Free Agency Episode 2 - The Attack Of The Plugs

[txpd]

Erat games missed per season:

2004 6
2006 2
2007 14
2008 6
2009 11
2010 8
2011 18
2012 11

And as a Capital in 2013, he played in 9 games and was injured for 10. And he's on the wrong side of 30.

He's no Mike Green, but I expect him to miss about a quarter of next season.

I don't get it. 25% of 82 games is 20+ games. he has approached 20 games once. 18 games. 10% 15% is something that would have fit the picture. why make it looks worse than it is??

ok...that's what we do here. we take a ding and make surgery. we take a bad day and make it a bad season. we make things worse than they are.

yes...mike green is injury prone. martin erat is ding proge. personally, I think its a sure sign that he's fragile that he got totally dump trucked by alex ovechkin and got hurt.

 

[Capitlols]

He is a proffessional and it is his job to know these things so don't act like you know everything

If your wrong 99% of the time your not a professional.

 

[Hivemind]

If it concerns the Flyers, Eklund is a reliable source. If it concerns the 29 other teams, he isn't.

 

[txpd]

no letdown here... letdown suggests you thought that the deal had done more positives for the caps. Every one pretty much hated the deal since the hour we waited after the deadline to find out the damage.

no letdown bc we all knew how bad it was

you guys are hilarious. I have to give you credit!!!

no point in trying to have a hockey conversation, I guess. or ask a straight forward question. I give up.

down the road when Forsberg is a decent nhl player and erat gives the caps two better seasons and latta becomes a solid bottom of the lineup player this deal will look like a win and all this thrashing over it will just be more stupid to forget.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

you guys are hilarious. I have to give you credit!!!

no point in trying to have a hockey conversation, I guess. or ask a straight forward question. I give up.

down the road when Forsberg is a decent nhl player and erat gives the caps two better seasons and latta becomes a solid bottom of the lineup player this deal will look like a win and all this thrashing over it will just be more stupid to forget.

Erat has scored 1 goal and missed half the games he has been a Cap.

You're right, we can't evaluate Forsberg or Latta, but Erat has thus far been as big a failure as he could have been.

He's 32 in October. Maybe he rebounds to the player he was in his prime. Or maybe his 5 goal season is the start of his decline.

Straight forward enough for you?

 

[Liberati0n*]

Erat has scored 1 goal and missed half the games he has been a Cap.

You're right, we can't evaluate Forsberg or Latta, but Erat has thus far been as big a failure as he could have been.

He's 32 in October. Maybe he rebounds to the player he was in his prime. Or maybe his 5 goal season is the start of his decline.

Straight forward enough for you?

I don't think it was a good trade, but you know we haven't seen enough of Erat to throw the word "failure" around. I think the more troubling issue is that Erat is probably the least problematic member of the second line right now....

 

[Dr John Carlson]

you guys are hilarious. I have to give you credit!!!

no point in trying to have a hockey conversation, I guess. or ask a straight forward question. I give up.

down the road when Forsberg is a decent nhl player and erat gives the caps two better seasons and latta becomes a solid bottom of the lineup player this deal will look like a win and all this thrashing over it will just be more stupid to forget.

Forsberg could turn out to be an all star, he could turn out to be a 2nd line winger or he might bust. We won't know for years. Same thing with Erat and Latta, could work out for us, might not. The point is, Forsberg held a lot of value, since he was just coming to NA after a great season in Sweden. Enough value that he could've been packaged for a good 2C or a good 2LD, which are more glaring needs than another LW. I think most people would agree that it was simply poor asset management by GMGM.

I don't think Erat is a bad player, but it just wasn't a very good move.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Also, pundits said that we could have gotten Erat for a lot cheaper in the offseason. The return on Bobby Ryan bears that out.

 

[Raikkonen]

Laich will be our main C in PK this season, I guess. Critical position. Other options? Beagle and... nobody?

So I wouldn't trade Brooks right now. I'm sure McPhee wouldn't also (don't know why exactly).

As it is I can "easily" predict some heavy PK workload for Backstrom. Which is bad.

 

[tycoonheart]

Hendy's absence on the PK will hurt. Need a replacement there.

 

[El Gato Bodegero]

I tought I was the only one that wanted a trade for Burmistrov. It could be a risk but I think he could be a late bloomer. I would rather try and fail than live with regret.

 

[NobodyBeatsTheWiz]

Hendy's absence on the PK will hurt. Need a replacement there.

Laich.

 

[Bure]

Hendy's absence on the PK will hurt. Need a replacement there.

Burmistrov.

Just a side note, he was the fastest kid in his draft year. A draft that included Taylor Hall.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

I don't think it was a good trade, but you know we haven't seen enough of Erat to throw the word "failure" around. I think the more troubling issue is that Erat is probably the least problematic member of the second line right now....

The way I look at the transaction is if McPhee believed that Forsberg was an asset that he was willing to move, there may have been better options available later on, i.e. WAPO reported that GMGM was looking to move up in this year's draft but just couldn't find a taker. Does that mean GMGM had someone he was targeting or interested in, if so I think moving a Forsberg for such a slot and perhaps adding something might have helped to move up. Water under the bridge at this point, but the way that trade went down it just smells of panic and desperation on Georges part.

 

[Holtbyisms]

Burmistrov.

Just a side note, he was the fastest kid in his draft year. A draft that included Taylor Hall.

Well... Chimmer is fast too except he reminds me of the kid from the Mighty Ducks movie who just crashes into the wall because he so fast but can't stop.

I think our team speed is pretty solid from the forward ranks. I'm more interested in Burmistrov's offensive talents. Is he Rico Fata or does he have some hockey awareness? I've only ever seen him play us and I've seen him make some dazzling moves but not a lot of finishes.

 

[Holtbyisms]

The way I look at the transaction is if McPhee believed that Forsberg was an asset that he was willing to move, there may have been better options available later on, i.e. WAPO reported that GMGM was looking to move up in this year's draft but just couldn't find a taker. Does that mean GMGM had someone he was targeting or interested in, if so I think moving a Forsberg for such a slot and perhaps adding something might have helped to move up. Water under the bridge at this point, but the way that trade went down it just smells of panic and desperation on Georges part.

I bet he was trying to move up for Buravoksky lol

 

[Bure]

Well... Chimmer is fast too except he reminds me of the kid from the Mighty Ducks movie who just crashes into the wall because he so fast but can't stop.

I think our team speed is pretty solid from the forward ranks. I'm more interested in Burmistrov's offensive talents. Is he Rico Fata or does he have some hockey awareness? I've only ever seen him play us and I've seen him make some dazzling moves but not a lot of finishes.

He was a top 10 pick, kids got skills. Great defensively he just needs a change of scenery.

 

[Liberati0n*]

I bet he was trying to move up for Buravoksky lol

He said they saw the top 12 players as the first tier, with a significant drop off below that, and that Burakovsky was the last player in another tier (probably the second one I guess), which is why they would have moved down if he hadn't been there. He wanted to move up to get a player in that first tier.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

He was a top 10 pick, kids got skills. Great defensively he just needs a change of scenery.

Rico Fata was an even higher pick.

 

[caps4cup]

FWIW I got the Ward signing off of Eklund's site

It wasn't actually Eklund though. A poster commented and said he knew a friend of Ward and that he was going to sign here for 3/4yrs and 12mil. And he got exactly that.

 

[usiel]

Also, pundits said that we could have gotten Erat for a lot cheaper in the offseason. The return on Bobby Ryan bears that out.

Come on now pundits???

 

[Ajax1995]

We have a top 6 winger coming back from a major lower body injury.
We have an injury prone top 6 winger coming off a 5 goal season.
We're moving a top 6 winger to 2C.

Taking nothing away from the defense, there's a lot of room for disaster up front.

The Caps have several reasonable options to fill out their top 6. Are they guaranteed to succeed? Of course not but few things are in this game.

The Caps have no reasonable options as their 2nd top 4 left defense IMO.

I have no concerns whatsoever about Erat's ability to be a top 6 forward in this league and I like the chances of Laich, Johansson, and Perreault being able to fill out the top 6 reasonably well a whole heck of lot more than Erskine, Orlov, and Hillen being able to do the same as a top 4 blueliner.

 

[Liberati0n*]

FWIW I got the Ward signing off of Eklund's site

It wasn't actually Eklund though. A poster commented and said he knew a friend of Ward and that he was going to sign here for 3/4yrs and 12mil. And he got exactly that.

If anything, Eklund's site got that from here. A thread that I'm too lazy to look up was posted about that, probably by the same friend's friend.

 

[hb12xchamps]

If Eklund is right about Brunner (doubt it) that means someone is being shipped out on the RW via trade since Brunner is a right handed shot. Move some salary, sign Brunner and Grabo

 

[Chimaera]

Well, Ted is probably operating in the black. So, Mission Accomplished!