Fehr Is In The Fold and Avoid Arbitration ....

Yesterday the Capitals signed RW RFA Eric Fehr to a reported 2 year, $4.4M contract. Another solid deal, and given Fehr's numbers and productivity that indicates a very efficient use of ice time this past season, I guess I'm okay with the salary/value relationship. Fehr made a believer of me this past season and by signing him to a two year deal if during the next two seasons he doesn't prove as productive or durable as he was in 2009-2010 the world won't come to an end. If he does well I guess he'll be looking for a raise again in two years, but let's jump off one bridge at a time around here.

With Fehr and Schultz signed, I guess it would be nice to reach a reasonable fair deal with "Flash" to avoid arbitration. But if he is listening to his agent and his agent is still pushing the numbers around that he was talking about a couple of weeks ago, then I think arbitration is inevitable. Also with everything else considered from the kids pushing for a chance from Hershey to the fact that Fehr and Shultz's deals put an upper limit on what Flash is likely to be offered by the Capitals, and then some, my feeling is if you're GMGM and you can't get a deal you're happy with for Flash go to arbitration, sign him and then if necessary trade him... As everyone here knows I'm not real high on Fleischmann, especially after the 2010 playoffs. However, I will admit it's just mostly gut on my part and a feeling that for Flash to earn his money he needs 2nd line Ice time and now with Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, Knuble, Laich and Fehr signed I feel the Capitals have a pretty solid group of top six forwards and if somehow they end up with either John Madden (still an unsigned UFA) or my dream second line center - Patrick Sharp. So as I see it there definitely wouldn't be a lot of room for Flash on the top two lines and do you see him working the defensive side of the puck enough for a steady role on the third line? I don't and doing so means things are still pretty crowded both on the bench and up against the salary Cap - unless the Caps wanted to keep him over Jason Chimera and I don't think that's a good trade out.

Well that's my "quick hit" blog post for today as the rest of today is already shaping up to be busy. I have a couple of things in the works and barring another signing today I'll be finishing them up and posting them this weekend as much as possible. I've put together some thoughts on what I view as wastes of salary cap space in the 2010-2011 NHL, my thoughts on next week's Development Camp, and I've just started to try and figure out when and why I basically soured on Tomas Fleischmann's impact and value to the Capitals.

Is it September yet?

LETS GO CAPS!!!