Posts Tagged ‘Chris Clark’

Caps, Jackets Play Lets Make a Deal

The Washington Capitals and Columbus Blue Jackets officially make a deal in which Columbus sends solid left wing Jason Chimera in exchange for depth defenseman Milan Jurcina and surprisingly team captain Chris Clark

The Capitals receive probably the best player of the bunch in Chimera, who last year would have posted career highs had he stayed healthy.  The 30-year-old veteran carries a reasonable 1.875 cap hit, a fair price for a grinding wing who shows the ability to put up points.

Clark, now the former captain of the Caps, admits to being shocked he was traded.  This trade may mark the first time a first-place team traded away their captain, however it was the smart move.  The 33-year-old sported a hefty 2.633 million cap hit this year and next, something a contending team simply should not pay for considering he posted two less points than Chimera.

In Jurcina the Jackets get a warm body on the blue line, something they needed since Rostislav Klesla went down at the beginning of the month.  More importantly the Blue Jackets shake the team up, as they promised they would do.  Used mainly as a depth defenseman, Jurcina posted four helpers in 27 games while carrying a 1.375 cap hit.

Read more…

Restoring the Rosters: Calgary Flames

Based on Matthew Pouliot’s series on Circling the Bases, I have decided restore the rosters for every NHL team. Like Pouliot, I have established some ground rules for my selections.

1. Each team contains players they originally drafted or signed before any other NHL team. This includes players drafted and not signed, as well as European free agents coming over at an older age.
2. I have chosen to leave retired players off the list, and lean toward players in the AHL rather than those deported (KHL, SEL, DEL, etc.).

Essentially I am choosing the best available players for a team to succeed in the current NHL season. All 30 teams will be covered, with grades assigned to forwards, defense and goal-tending. After all 30 articles are written, they will be ranked in order. This series’ intent is to reward or shame NHL scouts.

This Flames team features a legitimate NHL player in every slot, not something I can say for every team.  Their strength seems to be in drafting and developing solid grinding type forwards and defensemen.  The roster lacks star power but makes up for it with solid depth.

The lineup for the Calgary Flames is as follows.

Read more…