Monday, July 2, 2007

Aggressive Restraint Continues to Pay Off for McPhee and the Caps

Michael Nylander Signs a 4 year $19.5 million Contract to Return to Washington

Going into the free agency period the talk surrounding this team was that they needed:


A #1 Center - Michael Nylander



A PP Quarterback - Tom Poti


A Top Six Forward - Viktor Kozlov

Yet it seems as though no one wants to give GM George McPhee any credit for the great job he has done over the last 30 hours. So here at capitalfanatic.com, I would like to be the first to congratulate the Caps' boss on a job well done so far.






Let's face it, we all know it would have been great to sign one of the big names. But were any of those players worth the large contracts they received? Hell no. The fact is, as much money as those guys received you cannot say that they are going to be any more productive for their teams than Nylander will be for the Caps.

These contracts being thrown around are outrageous.

Daniel Briere - 8 years @ $6.5 million/year
Chris Drury - 5 years @ $7.05 million/year
Scott Gomez - 7 years @ $7.36 million/year

Not only is the amount per season ridiculous, but the length of the deals could cripple these teams (anybody remember someone by the name of Jaromir) if they don't pan out. Kudos to McPhee for showing aggressive restraint and finding the right players to improve the club without breaking the bank.

1 comment:

RR said...

Let's wait and see how these players perform as a team.

We know, too well, that the Caps can have great players and still not manage to have a great team.

To celebrate Nylander's return as though it is the breakthough event is optimistic to say the least. He's 34 now.

Drury would have been a great addition. Briere is too fragile; OV demonstrated that. Briere looked better because he was surrounded by a lot of talented Sabres.

The Caps still have one of the leagues lowest payrolls. If the Caps are to establish themselves as a top-tier franchise in Washington they will have to be more competitive, perhaps win their first Cup.