Capitals with lucky number seven!!!!

[JohnnyFlame]

Superfraggle was saying "Fart have you gone crazy"? and JohnnyFlame could only laugh. Well I went with Cheese's advice who said that perhaps the team had two many veterans and didn't have the right mix. We dealt some outstanding players but in return the team is set for years and there are still a good compliment of vets to field a competitive team.

We think that Horton with Zhamnov and Antropov along with Boyle and Boucher can be an excellent top five. Then the next five would be a veteran unit of McAmmond, Francis, Scatchard, Mara and Cross. Then we would mix a veteran line in Horcoff, Ricci and Bougnecki with two young dmen in Visnevski and Pitkanen. The fourth line would see Schaeffer alongside youngsters Lombardi and Taffe.

Yeah Superfraggle said but what about the guys you gave up. JohnnyFlame said well we dealt two 40 somethings who won't be in the mix next year, an underperforming CPHL and going downhill NHL goalie in return for young talent. We traded a great young player in Gaborik for a even younger star in Horton. Marty St. Louis is an awesome NHL player but he sucks in the CPHL. He isn't in the top 100 scoring in the CPHL this year nor was he last and maybe on a new team he can actually play some hockey like he is supposed to. Kaberle was brutal on defense despite his pts. Gill was useless.

A whole lot of nothing was what we gave up in actual performance though on paper and in that other league they are exceptional players.

The team won with a whole, whole lot less talent last year and at the end of the day they will likely perform no worse than what they were which was a .500 team who neither scored well or played well defensively.

Caps are back to their old strategy. Just make trades and enjoy that and if the SIM likes that then good and if not oh well then make some more trades!!!!!

[JiriHrdina]

Congrats Johnny and all the GMs that were a part of this. The Wild feel shame that they stood pat with all the fun going on. Well, we did make a position change request today.

The amazing thing is that there were other HUGE deals besides the ones involving the Caps. Awesome day for the CPHL!

[Superfraggle]

Superfraggle must've been looking at the Capitals' chances for this year:

Zhamnov Zhamnov
St. Louis Horton
Antropov vs. Antropov advantage: old team
MacInnis Boyle*
Gill Boucher

Yzerman Francis*
Johnson Scatchard*
Gaborik vs. McAmmond advantage: old team
Kaberle Mara*
Boyle Cross**

Handzus Horcoff
Scatchard Ricci
Knuble vs. Boguniecki* advantage: old team
Mara Vishnevski
Kalinin Pitkanen***

Francis Lombardi
Boguniecki vs. Taffe*** advantage: old team
Matlby Schaefer**

* = players on new team who were on lower lines with the old team
** = players who were scratched on the old team
*** = players who were in minors with old team


Granted the old team wasn't playing well and needed something to shake them up, but by NO stretch of the imagination is the new team an improvement. Youth was brought in for a couple older players: commendable. Giving up quality young players like St. Louis and Gaborik for little in return: foolish. Gaborik is extremely good NOW and is young to boot. Horton is all right now, and is young. Both have lots of potential: advantage goes to gaborik. This new team may be great in 2007, but has little to no chance this year. The old team was extremely good now, and had a good future ahead of it, with a couple older players like MacInnis and Francis expected to make way for the youth in Pitkanen, Yonkman, and Schaefer.

[JohnnyFlame]

Yeah I think you are right in your anaylysis Superfraggle. On paper they should have been a very good team. But I was convinced they were going nowhere this year and the opportunity to offload guys who would usually be dealt at the deadline couldn't be passed up. Gives me the rest of the year to see which young guys can perform. Lots of them are on one year deals and if they want a new contract they better put up some pts. or they can sit next year. Especially on defense where I have a pile of young talent.

I'm looking forward to 3 games in 3 nights to see how the new lineup fares. Caps lost the last two in a row so won't take much for them to equal or better that!!!!

[Superfraggle]

Fair enough...I still think you could've gotten better return in these deals, though. Now that I'm no longer affiliated with the team, I'm perfectly content to sit back and see the results of tonight's craziness