The Dust, it has Settled

Another trade deadline has come and gone, and this one was a busy one for the Capitals. A very busy one.

Capitals general manger George McPhee engineered four deals in a span of a couple hours on Wednesday afternoon. A seventh-round draft choice in 2010 went to Carolina for veteran winger Scott Walker. A second-rounder in 2010 went to Minnesota for center Eric Belanger. A sixth-rounder in 2010 went to Columbus to bring blueliner Milan Jurcina back into the fold. And finally, the Caps sent defenseman Brian Pothier, minor league left winger Oskar Osala and a second-rounder in 2011 to Carolina for defenseman Joe Corvo.

“I think anytime you get a chance to improve your team without giving up a lot – I hate losing Brian Pothier – but we gained four guys and gave up one so I thought that’s a pretty good exchange,” says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “There were some spots where I thought we’d like to improve and get better at, and I thought we did today.”

Corvo, who played for Boudreau at both Lowell and Manchester of the AHL, missed a couple months of this season after his calf was sliced open by the skate blade of Washington’s Karl Alzner in a Nov. 30 game at Carolina. His offensive numbers this season are actually very similar to those of Pothier. Both are right-handed shots. Corvo has averaged 25:13 (11th in the NHL) to Pothier’s 18:03 in ice time per night.

When he makes his Capitals debut on Thursday against the Lightning at Verizon Center, expect Corvo to be slotted alongside Tom Poti.

“He’s got an unbelievable shot,” says Boudreau of Corvo. “We used to call him ‘one-man breakout’ in the American League because you couldn’t catch him. He was so quick. He can make that good first pass. I think with our forwards, if you get that puck to them in a hurry they like to go.

“I wouldn’t call him a physical player, but I know the last three years he competes an awful lot harder physically than he did when he first started out.

Belanger played for Boudreau as a minor leaguer in Lowell. (Belanger and Corvo both played for the 2000-01 Boudreau-coached Lowell Lock Monsters.) A center with good speed and face-off ability, he has carved out a solid niche as a dependable, reliable and steady third-line center in the league. Belanger has 13 goals this season, marking the fourth time in five seasons he has totaled that figure exactly. He has totaled between 33 and 37 points every season since 2002-03.

“I look at him and he can play [on the] second line [if needed],” says Boudreau. “He’s got great speed. He can kill penalties. We’ve got offense and he can bring offense, but he is a great defensive player. And he’s always among the top 10 face-off guys in the league. And he hits sneaky hard. I think it was something we needed and I think it’s a good pick-up.”

The addition of Belanger enables the Caps to move Tomas Fleischmann back to his natural left wing position, where Boudreau believes he will be more comfortable. Boudreau believes he’ll use Belanger between Fleischmann and Eric Fehr against the Bolts on Thursday, but the bench boss will have 19 games with which to experiment with line combos between now and the start of the playoffs.

Walker is a rugged, hard-nosed, sandpaper player who will not hesitate to drop the gloves in defense of a teammate or himself. He has reached the 20-goal level three times in the NHL, but his settled into the role of a checking or energy type player in the last couple seasons. He missed several weeks earlier this season while recovering from shoulder surgery but is back at peak health now.

The 36-year-old Walker was drafted as a defenseman by Vancouver back in 1993 when McPhee was still employed by the Canucks as assistant general manager. Walker is the epitome of the type of player contending teams routinely pursue at this time of the year. Walker is a player that everyone wants as a teammate and no one wants to play against.

“You look at what he did for Carolina in the playoffs,” says Boudreau of Walker, “he looked like a first-line player. He is coming off some injuries and he hasn’t played that much this year, but for depth and sandpaper and to move in and out of the lineup – because he’s 36 – and to get ready for the playoffs, it’s a great acquisition.”

Jurcina spent some 65 days as a member of the Blue Jackets after going to Columbus in a Dec. 28 deal that also sent Chris Clark to the Jackets in exchange for left wing Jason Chimera. Jurcina is currently on the sidelines with a sports hernia injury, but should be healthy enough to return come playoff time. He was a strong performer for the Capitals during the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.

“He’s injured right now,” says Boudreau of Jurcina. “He’s out for six weeks. We want him for the depth. If you’re hoping to go a long way in the playoffs, you usually get guys injured. Nine or 10 defensemen is not unheard of to go through in a playoff run. Juice played very good for us in the playoffs last year. We thought it was a cheap way to get insurance and maybe he’ll be ready to play by the final week of the regular season.”

This was Washington’s busiest trade deadline since 1999. The team was a seller that year, and it moved four players (Dale Hunter, Joé Juneau, Craig Berube and Tom Chorske) for a handful of picks and defenseman Alexei Tezikov. The four 1999 deals were made over a two-day span.

“In the end, we’ve added more speed to a not bad offensive team,” assesses Boudreau. “Corvo is one of the higher scoring defensemen in the league when he’s healthy. He’ll add to the power play and he plays a lot of minutes in Carolina and they went to the semi-finals last year. Eric Belanger is a solid, solid player. He has played well for Minnesota and for every team he’s been on. Scott Walker was a great playoff performer. He’s been through the wars. He hasn’t played a lot this year but we count on veteran leadership from him. Milan Jurcina is probably just very happy to back where he felt most comfortable.

“You add all those guys in and I think we all have the common goal. As much as some guys aren’t going to be playing as much anymore, I think the goal will be the same and I think they’ll get along fine.”

A few other observations here from me after a very busy day:
Washington made good use of the salary cap space it had accrued to augment an already strong roster of players in a bid for the team’s first Stanley Cup. The cap space is likely to disappear this summer, as the contracts of all four players acquired today will expire on June 30, and Washington will need the space to sew up several of its young core players who are set to become restricted free agents. That list includes Nicklas Backstrom, Fleischmann, Fehr and Jeff Schultz.

Pothier is one of the best guys ever to pass through Washington. He was a terrific and thoughtful quote, and as responsible and accountable as any player I’ve ever known. Never once do I remember him hiding in the shower after a game or refusing to come out to talk to the media. There aren’t many guys I can say that about. I’ve also always been impressed by his quiet inner fortitude, and I know that went a long way toward enabling him to comeback from his concussion problems last season. I truly wish the best for him and his family.

The depth additions give Boudreau the ability to rest players and manage ice time here and there as the Caps gear up for the playoffs. The coach won’t cop to it, but all the drama is gone from both the Southeast Division and Eastern Conference races. Now the drama involves watching how Boudreau integrates his new pieces and in what ways he chooses to manage and deploy his roster as the team tries to hit a performance peak at the right time.

Carolina moved five players today, and it now has 11 picks in the 2010 draft. The Hurricanes have picks in every round, three in second, two on third and two in sixth rounds. They also have an extra second in 2011. The only player they traded today that was not a pending UFA was Andrew Alberts, so it’s possible that some of those players could find their way back to Raleigh as free agents this summer.

No first-round picks exchanged hands.

Ray Whitney, Dwayne Roloson, Marty Biron, Dan Hamhuis, Tomas Kaberle and Tomas Vokoun all finished the day on the same teams they were on when they woke up.

It is going to be extremely interesting to watch the dogfight in the West, both leading up to the playoffs and in the playoffs. I like what Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix and Colorado did today.

The teams at the top of the Eastern Conference standings (Washington, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Buffalo) all made noteworthy moves either today or in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline. But the group of teams clustered between six and 13 in the Eastern Conference standings didn’t do much in an effort to create separation from the pack. There was nothing from Philly, the Rangers or Montreal. There were only minor moves from Atlanta and Boston.