Dialing for D is Difficult

Like a lot of you, I was hoping the Caps would be able to upgrade their team this summer. Like a lot of you, I enjoy playing armchair GM in my spare time. With that in mind, I looked at a list of the available unrestricted free agents from around the league earlier in the week and made up a “target list.” I listed guys at three positions: center, defense and right wing. And I listed the positions in that priority.

I made an “A” list, a “B” list and a “C” list at all three positions. The “A” list consists of the marquee guys, the Scott Gomezes and the Scott Hannans (“marquee” being a relative term in Hannan’s case) of the world. There aren’t many listed under “A” at any of the positions. The “B” list is populated with useful NHL players who would be an upgrade for the Capitals. The “C” list is the “break glass in case of emergency” list.

I had Tom Poti on my “B” list. I had Viktor Kozlov on my “A” list, but as a right winger. With the first day of free agency now behind us and some of the wild things that went down, I’m happy the Caps have these two guys in the fold. Sounds like they’re not finished yet, and I hope that’s the case.

To me, these two additions make the Caps a much better team in important areas.

Both players should help the Washington power play, particularly Poti. Both guys like playing with the puck, and are good at playing a puck possession game. The more you have the puck, the more penalties you will draw and the more time you will spend in the other end of the ice. So even though Poti is not known as a strong defender, the signings should help the Caps’ goals against total tangentially.

Given the craziness of some of the deals yesterday, these also look like fiscally smart signings to me.

Poti notched one more power play point (32) than did Mathieu Schneider (31) did with the Red Wings last season and two more than Brian Rafalski totaled (30) with New Jersey in 2006-07. Yet Poti’s average annual salary ($3.5 million a season) is far below that of Schneider ($5.625 million) and Rafalski ($6 million). Schneider signed a two-year deal with the Ducks and Rafalski a five-year pact with Detroit on Sunday.

It’s also worth noting that Poti logged more ice time per game (25:42 a night) than did Rafalski (25:29) and Schneider (23:34). It’s also worth noting that both Schneider (5:19) and Rafalski (4:44) skated more power play time per game than Poti (4:38) last season.

Ex-Lightning defenseman Cory Sarich got a five-year deal from Calgary worth more per season ($3.6 million) than Poti’s deal. For the record, Sarich was 148th in the NHL with an average ice time of 18:06 last season.

Acquiring quality and experienced NHL defensemen has become more and more difficult around the league. Washington picked up Shaone Morrisonn from the Bruins in Feb. 2004, but he had only half a season’s worth of experience at the time. The Caps got Milan Jurcina from Boston in a deal five months ago, but he also came to the District with less than 100 games in the NHL.

“We were fortunate to pick up a player like Jurcina last year in a trade, but you’re right,” says Caps GM George McPhee when asked about the difficulty of obtaining defensemen. “It’s really difficult to get experienced NHL defensemen through trades.

“We thought [Brian] Pothier was one of the better free agent signings last year. It worked out very well for our club. We think we’ve just done another one with Poti. They’re both puck-moving defensemen. Clearly defensemen have to be able to defend; that’s most important. But you’ve got to have guys there who can move the puck as well. We have some talented forwards, and if the puck is going off the glass all the time they’re just not as effective as they could be if you’ve got someone who is hitting them when they’re open and passing the puck to them.

“They’re puck possession people. If you’re firing the puck off the glass all the time and not making plays, then the other team has it and you’re chasing it. Both Pothier and Poti are guys who when they get the puck, they make good decisions, they hang onto it and they have poise. You’re just a better puck possession team. You’ve got to be able to do the right things with the puck. All you have to do is watch the playoffs last year and teams were really good with the puck. The first time you turn it over, it’s a scoring chance or a penalty against. We wanted another player who could make good decisions with the puck and make plays.”

Poti has played 594 NHL games. Just as an idea of how tough it is to bring in a defenseman with that much NHL experience via the trade route, take a look at this:

Milan Jurcina, Bryan Muir, Shaone Morrisonn, Joel Kwiatkowski, Josef Boumedienne, Frantisek Kucera, Dean Melanson, Jason Marshall, Alexei Tezikov and Enrico Ciccone.

Those are the defensemen the Caps have obtained in trades since the last time they acquired a defenseman with Poti’s NHL experience or better in a deal. You’ve got to go back to Mar. 24, 1998 when Washington obtained Jeff Brown from Toronto in exchange for another veteran defenseman, Sylvain Cote. Brown brought 738 games worth of NHL experience with him to Washington that day. Even though that number was fewer than the 765 games of experience Cote was taking to the Leafs, it’s also higher than the 594 Poti brings with him to Washington.

I know the obligatory knee-jerk reaction from Caps Nation at this juncture is to blame McPhee for not getting a defenseman of Poti’s experience level. But the reality is that it’s a hard thing to do no matter who you are.

Milt Schmidt shelled out some cash to pry 40-year-old defenseman Doug Mohns from the Atlanta Flames 33 years ago this summer. That transaction took place as the Caps were getting ready for their inaugural NHL season of 1974-75. Mohns brought 1,315 games worth of NHL experience to the table.

A few years later, Max McNab shipped former first overall draft choice Greg Joly to Detroit for veteran irritant Bryan “Bugsy” Watson, a 34-year-old who had played 723 NHL contests.

David Poile made two deals to bring in veteran defenseman with more games than Poti. On Mar. 10, 1986, Poile dealt Darren Veitch to the Red Wings for 30-year-old Greg Smith, who had 716 games of NHL experience at the time, and John Barrett. Nearly a decade later, Poile dealt Alan May to Dallas for Jim Johnson, whose résumé included 637 NHL tilts.

So the list is short. Over a period of 33 years, Washington has moved assets in return for a “veteran” defenseman only five times.

Washington has had plenty of solid NHL defensemen who have enjoyed long careers in the league over the years. But most of them were youngsters when they arrived in town.

Rod Langway had all of 268 games in the league when he got to the District in 1982. Larry Murphy had 242. Calle Johansson had 118. Garry Galley had 157. Brian Engblom had 316. Al Iafrate had 472. Grant Ledyard had 211. Bob Rouse had 351. Joe Reekie had 400. Mark Tinordi had 399. Curtis Leschyshyn had 522. Many of those guys had NHL careers that approached or exceeded 1,000 games.

Some folks expressed varying degrees of shock when Washington used its first three choices in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft to select defensemen. (The Caps spent their first four choices on defensemen in 2005.) But it makes sense. If you are able to draft and develop defensemen, you can avoid the difficulty of trying to deal for them, and you can avoid opening up your wallet to buy one on the free agent market.

Finally, McPhee stated that Washington’s pro scouts really liked what they saw from Poti last season. That’s good enough for me. The Caps’ pro scouts have done a good job recently of identifying guys who might flourish with a change of scenery (Chris Clark, Pothier and Jurcina come instantly to mind), and I’m looking forward to seeing how Poti does in the red, white and blue in 2007-08 and beyond.

And a reminder: the Caps don’t have a game scheduled for tomorrow. Or the day after that, or the day after that. Plenty of time, and work to be done. Crucify McPhee and Co. if you will (and I know you will), but you might want to wait till November or so to see what other transactions are in store and see how the team meshes on the ice. That’s when it matters.

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