People who are saying the Caps "tanked" obviously are not thinking about what they are saying. Put yourself in Leonsis' shoes. You have a high-paid, underachieving team that is among the bottom five all season. I'll repeat that - we were doing bad all season. It's not like once we traded all those players we descended into the bottom 5. Wouldn't you trade all those high-paid players for young players with lots of potential? I know I would, especially considering there most likely will not be an NHL season next year. The lockout means the players we traded will only get a year older, while the youngsters we brought in will get another year of experience, which will improve their game. Trading Jagr and Gonchar was the best possible thing the Caps could have done. It takes a lot for an owner to realize that the team needs to rebuild, and Leonsis was able to do that. This should prove to be a very smart decision in a couple years. As for Yeats, what I have heard is that we signed the guy basically as a try-out for the AHL and NHL. The Caps likely won't hold onto him since we're very deep in net, but it was showcasing the guy to other NHL teams in hopes of having him impress a couple teams and sign a contract with them next season. We weren't "tanking" the season with him.
And I read earlier in this thread that even though the Caps will get Ovechkin, our prospect pool is only average. That's funny because everything I've read says Ouellet, Aulin, Semin, Fehr, Gordon, Eminger, Sutherby, Fleischmann, Klepis, and Morrissonn (among others) will be solid NHL players. Add Ovechkin to that group, along with players like Witt, Zubrus, Halpern, and Kolzig, and that is a legitimate team say, two years from now. Saying Pittsburgh has a better youth movement than the Caps is just absurd, and since we're on HF boards, Hockey's Future themselves gives the Caps the 2nd best prospect pool, while the Pens are 9th. Also, in my opinion, the Pens need not worry about getting the #2 pick in this year's draft, but whether or not they will ever have a pick after this year. If the league does indeed lockout for a season or more, it's a very real possibility that Pittsburgh would contract. I'm sure this will invoke some retaliatory remarks, but you have to realize that this is true - the Pens aren't the most stable of franchises financially, and that is the reason why teams will be forced to contract.