Filip Forsberg spoke to Swedish paper Expressen in the wake of his trade from the Capitals to the Nashville Predators. In an article by Gunnar Nordström and Adam Eriksson, Forsberg describes his reaction:

“It happened suddenly, I didn’t know anything about it until I read it. I spoke to my agent just now and he said it really went quickly, but that’s what happens in this world. All I can do is accept it.”

Forsberg said that he had not yet heard from Washington or Nashville as of Wednesday afternoon, telling Expressen, “I’ve only spoken to friends so far, so I don’t know anything.”

Forsberg should wrap up his season this week. Before trading him away, McPhee expressed his interest in bringing Forsberg to the AHL as soon as possible. Those plans are now in flux according to Forsberg: ”I don’t know about that either. I’ll answer when I know more.”

“We haven’t heard from Nashville yet, so I can’t say [whether or not they want him over after Friday],” said Forsberg’s agent, Claes Elefalk at CAA Sports. Elefalk was enthusiastic about the trade, saying, ”It shows Filip’s value on the market. Nashville are giving up their best offensive player over the past few years and an AHL talent.”

Translation by Jake Ware

Photo credit: Jeff Gross

Wednesday’s trade deadline was pretty tame for the Washington Capitals until a few minutes after 3 PM, when we heard Mike Vogel that the team had “something brewing.”

Then… about two hours of speculating and waiting. The Capitals were “incredibly mum” according to Bob McKenzie. The Caps Report video special with Alan May, Mike Vogel, and John Walton went into extra innings– vamping to fill time until the news broke. George McPhee declined to name the trade until all involved players were named.

Those players  turned out to be Martin Erat, a 31-year old RW lefty from Nashville, and Caps prospect Filip Forsberg. Nashville threw in Michael Latta as well.

Erat takes big minutes for Nashville and drives play, but has had a rough season with the Predators this year. Erat makes $4.5M each year with two years left on his contract. That’s a hefty price tag for a top-6 player, and under a constricting salary cap it raises some quandaries for the Caps next season.

McPhee and Leonsis both recently called Forsberg the future of the franchise, a talented young forward from Sweden expected to join Hershey this month.

This is a bad trade.

Press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 3, 2013

Capitals Acquire Martin Erat and Michael Latta from Nashville

The Czech Republic native ranks second in Predators history in career points, goals, assists and games played

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have acquired forwards Martin Erat (mahr-TIHN EE-rat) and Michael Latta (MIGH-kuhl LA-tuh) from the Nashville Predators in exchange for forward Filip Forsberg, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.

Erat, 31, has recorded 21 points (four goals, 17 assists) and 26 penalty minutes in 36 games with Nashville this season. He ranked tied for first on Nashville in points and led the team in assists at the time of the trade. Erat ranked second among Nashville forwards in time on ice per game (18:55) and tied for second among Nashville forwards in power-play time on ice per game (2:41). He was named an alternate captain for Nashville this season.

The native of Trebic, Czech Republic, currently ranks second in Nashville franchise history in career points (481), goals (163), assists (318), games played (723), game-winning goals (26) and ranks third in power-play goals (42). He recorded a career-high 58 points (19 goals, 39 assists) last season for Nashville and has eclipsed the 50-point plateau in five of the last six seasons. The three-time 20-goal scorer has represented the Czech Republic in the World Championships (three times), World Junior Championships (twice) and the Winter Olympic Games in 2006 and 2010.

The 6’, 196-pound forward has registered 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 46 career playoff games with Nashville, ranking second in playoff scoring, games played, assists and fourth in goals in Nashville postseason history.

Erat was drafted by Nashville in the seventh round (191st overall) in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He has played all 723 of his career NHL games with Nashville.

Latta, 21, ranks second on the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL) in points (34) and first in assists (26) among active players. He compiled a plus-9 rating and 184 penalty minutes (led the team) in 67 games played this season. In 122 career AHL games with Milwaukee, the St. Clements, Ontario, native has recorded 23 goals, 41 assists and 286 penalty minutes.

The 6’, 215-pound center was drafted by Nashville in the third round (72nd overall) of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. He will report to Hershey.

Photo credit: Rod Lamkey Jr.

George McPhee has not seen a season this tumultuous since the events that led up to the acquisition of Alex Ovechkin back in 2004. He’s dismissed a coach and watched his team fall from the top of the standings to a precarious spot on the proverbial bubble.

Now, as the Washington Capitals prepare for one last playoffs push, McPhee has the challenge of managing assets at all stages of their careers. That includes 37-year-old Roman Hamrlik, who was signed over the offseason to a two-year, $7 million deal, and 39-year old Mike Knuble, who will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end — both of whom have been scratched from recent games.

McPhee’s attitude towards his veteran players, however, is anything but cynical. In his 14 years as general manager of the Capitals, McPhee, whose nickname is The Undertaker, has revealed something of a softer side.

On Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview with DC101′s Elliot Segal, McPhee admitted that he never had any intention of trading Hamrlik or Knuble, despite their building frustration with being scratched. “We were never in that place, as I mentioned ten days ago. We weren’t interested in moving anybody out. The only thing we were going to do, unless someone knocked our socks off, was try to add something if something made sense.”

McPhee, however, did entertain the hypothetical.

“If I was ever going to trade one of those guys, if I knew I was going to trade them and we had something going, then I would go talk to the player before we did it. I would talk to a Roman, I would talk to a Mike Knuble and say,’Listen. This is what’s happening. How do you feel about it?’ That sort of thing.”

“With respect to Mike Knuble,” McPhee continued, “He’s got his family here and everything else, and I’m not going to send him out to the West Coast or anything like that without asking him how he feels about it. Certainly, I have to do what’s best for the team and the organization — the individual comes a close second. But there are times when you can talk to people and see if it’s right for them and right for you.”

One such example came in March of 1999, the season after the Capitals made it to their first ever Stanley Cup Final. Washington had just suffered a crippling 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins, and the playoffs were in serious doubt. McPhee then approached his team’s captain and future Hall of Famer Dale Hunter about being traded. But it had nothing to do with benefitting the team. The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell explains:

McPhee offered to let Hunter stay and play every game or be traded wherever he thought he had the best chance to win the Cup. Instead, Hunter asked McPhee where he should be traded.

“Colorado,” McPhee said.

“[Then] that’s where I want to go,” Hunter told McPhee, according to the GM.

At that moment, McPhee made one of the rarest promises you’ll ever hear in sports. The NHL trade deadline was 3 p.m. “At 2:59, if I can’t get anything for you,” McPhee said he told Hunter, “I’ll give you away for nothing.”

Instead, Hunter’s grit, experience, leadership on the ice and clubhouse energy were so highly respected that Colorado traded a valuable draft pick – lowly Vancouver’s second-round selection in this year’s entry draft – for the soon-to-be-39-year-old Hunter and the Capitals’ third-round pick in 2000.

The positive ending to that player-GM relationship allowed McPhee and Hunter to develop a different kind of relationship later, one that eventually brought the Caps alumni and Hall of Famer home to coach his old team. Even though Hunter was already years into a cushy and profitable gig coaching the London Knights, when George McPhee made that call this season, Hunter was more than willing to pick up the phone.

If the current version of the Capitals can’t rally and make the playoffs, McPhee will face heavy scrutiny during the offseason. With a law degree from Rutger’s university and seven years of pro experience however, George is that rare combination of brains and experience, and under his management the Capitals have risen to prominence. He’s shown time and time again that he’s a shrewd dealer, but it’s his respect for the players and understanding of the human element that has truly made him successful in Washington.

The Caps were expected to be big movers at the trade deadline — their need for depth centers, for example, had been well documented, and several of their veterans have expressed dissatisfaction lately and were caught up in rumors all the way up to 3 PM.

It was to the surprise of more or less everyone, then, that the Caps made no roster moves whatsoever. It was announced through a team spokesman around 3:00 that the Caps did not expect to be making any trades, and this was confirmed by General Manager George McPhee at a 5:00 PM press conference where he addressed the events of the day — or lack thereof.

“We’ve been on the phones for about a week, talked to every club 10-15 times, it seems,” McPhee told WaPo’s Katie Carrera, “[Any move] had to make us better… really there wasn’t anything there that would be the right thing for our club.”

It certainly wasn’t the easiest year to be a buyer in the Eastern conference — with many teams still within reach of playoffs contention, the general feeling was that not many teams were willing to sell, and that the prices would be high. Indeed, just 15 trades were made this deadline day, which per TSN is an all-time low post-lockout.

“Everybody wanted to add and there was no one selling,” said McPhee. “Everyone wants action, everyone wants deals, but you get in there and you see nothing but feathers.”

Caps’ center Nicklas Backstrom was put on Long Term Injured Reserve early this morning in what seemed to be preparation for a move, but that move never materialized. “We can make the playoffs with this team,” McPhee said of his roster at the end of the day, “and if [Backstrom] comes back we can beat anybody in this conference.”

Video of George McPhee’s Full Press Conference

This weekend has been quiet. Too quiet. Trade deadline is 3 PM today, so expect a great deal to go down before then. Here’s where you can come to get the all updates relevant to the Caps! Buckle up, folks, because here we go.

This post will be updated throughout the day. Freak out, stress, and speculate wildly in the comments below!

If you submitted a guess for the Trade Deadline Pick ‘Em contest, stay tuned! Whoever guesses closest to the time of the first Caps move will win some cool stuff.

Updates

• Caps move Nicklas Backstrom to LTIR. This allows them to add ~$7.6 mil in cap hits, as long as Backstrom stays on LTIR until the playoffs. We don’t like what this means for Nicky’s noggin, but it does mean the Caps may be planning a huge move.
• Montreal trades Andrei Kostitsyn to Nashville for second and fifth-round 2013 draft picks. He will join his younger brother Sergei, already on the team. Awwww.
• ESPN says Semin is “as good as gone” after this season. Should we prepare for the breakup now? Draw it out? Decide to just be friends?
• Brief twitter panic when Tomas Vokoun seemingly left the ice early, but Vokoun says this was because — well, practice was over. “They didn’t approach me,” he told Washington Times’ Stephen Whyno, “so I’m not going to speculate on that. I didn’t give it any thought and I’m not expecting it.” Mike Knuble and Roman Hamrlik also both say that they have not asked for trades, and that they have not spoken to McPhee today.
• Montreal claims Brad Staubitz, Winnipeg claims Grant Clitsome off waivers. Please try to contain your giggles, this is a very serious and professional establishment we are running here.
• Detroit trades Mike Commodore to Tampa Bay for a seventh-round pick, which is really too bad because he seems like a nice guy.
• Toronto trades Keith Aulie to Tampa Bay for Carter Ashton, which officially makes Tampa the most active buyer thus far. Which–what?
• Colorado trades Daniel Winnick and T.J. Galiardi, and a seventh-round pick to San Jose for Jamie McGinn, Mike Connelly and Michael Sgarbossa, because apparently they have no more first round picks to toss away with wild abandon.
• Columbus trades Sammy Pahlsson to the Canucks in exchange for two draft picks. We trying our best not to grasp wildly centers as they slip by.
• Ottawa trades Brian Lee to Tampa Bay for Matt Gilroy. Sixty minutes remaining. Go McPhee go.
• Winnipeg trades Johnny Oduya to Chicago for 2013 a second and a third-round pick. TSN anchors very upset to lose their favorite play on words.
• Islanders trade Brian Rolston to the Bruins for future considerations, which is kind of weird since they could have claimed him on waivers three hours ago.

Whew! Thrill meter right off the charts. It’s 3:00 PM but remember that trades only have to be submitted by 3:00, not reported! Now, we wait.

Aftermath

• Caps team says that it appears no moves will be made, and McPhee will address the media at 5 PM. …
• Buffalo trades Paul Gaustad to Nashville. Hi, center. Bye, center.
• Bruins trade Steve Kampfer to the Wild for Greg Zanon.
• Blackhawks trade defenseman John Scott to the Rangers for a fifth-round pick.
• Buffalo trades Matt Kassian and Marc-Andre Gragnani to Vancouver for Cody Hodgson and Alexander Sulzer.

And that’s all she wrote, folks. Not quite what we expected, but thanks for hanging with us anyway. Look for more coverage later on the fallout from the Tradeless Deadline Day!

These could be yours!

Update: Congratulations to Alan Campbell who correctly guessed “No trades.” Thanks to everyone who participated. That was fun, minus the whole nobody getting traded to our team part.

Original Post: With the trade deadline rapidly approaching, we wanted to once again try to put a little fun into the most stressful day of the hockey year. Here’s the deal. You guess the time (without going over) on when the Caps make their first trade of the day on our Facebook Fan Page (i.e. 11:22 AM) and if you are the first person to get the time right or are the closest without going over, you win this signed Mike Knuble “Be A Player” Rookie Card, a game-used Mike Green jersey card, and a game-used Alex Semin jersey card (pictured to the right).

You have until either 10 AM EST to submit your picks, or when GMGM makes his first move, whichever comes first.

Fine print: You must like our Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter (@RussianMachine) to win. There will be only one – I repeat – one winner. If you pick the same time as someone else, the person who guessed the time earlier will win. You may pick “none” (as in “no trades”), but you must be the first person to guess it to win. Also, keep in mind that the trade deadline is Monday at 3pm, and many trades will be reported after that time as they come in. Finally, we will use the first media member to tweet the deal as the official trade announcement time.

We hear LA is looking for shots. Too bad they didn’t specify which kind!

According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie , Jeff Carter has been traded to the LA Kings for Jack Johnson and a first-round pick. Puzzlingly, stellar backup Jonathan Bernier was not a part of this deal, even though he was reportedly offered, and Columbus’s goalie situation remains in question.

LA will be taking on Carter’s $5,272,727 cap hit approximately until the sun burns out, and will be looking for Carter to jumpstart their struggling offense. CBJ will be getting folk rock singer defenseman Jack Johnson in return at a cap hit of $4,357,143, which presumably is the kind of young D they were looking for to rebuild their blueline for the future.

This trade will also reunite the walking Axe Body Spray commercial that is Jeff Carter and his longtime teammate Mike Richards, which apparently seemed like a good idea to someone today. Look for widespread shortages in Ed Hardy products to sweep through the LA area.

According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the Columbus Blue Jackets have traded center Antoine Vermette to the Phoenix Coyotes for goalie Curtis McElhinney, a 2012 second-round and a 2013 fifth-round draft pick.

Vermette has a cap hit of $3,750,000 and had been projected as a possible option for the Caps themselves, likely because he has a pulse and the letter “C” in his player bio, but we’d remind you that there is certainly another center on the Blue Jackets that seems to be very much up for grabs. Vermette will instead now be providing center depth to a team filling holes for the postseason, while Columbus will presumably gain some breathing room in net from the acquisition of McBackup McElhinney.

We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but this may be an indication that the  Blue Jackets aren’t going to try to make a run for the playoffs this year.

If we had entitled this “Steve Downie Involved in Three-Way”, you never would have clicked on it, but that’s exactly what happened this afternoon. According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Tampa Bay has traded Steve Downie to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Kyle Quincey, and then traded Kyle Quincey to the Detroit Red Wings for a first-round draft pick and prospect Sebastien Piche.

Steve Downie has a cap hit of $1,850,000 and will bring with him his charming personality and 121 season penalty minutes, while the Detroit has acquired Quincey and his $3,125,000 cap hit, who they originally drafted in 2003, and lost on waivers in 2008.

We’re obviously very broken up about Steve Downie leaving the division and will deeply miss seeing his face six times a year. We’ll make it through this somehow. The real question is, who’s going to tell Semyon Varlamov about his new teammate?

According to TSN, Pavel Kubina has been traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Philadelpha Flyers for a second and a fourth-round draft pick. The club has made it no secret that he was on the block, keeping veteran defenseman Kubina off the ice this week for multiple games, including the game played against the Capitals tonight while they looked for a buyer.

Kubina has a cap hit of $3,850,000 and was likely acquired to shore up Philadelphia’s defense with key player Chris Pronger out of the lineup long-term with a concussion. Philadelphia has already acquired defenseman Nicklas Grossman from the Dallas Stars this week but that didn’t seem to stop them from making a bid for Kubina; we assume this is because your average defenseman is worth about one half of a Chris Pronger.