Sunday, July 1, 2007

A Nice Start

A final note on Day 1 of NHL free agency. Two solid players added. Maybe not the franchise-changing players some had hoped for, but, as many optimism-loving fans have pointed out, signings such as these will allow the Caps to keep franchise-changing players next season. Sure, the team could have splurged and dished out $8 million for Daniel "Spear" Briere or Chris Drury, but then they would be lacking in cash or cap space, or both, next season when it came time to re-sign Alex O. and Alex S. Instead, we have the physically massive and offensively gifted Viktor Kozlov and Tom Poti arriving, for starters.

In particularly heartening statements, both McPhee and newcomer Poti described these signing as the first stage of improving the team. There are obviously more players out there that the braintrust would like to acquire. And please remember, ye optimism-haters who are flooding the message boards with panicked comments such as "that's it?" and the ever-original "*vomit*", it's the first day of free agency. There are still guys like Michael Nylander and Mike Comrie out there as FAs, not to mention other help that could be available through a trade. Today was a great start, considering where the Caps were beforehand.

The power play at the very least will be improved with Poti on board, and who knows, maybe he'll discover the way to properly throw that huge frame around to chip in with some good D too. The arrival of Kozlov can only improve the offense, whether at right wing or center. Two good additions in one day. Pretty solid.

1 comment:

littles: said...

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