Message #1067174

[Frau Mau]

Caps signed winger Joey Crabb tonight - 1 year deal worth $950,000. Scored 11 goals last season with Toronto; he seems like a solid, cheap addition to the bottom-six. Essentially a cheaper, grittier replacement for Aucoin/Knuble rotating on the fourth line. I'm not sure what else we're going to do (I doubt we are in on either Suter or Parise), but I've heard we're going hard for Bobby Ryan, which I would love. If we can swing a deal where we move Green, Johansson, and a pick for Ryan I'll be thrilled. I think we can make a deal work even though Anaheim just picked up a couple depth defensemen today.

Ideally, for me, we are able to acquire Ryan and sign Matt Carle and Jiri Hudler. Carle, though, could be really expensive considering how much teams overpaid for Dennis Wideman and Garrison. We have the space and Carle is incredibly solid - but if Wideman got $5.25 million for 5 years, what will 27-year-old Carle get? $6+ million? I'd be interested in a 4-or-5-year deal worth 24/30 million as he seems like a pretty safe investment (only missed 4 total games the last 3 seasons) and could be a great replacement for Green (if we traded him). We can get pretty creative this offseason and re-tool our roster completely for what Oates is looking for. Standing pat and making a few minor moves seems so unlikely considering McPhee's tone recently (saying how he was watching the playoffs and kept thinking how we need guys who can take and receive physical punishment day in and day out - to me that means more big power forwards (Ryan! ... and our second first-round pick this year, Wilson). Ribeiro isn't a powerful center but he's willing to mix it up and can be an agitator so I liked that move a lot (plus he's a legit #2 center).

I think the organization - especially Ovechkin - saw what it takes to win and what it means to sacrifice for the team this year, and adding in the right players for an up-tempo, attacking system that Oates seems to bring in (but with defensive responsibility) could prove huge dividends. I think Ovechkin will be energized by Oates' coaching and system this year, and hopefully moving out his buddy Semin will make it easier on him to lead and not worry about his friend slouching so much (his comments after the playoffs screamed "my best friend on the team has been jealous of ice time for less talented players, but he doesn't realize what it takes to win").

Hopefully Parise and Suter decide to go to Western Conference teams tomorrow, and the rest of the dominoes can fall shortly thereafter. Bobby Ryan could be really expensive, so if we can hold on to Alzner and Carlson in that deal, I'll probably be OK with it.

Edit, son, edit!