Thursday, February 08, 2007

Will Trade Improve Post-season Outlook?

The NHL trade deadline is fast approaching (Feb. 27) and it seem very unlikely the Caps will move anyone or acquire any players. Milan Jurcina was acquired after the Caps lost Brian Potheir to the dreaded injury list, which is filled with nothing but defensemen (John Erskine and Bryan Muir are also out), has tons of potential, but no experience.

If the Caps did make that trade to beef up their lines, would you want another defenseman, or are you looking for more offensive power? The Capitals do need more experience on the blue line, but also need something to bring some consistency on offense as well. I don’t believe the Caps will do anything if it isn’t for a top prospect or a draft pick, which is a disappointing outlook for this team to round out the rest of this year.

But who would the Caps move, who isn’t getting the job done and is expendable? Certianly some thought in to moving the likes of Jakub Klepis after he has shown very little improvement through the course of this year. Klepis has been touted as an exceptional play maker, but Klepis has made only 2 assists in the last 17 games, forcing management to scratch him from the lineup. Or is there another player that has failed to meet expectations that may be let go of?

Right now, the way I see it, GMGM may have a plan in place to do just that: stay in place. It does not seem very likely GMGM will get very much in return if he did do a deal with what he has. This leaves the rest of this team to scrape for points with little help from management, for this season anyway.

The Caps know how important it is to start accumulating points if they are ever going to taste the playoffs this year. However, the higher ups maybe throwing the towel in on that idea if they let the trade deadline go without improving the team’s makeup.

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