Capitals Development Camp Day 6 - Scrimmage & Fan Fest

Dmitry Orlov skating up the ice.

Today was the final day of the 2011 Washington Capitals development camp, and they ended with quite a bang. As per tradition, the final day is also the big mid-summer Fan Fest and equipment sale, where you can buy player equipment, get some autographs (Matt Hendricks was there today) and get cheap stuff at the Capitals shop - as well as catch the final development camp scrimmage. The scrimmage had Kettler absolutely packed, with reportedly over 3,000 people in attendance, a huge change from the mostly empty bleachers during the week.

The Red team took a 2-0 lead during the first period, and were still up 3-1 after 2. The White team had some excellent opportunities, but couldn't seem to put any of them by either Brandon Anderson or Jacob Gervais-Chouinard. In the 3rd, the White team got within 1 with a goal by Luke Lockhart, but T.J. Syner's second goal of the game put Red up 4-2. With the goalie pulled, the White team was unsuccessful in scoring, and Stanislav Galiev (who had an opportunity to pass to T.J. Syner to complete the hat trick) shot and scored on the empty net to finish it. Red won 5-2. Some thoughts on the players from the week... 

⊳ Neither Cody Eakin nor Dmitry Kugryshev "wowed" me as much as I would have hoped during development camp, but then again this is still essentially meaningless hockey in the middle of July. 
⊳ Mattias Sjogren was also pretty quite during camp, but he made some nice plays today - I'll be much more interested to see how he does during training camp in September.
⊳ T.J. Syner really impressed me during camp. Although small, he is really fast, an asset he uses to his advantage. Syner almost literally ran circles around some guys, while also contributing two goals (the first being the game winner) and nearly getting a hat trick (if Galiev passed instead of shooting at the empty net himself). While many will say that his size will prevent him from having a chance to succeed in the NHL, I look to guys like Danny Briere and Martin St. Louis, who are among the top players in the NHL despite their small stature.
⊳ I liked watching Garrett Mitchell play, especially his theory about fighting. “I guess as a smaller guy (Mitchell being 5-11, while many camp players were 6-1 if not taller), you go after a bigger guy it’s a win-win situation,” Mitchell explained after fighting on Thursday (as well as scoring the shootout winner as well as another goal in regulation). Though Mitchell's White team ended up on the losing side today, he did add another goal and another fight.
⊳ Stanislav Galiev looked good during camp, and seemed to be having fun on the ice - a feeling echoed in his blog posts over on the Capitals website. Whether it was scoring on the empty net, stickhandling through a crowd, or having his shootout attempt poke-checked away by Phillip Grubauer, Galiev was enjoyable to watch. He was seemingly everywhere on the ice and quite noticeable (more so than Eakin or Kugryshev in my mind), but not in a bad way.
⊳ Dmitry Orlov was quite fun to watch play. Though I cannot really comment on how good or bad his defensive play was, I can say that he seemed to move the puck quite well and enjoyed being very physical at times. During the scrimmage today, Orlov laid out several impressive hits that had the crowd excited. I am looking forward to see Orlov dish out some punishing hits to NHL forwards, hopefully this season (assuming he gets some time as an injury call up).

That's just about it. Today was quite enjoyable, as was the entire week here at Kettler. Also, in other Capitals news, Karl Alzner signed a new 2-year contract with a very reasonable $1.285 million cap hit (yes, Alzner will make less in 2 years than Jeff Schultz makes on average every year of his contract). I hope everyone who went to Kettler this week enjoyed Capitals development camp as much as we here at The Breakaway Goal did.

See you in September, Stan!

The Winners and Losers of Free Agency

The Caps shocked the league by signing elite goalie Tomas Vokoun to a $1.5 million, 1-year contract. (Getty Images)

The Winners

George McPhee. (Getty Images)

The Washington Capitals: The Caps have upgraded and modified their roster in some very significant ways since the beginning of the off season, and it should make them serious contenders for the Stanley Cup next season, even more so than they already were. George McPhee traded the Caps 1st round pick in the 2011 draft, widely considered to be less deep than usual, to the Blackhawks in exchange for power forward Troy Brouwer. Afterward, he re-signed Brooks Laich, the extremely versatile (and fan favorite) forward who was originally acquired way back in the 2004 Capitals fire sale from the Ottawa Senators and has now worked his way to become part of the "core" of the team. McPhee also added veteran free agent defenseman Roman Hamrlik (ostensibly a replacement for Scott Hannan, though likely Tom Poti as well), along with veteran forward Joel Ward (most notably nearly a point-per-game playoff performer) as well as former Capitals captain and local product, free agent forward Jeff Halpern. Halpern replaces the departed Boyd Gordon (signed with the Phoenix Coyotes) as the fourth line center but posses more offensive upside, allowing him to easily slot into higher lines without missing a beat. Ward came at a bit higher price ($3 million per season) than many thought he was worth, but McPhee acknowledged that he ended up in a bidding war for Ward's services, and was forced to overpay by about 18% (leaving a $2.5 million cap hit before the overpayment; much more reasonable for a player like Ward). Out the door in addition to Boyd Gordon went Marco Sturm (Vancouver) and Matt Bradley (Florida) while Scott Hannan remains unsigned. McPhee's best move of the off season, however, came as a surprise announcement on day 2 of free agency - McPhee and the Capitals signed veteran Czech netminder Tomas Vokoun to a 1-year, $1.5 million contract. In a true coup, McPhee upgraded his goaltending by both sending Semyon Varlamov, who would not re-up with the Caps due to a lack of a guarantee for having the #1 goalie position, to the Colorado Avalanche for both their 2012 1st round draft pick as well as the Capitals' choice of either the Bruins' 2012 2nd round pick or the Avalanche's 2013 2nd round pick, as well as signing one of the best, if not the best free agent goalies to a contract that has him take a massive pay cut. Of course, this was helped greatly by Vokoun's desire to both play for a contender as well as play for the Capitals, revealing they had been one of the few teams he would have accepted a trade to under his last contract (which presumably had some sort of no-trade or no-movement clause). McPhee, who had neither trading Varly or signing another goalie in his plans, was more than happy to go along with the changing course of events to greatly improve his team. Tomas Vokoun is regarded league-wide as a top-10, if not top-5 goaltender and has consistently played well on poor teams since the lockout. As of now, the Washington Capitals are easily the biggest winners in the off season so far, as George McPhee's many moves so far have, for the most part, been lauded league wide, particularly the Vokoun deal as well as his absolute fleecing of Colorado. The Capitals also resigned their RFA Troy Brouwer to a 2-year, $2.35 million per season contract, as well as RFA defenseman Karl Alzner to a $1.285 per year, 2-year contract. GMGM solved the slight cap issues in part by sending Eric Fehr to Winnipeg, and will likely put veteran defenseman Tom Poti on LTIR to start the season as well.

Everyone who signed with the Florida Panthers: Holy overpayment, Batman! Dale Tallon isn't even at the cap floor yet, but you wouldn't know at the rate his is giving out cash in Florida. Sean Bergenheim, playoff breakout star for the Lightning (16 GP, 9G, 2A, 11PTS) and 29 point scorer last season got $2.75 million per season for the next 4 years. Tomas Kopecky and his 15 goals in 81 games got $3 million per season for 4 seasons. Scottie Upshall, who scored a career high of 22 goals last season as well as a career high of 34 points, got $3.5 million per season over 4 seasons. Tomas Fleischmann, most recently missing about half the season with blood clot issues after being traded from the Capitals to the Avalanche (he was a spare part on the Caps) in exchange for Scott Hannan last November, will be the Panthers highest-paid forward, getting $4.5 million per season over 4 seasons. Former Blackhawks Kris Versteeg and Brian Campbell came in as well via trades, bringing their $3.083,333 and $7,142,875 cap hits along with them. 35 year old defenseman Ed Jovanovski returned to Florida as well, signing a 4 year contract with a $4.125 million cap hit. Goalie Jose Theodore also joined the party, receiving an actually quite reasonable $1.5 million per season for 2 seasons. Honestly, the players are all winners as they all cashed in pretty damn well here in sunny Florida, but I have a feeling few of these deals are going to be anything close to worth the cap hits and salaries they bring. Sure they're nice guys, but not worth nearly as much as they're getting paid.

Ville Leino: Talk about rags to riches, except in this case, it's more Helsinki Jokerit to Buffalo Sabres. Ville Leino, signed in 2008 as an undrafted free agent by the Detroit Red Wings, has gone and signed a 6-year contract paying an average of $4.5 million per season with the Buffalo Sabres. Leino has once scored more than 10 goals in a season (last season when he recorded 19 with a stacked Flyers offense) and has only once eclipsed 15 points (last season, with 53). Sure, the 27 year old Leino is probably a late bloomer, but no way in hell is he worth $4.5 million per season right now. Actually, looking back, this makes George McPhee look even smarter - he essentially locked Brooks Laich, a proven forward with two 50+ point seasons and one 48 point season, as well as three seasons of scoring 20+ goals, for the exact same contract as Ville Leino. Bravo. I do congratulate Leino for cashing in in Buffalo, though I don't know how well he will live up to expectations with a much worse supporting cast than he had in Philly last season.

Ilya Bryzgalov: Talk about winning. The Philadelphia Flyers, horribly misjudging the free agent goalie market for the second season in a row, mortgage much of their future to sign Bryzgalov to a monster 9-year, $51 million total (about $5.7 million per season) contract. Partially in order to make cap space for Bryzgalov (though there almost have to be other reasons), the Flyers sent offensive stars Jeff Carter and Mike Richards packing, trading them to Columbus and Los Angeles respectively and effectively blowing up a roster that was clearly a Stanley Cup competitor. Bryzgalov is definitely a winner here, but the Flyers are losers right now (though maybe that will be rectified later… or it won't)

Jaromir Jagr: Really Philadelphia? This is your answer to trading away your top 2 offensive stars? To bring in an aging superstar who very well might not be able to survive an entire NHL season...during the World Championships his shifts were only about 30 seconds long, a far cry from an average 50 second NHL shift. I may be proved wrong but the only beneficiary of this deal in my opinion is Jagr's bank account. P.S. Flyers... if you need to waste some more money on players who won't really help their team, I would take a 1 year deal in a heart beat.

The Losers

The Winnipeg Jets: Don't get me wrong...I'm extremely pleased to have the NHL return to Winnipeg and especially excited that they will be the Jets not the Manitoba Moose. However, the immediate future does not look particularly bright due to the lack of legitimate stars. Evander Kane is a good player but he is no Brad Richards or Ilya Kovalchuk and they couldn't even bring in elite goaltending with their enormous cap space. The Jets have nice players in Byfuglien and Johnny Oduya but they are hardly enough to capture the attention of the hockey community. In the end...it's a nice story to see a team in Winnipeg again but they need to make a concerted effort to rebuild before there will be anything in the win column to cheer about.

The Philadelphia Flyers: Is there even a good place to start? NO! The Flyers started their offseason by trading away their two best forwards: Mike Richards (THEIR CAPTAIN!) and Jeff Carter, who has one of the best shots in the league. The Flyer's next move was to sign 31 y.o. goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to a 9 yr $51 mil deal only to see Tomas Vokoun sign with fellow Stanley Cup contenders, the Washington Capitals, for a fraction of the cost. Finally, the Flyers signed Jaromir Jagr, an aging superstar, to a 1 yr $3.3 mil deal but we already covered that. In the end...the Flyers went from contending for the Eastern Conference crown to a mediocre team fighting to make the playoffs. Only time will tell whether Paul Holmgren has gone completely bonkers.

Tomas Vokoun: Well that was unexpected...Tomas Vokoun decided to sign with the Stanley Cup favorite Washington Capitals for a measly $1.5 mil and only 1 year instead of the multi-year big money contracts that were offered. However, upon closer examination, his options were extremely limited and by Vokoun's own admission, not many offers came his way and to make it worse, none of them were from Stanley Cup contenders. On the bright side, the elite veteran net-minder is now in prime position to hoist his first Stanley Cup which begs the question: Did Tomas Vokoun really lose this offseason? Only time will tell.

General Managers: Overpayment much??? Their were some deals to be found in this extremely limited free agent market but in general GMs were suckered into paying too much for average players and the players were happy to accept the excessive salaries. Like many things in life, it eventually comes down to supply and demand. In this instance, there was high demand for NHL proven talent and an extremely scarce supply. For example, Joel Ward was reportedly pursued by 16 NHL team. 16!!! That's over half of the league. As a result, he went from about a $2 mil player to $3 mil. In the end, we saw some of the craziest contracts and wackiest decisions all to try to reach everyone's ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

Capitals Development Camp, Day 4 - Red vs. White, Pt. 2

Recent free agent signing, Swedish center Mattias Sjogren.

Garrett Mitchell, moments before scoring on Brandon Anderson.

We finally made it back to Kettler and Capitals Development Camp for Day 4, where Team Red and Team White played their 2nd scrimmage in as many days. Unlike Wednesday's scrimmage, where the Red team was victorious (final score: 4-2), today's scrimmage ended up tied and was decided in a shootout, with Garrett Mitchell scoring the only goal and leading the White team to a 4-3 win. In addition to scoring the shootout winner, Mitchell also added a goal in regulation, as well as a fight with free agent invitee Scott Wietecha (who fought twice today). Other goals for Team White came from  David Civitarese and Danick Paquette, while Team Red got goals from Travis Boyd (2) and Reid Edmondson.

Tomorrow there are more practices, with the final scrimmage taking place on Saturday.

Some very general player observations:
⊳ T.J. Syner is fast. His serious wheels allow him to scoot around all the other players... who are often quite a bit taller than the 5 foot 9 inch Syner.
⊳ Mattias Sjogren also can get moving, as can Brett Flemming.
⊳ Stanislav Galiev is tall, but thin. He seems to be having a lot of fun on the ice, even though he didn't end up scoring today (and his shootout attempt was blocked by a nice poke check by Philipp Grubauer).
⊳ Orlov will be very fun to watch. He played physical, can handle the puck, has a big shot, and isn't exactly slow either. I can't wait to see him get some NHL action.

Today we decided to take our photos from between the benches instead of through the glass, and I have to say it was an amazing experience (I've never been between the benches for a game before). Check out some of our photos below, and the rest of the them here. Also, watch Bruce Boudreau, Cody Eakin, Stanislav Galiev, Pat Mullane, and Garrett Mitchell talk to the media. Finally, don't forget to check out are special Capitals Development Camp blog here.

Capitals Development Camp, Day 2 - Links! Links! Links!

When BB talks, the prospects listen.

Today was Day 2 of the 2011 Washington Capitals development camp at Kettler Capitals Iceplex! We were sadly not able to attend, but many other members of the Caps blogosphere and mainstream media coverage were there. Caps Today talks a little about Caleb Herbert, while Ravings of a Rink Rebel talks a bit about Steffen Soberg. Joel Ward was at Kettler today (watch him talk here, as well as BB here, Patrick Koudys here, and Travis Boyd here). Stephen Whyno (Washington Times) has some slightly non-development camp related stories, including just some general thoughts from GMGM, as well as the interesting news that apparently neither GMGM nor goalie coach Dave Prior have talked to Brayden Holtby since acquiring Tomas Vokoun. RMNB and Caps In Pictures both have excellent photos from the day, while Kings of Leonsis has a bit on Cameron Burt as well as new acquisition, Danick Paquette. Finally, Rock The Red.net has a recap of the day. Enjoy!

Capitals Development Camp 2011, Day 1 - The Fun Begins

Philipp Grubauer springs into action... to skate to the bench where BB is speaking.

The 2011 edition of the annual Washington Capitals development camp started much as one would expect. Starting slightly before 9:45 AM, Group A (featuring, most notably, Dmitry Kugryshev, Cody Eakin, and goalies Philipp Grubauer from Germany and Steffen Soberg from Norway, both 4th round picks in 2010 and 2011 respectively) was already on ice participating in some standard practice drills. Following the end of the first practice session, there was media availability....

We can't thank the Caps PR department enough for the press access. 

George McPhee spoke for a little. GMGM talks pretty quitely, so at times it was difficult to hear him (we got stuck behind the video cameras and mainstream reporters). He did mention liking Eakin, though that seems to have been pretty clear for a while, I think. Olie Kolzig was also there, sporting a Capitals development camp t-shirt...

Olie Kolzig and the Caps... finally together again.

Brouwer, Eakin, and Boudreau also spoke (though we were out to lunch during parts of these). Boudreau in his talk basically said straight out that Tomas Vokoun is likely the starting goalie for next season, though that should not come as a surprise to anybody - Vokoun is easily among the top 10, if not top 5 goalies in the NHL today.

Defensemen!

Group B took the ice around 2 PM, featuring Stanislav Galiev and Dmitry Orlov, as well as recent undrafted UFA signing Mattias Sjogren. Dmitry Orlov proved he has a little mean streak in him, most notably with a huge hit on forward Garrett Ross which elicited gasps from the sparse crowd at Kettler. Orlov looked to be very impressive on ice, but frankly we didn’t end up paying too much attention to how the players played on the ice - we were mostly overcome with sheer excitement throughout the day. We'll try to have some analysis of how the players look on ice when we go to some practices and scrimmages later in the week!

Danick Paquette, welcome to DC.

At the end of the day, we were exhausted, as I'm sure the prospects were as well. Here are some more photos from today....

Check out the rest of the photos here.....

Capitals Development Camp 2011, Day 0

The 2011 edition of the annual Washington Capitals Development Camp starts tomorrow morning at Kettler Capitals Icepelx. We here at The Breakaway Goal will be covering the event, takng photos and hopefully some video... and maybe even some interviews! Here are some links for those of you who want to follow development camp in it’s entirety...

⊳ Follow The Breakaway Goal on twitter (@breakawaygoal) for tweets from development camp, and also check out our twitter list of people and players who are at development camp.

⊳ Here on The Breakaway Goal blog we will have daily recaps of the action, including photos and whatever else we get.

⊳ We’ve also started a special blog only covering development camp - check it out here.


We can’t wait for development camp to start!

Season Preview: Atlantic Division

Jack Hillen celebrates scoring on Henrik Lundqvist. (Getty Images)

The Atlantic Division is often the most competitive of the three divisions making up the Eastern conference. Comprised of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and the New Jersey Devils, the division is unique in that every single member has won the Stanley Cup. In fact, the five teams have won a total of 16 Stanley Cups. Every team in the division is hard to play against, every team has a mostly winning history, and every team has had it’s share of stars in their time, from players like Mario Lemiuex with the Pens and Mark Messier with the Rangers, to players like Bobby Clarke with the Flyers and Mike Bossy with the Isles, to the great Martin Brodeur in net for the Devils.

Next season looks to have much of the Atlantic Division looking to make the playoffs, with the Pens, Flyers, Rangers, and Devils easily among the teams that have a good shot at the post season, with the Islanders having a decent chance as well depending on how the young guys develop and mature. Overall, any of the five Atlantic Division teams making the playoffs wouldn’t be surprising, though the Islanders making it might raise some eyebrows. Who knows? Maybe this is the season Rick DiPietro lives up to the expectations of being a #1 draft pick back in the 2000 draft.

Last season was rather interesting for the Atlantic, as both the Isles and Devils switched coaches midway through the season due to horrible starts. Both had fairly strong 2nd-halves to their seasons (especially the Devils) but both failed to qualify for the playoffs. The Flyers were leading the conference for a while until they faltered late, allowing the Capitals to grab the #1 seed for the playoffs. The Penguins were going great until they lost both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for most of the 2nd half of the season, making them claw there way to nearly each and every win they got - they managed to get the 4th seed for the playoffs regardless. The Rangers made the playoffs on the last day of the season, but were dispatched by the Caps in the 1st round in 5 games. Here’s a rundown of the player changes the teams have made this off-season, in order of division standings from last season...

Philadelphia Flyers, 2nd in the East, 47-23-12 record, 106 points
IN: Jaromír Jágr (RW), Andreas Lilja (D), Maxime Talbot (C), Ilya Bryzgalov (G), Jakub Voracek (RW), Brayden Schenn (C), Wayne Simmonds (RW),
OUT: Sean O’Donnell (D), Brian Boucher (G), Ville Leino (LW), Daniel Carcillo (LW), Jeff Carter (C), Mike Richards (C), Darroll Powe (LW), Kris Versteeg (RW)
OUTLOOK: The Flyers management decided to, for whatever reason, change the outlook of the roster this off season. Out went high scoring centers Jeff Carter and Mike Richards (two players signed for long term deals who were in the primes of their careers) and in came Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, and some picks. Also arriving via trade were the rights to UFA goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who was promptly signed to a 9-year, $51 million deal. This team is definitely different (and younger at the forward positions), but was it the right move? That will be a question that will be asked for a long, long time.
SEASON PREDICTION: The Flyers new-look roster has an interesting juxtaposition: young forwards (lead by the 23-year-old Claude Giroux) combined with mid-aged goaltending (Ilya Bryzgalov, age 31) and a veteran blueline (lead by the pairing of Kimmo Timonen and Chris Pronger, both age 36). The Flyers could be just as good as last season, if Giroux and Daniel Briere can once again lead the offense, but the loss of high-scoring forwards such as Richards and Carter will hurt. The signing of Jaromír Jágr is interesting, as he has the potential to be incredible or merely average. The Flyers will have to prove this season that blowing up the core of the team was the right move - but competing for a Cup maybe be ever so slightly out of their reach for next season.

Pittsburgh Penguins, 4th in the East, 49-25-8 record, 106 points
IN: Steve Sullivan (LW), Colin McDonald (RW), Boris Valábik (D), Alexandre Picard (D)
OUT: Maxime Talbot (C), Michael Rupp (LW), Brett Sterling (LW)
OUTLOOK: The Penguins are an extremely strong team, assuming that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are both healthy and return to their pre-injury levels of performance. If that happens, the Pens are among the elite in the NHL.
SEASON PREDICTION: Assuming that Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are back and performing as well as they normally do, the Pens will once again be a powerhouse. Along with the Capitals and the Bruins, they are likely the favorites to represent the Eastern conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. I expect the Penguins to win their division, and perform like the elite team they are all season long.

New York Rangers, 8th in the East, 44-33-5 record, 93 points
IN: Michael Rupp (LW), Brad Richards (C), Andreas Thuresson (RW)
OUT: Matt Gilroy (D), Justin Soryal (LW), Evgeny Grachev (C), Brodie Dupont (C)
OUTLOOK: As long as NY signs all of their RFAs, they look to be in pretty good shape for next season. What NYR fans really need to hope now is that Marion Gaborik can find his 40+ goal form again playing with Brad Richards, and that all the young guys continue their development well. Oh, and that Henrik Lundqvist continues to be stellar in net, as he has been for a while.
SEASON PREDICTION: With the signing of star UFA Brad Richards, the Rangers hope they have solved their first line center woes. Assuming that they have (finally), the Rangers should be a pretty good hockey team next season. They aren’t quite “elite”, and a Cup is unlikely, but they should have a much easier time of making the playoffs this season than they have in years past.

New Jersey Devils, 11th in the East, 38-39-5 record, 81 points
IN: Maxin Norreau (D)
OUT:
OUTLOOK: This team is going to depend entirely on how the coach that Lou Lamoriello hires. Will this team perform as badly as they did under John MacLean, or as well as they performed under Jacques Lemaire? Time will tell.
SEASON PREDICTION: This team has the potential to perform well. They aren’t quite elite, but they’re close. If they can get themselves to perform as well as they can (considering most of the roster is comprised of well-payed veterans), they can easily make the playoffs. They might even have an outside shot at winning the division, though I think Pittsburgh still has a lock on that. Regardless, next season will be interesting to watch the Devils; hopefully, it isn’t quite as interesting a season as last year was!

New York Islanders, 14th in the East, 30-39-13 record, 73 points
IN: Marty Reasoner (C),
OUT: Bruno Gervais (D), Doug Weight (C), Zenon Konopka (C), Nathan Lawson (G), Radek Martínek (D)
OUTLOOK: The Isles are letting the young guys adjust to the NHL without too much interference, and that’s probably the right thing to do. The group of young players will likely have benefited from another season of experience, meaning this team will only be getting better and better.
SEASON PREDICTION: The Islanders are still one of the worst teams in the Eastern conference, by the looks of it, but could in theory make the playoffs - assuming, of course, that the young players (John Tavares, Michal Grabner, Matt Moulson, Kyle Okposto, etc.) all have great seasons that propel the team. It’s possible, but not likely. However, the Isles will probably be difficult to play against once again this season, meaning that, regardless of their position in the standings, they won’t be pushovers come game time.