Wednesday Morning. Happy October

So sorry I haven't updated for the past few days. I have been extremely busy and just a little too lazy. Here are some things that I missed, and my thoughts on an issue that won't seem to go away.


*Caps are 4-0 in the preseason. What does that mean? Absolutely nothing. We all learned that lesson last year by starting off 3-0 in the regular season before losing 15 or our next 18.


*The Caps have sent back most of the training camp invitees. Chris Bourque, Sami Lepisto, Siemon Varlamov, Tyler Sloan, and Grant McNeill all look to be Hershey bound. Bourque scored the game winner against his daddy's old team and has turned heads all week. Boudreau will have a very tough decision make.

*Donald Brashear introduced himself to New Jersey's Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (whoever the hell that is) on Monday. Brash left Leblond bloodied and dusted off his hand on the way to the box. I guess he's still got it.


*Theodore let in two goals on seven shots in the third period vs. NJ. I didn't see them but from what I heard he couldn't have done much to stop them. Once again, it's only preseason. I don't know why the guys on the message boards are worried. He was a player last year for Colorado and I expect the same from him this year.


Okay here's the issue that won't go away. Can you guess what it is?

It's been flooding the message boards all summer and fuel was added to the fire yesterday. Apparently Chicago has made two serious offers to GMGM about acquiring Michael Nylander. The proposed terms were not disclosed and the Caps rejected both offers, but it looks like the Hawks are persuing him hard.

My guess is the same as it was last week. He's staying in Washington. But after thinking about it for a while I've come up with a list of pros and cons that GMGM would be wise to consider. Here are the pros because I think the cons are pretty obvious.

• The Caps free up Nylander's $5m cap hit. Fedorov (likely) won't be back next season, freeing up an additional $4m. In two years we we use that money to resign Semin and Backstrom (who will expect a big raise). Keeping the core together is vital and it will be much easier without Nylander's salary.


• The Caps have plenty of depth at center. Backstrom, Feds, Gordo, and Stecks were our centers down the stretch and in the playoffs. Laich even played center (extremely well) when Stecks was hurt. We did fine with them. And should one of them not work out or get injured, we have guys like Bourque in Hershey who would step in and be effective.


• Nylander's vaule highest right now. How many teams legitimately persue a 35 year old center with 3 years left at $5m? It sounds like Chicago wants him bad and would be willing to give up a lot to get a deal done. Right now a top 2 dman is more important than a top 2 center. The Caps could get Brent Seabrook at $3.5m, Cam Barker at $2.4m, or Duncan Keith at $1.5 (bargain price). Any one would be good. Here's my guess: WSH Nylander and Jurcina for CHI Seabrook and 2nd rounder. Seabrook is young, big, strong 2 way dman.

The deal makes a lot more sense from the Caps' perspective than it does for Chicago. But teams get crazy when they're pushing for a cup (i.e. Tampa Bay). I don't think a deal will get done and this was probably a huge waste of time. But it's interesting to think about and exactly the reason why I started this blog.