As the NHL trade deadline approaches on March 9th, the Washington Capitals seem determined to unload players. So far, six Caps have been traded away:
- Steve Konowalchuk (D) to the Colorado Avalanche
- Jaromir Jagr (W) to the New York Rangers
- Peter Bondra (W) to the Ottawa Senators
- Robert Lang © the Detroit Red Wings
- Sergei Gonchar (D) to the Boston Bruins
- Michael Nylander © to the Boston Bruins
The destruction of the team has really left me distressed and bewildered. The team is now but a shadow of its former self, not that it was exactly having a marquee season. The author of the SI article writes, “It seems the Capitals, who have dealt three of the four guys on the cover of their media guide (Bondra, Jagr, Gonchar; Kolzig is the fourth), won’t be done trading until they’ve unloaded their logo from center ice.” That is right on the money, and rumors were circulating that the Rangers were looking to pick up goalie Olaf Kolzig as well.
I can understand teams wanting to watch their bottom line and undertake a “rebuilding” approach, especially with the upcoming collective bargaining agreement looming. Still, with the exception of Kolzig, the Capitals are not retaining any core franchise players, and at this rate I wouldn’t be surprised to see him traded away in the next week. The article tries to portray general manager George McPhee as a kindler, gentler GM, but the alarming rate at which the team is deteriorating really bothers me. The article points out that after each trade he has taken great pains to express to the media how hard it was to trade away his players, but that is starting to ring hollow to me after this wholesale gutting. He did make one statement that could well be true, though: “One of our guys is going to win the Stanley Cup.” We’ll see…
