July 02, 2007
CORRECTION: Nylander To Washington
From the Washington Capitals and Tarik:
The Washington Capitals have signed free agent center Michael Nylander to a four-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Apparently the reports out of Edmonton were premature. I just talked to Kurt Kehl, and he said that Nylander "was the guy he (GM George McPhee) always wanted," and that the reports last night out of Edmonton may have worked in the team's favor by driving off other suitors.
Big, big win for the Caps. More later.
UPDATE: Just got off a conference call with McPhee. Edited transcript from my notes follows:
Did you target Nylander from the beginning?
"We had several players we had interest in ... we thought because he played here before he'd be a good fit here ... thought we had a reasonable chance of him coming."
How did you pluck him way from the other teams?
"Comfortable with Washington, been here before. Familiar with Washington. After 8 last night we were out of it, done as much as we could do. "
Why the change of heart?
"It sounds like he had a difficult time, there were lots of offers and lots of interest. Difficult thing ... trying to make a decision hat quickly ... I can't imagine how difficult that is," to decide between 3-4 different clubs quickly.
Are you comfortable with the term of the contract?
"We structured the contract well. Know this player very well. Lots left to prove in this league. Reminds me a lot of an Adam Oates. Underrated, don't realize how good they are until you've got them.
Is Nylander underrated compared with the other big signings? Why is that?
"I don't know how to explain it, he's just a teriffic player. He generates things offensively. If he's got the puck you're not getting scored on.
"He's a conditioned guy, a driven guy. We had some interest in the other players ... If it wasn't going to work out in New York, it stood a good chance to work out here."
Why more active this season?
"Had to figure out what we were and who could do what," the last two seasons, McPhee said. "It didn't make sense to spend money on free agents," in that kind of situation. "We think we did some things in the past couple days to make us more competitive".
Did you get him to mentor Nicklas Backstrom?
"Not why we got him, but it's nice. Help Nicklas ... We had a chance to get this one (play making center), so we got him ... It's nice that he'll be able to help."
Are you done?
"You're never done. Just never done trying to make your team better whether you just won the Cup or didn't make the playoffs," but nothing specific is working right now.
As for line combinations, McPhee seemed open to waiting till training camp to determine who would work best together: " [We] have some versatility and some options." In particular, he said that if Backstrom wasn't ready to center a line, they would be able to slot Kozlov in to playing a pivot. If it did work out with Backstrom, then Kozlov could slide over to right wing. No word on who will play the pivot with Ovechkin.
UPDATE: More perspective from Mike Vogel, here and here.
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This is great news. Of all the players who were lost in the salary dump, Nylander was the one whose skills and composure we've missed the most over the past two seasons.
Posted by:
at July 2, 2007 05:08 PM
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