Knuble.
In our war room under “Want to Sign”, Knuble is the first name on a list of five players so I guess our staff prepared well. He wanted to play here and “we got our man” so praise be and a job well done.
Onward to a continuous upgrade and improvement for our team all within our budget and within our strategy framework. Go Caps!
Tags: Mike Knuble, NHL, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take, Washington Capitals
Funny. That was the first name on MY list too! Way to go guys!
Just out of curiosity, who were the other four?
Was a rocking chair part of the signing? He helps in the short term, but after watching last seasons team in the playoffs they are a few years off unless the D in front of the G improves.
Ted -
Thanks for sticking with GMGM! Despite all the nay-sayers out there, I am very thankful we have someone with some smarts at the controls.
I think my point is summed up nicely in this quote from the Habs GM - Bob Gainey.
“We’re going to have to play big and smart, but this was a day where you had to grab talent where you can,” Gainey said. “There are other teams that don’t have anyone to announce.”
What a joke.
I like him but still say the Caps have too many D and need to package 2 for 1, such as Poti and Pothier for Markov.
Perhaps the biggest indication of how good the Knuble signing was is the, as far as I can see, unanimous positive reaction from the hockey “pundits”. In the wide array of “expert opinions” out there, you generally have a few who provide contrarian views, either because of natural variability of opinion or because they like to be contrarian as part of their schtick. I am aware of nothing like that in this case.
It appears that unless/until something is done about a couple of somewhat troubling contracts, there is no more cap room for any significant acquisition to deal with the other two issues that it would seem the Caps could benefit by addressing this offseason. Those two issues are toughening up the defense some, and finding a 2nd line center. There is also a 3rd potential issue, which is replenishing loss of depth among the forwards — we have lost Kozlov, Federov, and Brashear while gaining only Knuble. Maybe a trade is the answer, but getting real upgrades may eat into the core more than you’d want. And I suspect that you see promotions from Hershey as being the real way you’d address that issue.
Now there may possibly be a solution for the 2nd line center hole in house — the two conceivable ones I see are promoting Laich to fill the role, or hoping that Anton G. comes out of nowhere. But I’d like to suggest a 3rd, which is a totally out-of-left-field idea. And that is — if Alzner and/or Carlson are considered ready to contribute in Washington either at the beginning of next season or sometime into it — convert Mike Green into a center! I don’t have enough knowledge of hockey skills to know if this is doable. However, it seems to me he has a lot of the talents needed for the position, it looks to me like a lot of our other defensemen are of at least equivalent capability defensively, and even if he were a center he could still play the point on the PP, which is where a majority of his offensive output came from last season. Where you lose out with that move, of course, is offensive firepower during 5-on-5.
Knuble was a highly strategic and well-thought out signing. He will fill a huge void in style of play in the playoffs for this team.
Now … about the D … can we or will we do anything there? I hope so and not just through Hershey attrition.
Go Caps!
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