It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that the Jake Hauswirth era is over. Hauswirth was packaged along with Washington’s 3rd round selection in the 2011 draft for defenseman Dennis Wideman. The 3rd round pick is minor, since a player drafted in that round plays an average of 71 NHL games — total for their career — while they amass an eye popping 24 points. But the Caps lost Hauswirth, so a moment of silence.

Now let’s focus on picking up the pieces, and see what goodies George McPhee got Caps fans.

With Poti on LTIR and Green out for a few weeks after an elbow to the head, the Caps picked up another puck moving defenseman in Dennis Wideman. It’s important to note that this isn’t a rental. Wideman has a year left after this one valued at a $3,937,500 cap hit. So let’s look at the present and possible future.

Wideman has been on the ice for 3.31 power play points per 60 minutes of ice time, more than any other Washington blue-liner. His eight power play goals this year would lead Washington’s current roster, despite playing on a worse (yes, worse) power play unit in Florida.

At even strength, many will point to Wideman’s minus-26 +/- rating and conclude he is a liability in his own end, however, it is probably due to goalies managing a dismal .886 save percentage when he has been on the ice. If he gets anywhere close to the 5v5 save percentage Washington’s defenseman get, we should see a quick improvement.

As for 2011-12, I admit I had some concerns, but it looks like Wideman might not be a terrible value at the $4 million cap hit. If we use similar players at the same age for comparison, we can expect the following production during the 2011-12 season:

For Wideman’s cap hit we should expect about 10.5 goals above what a replacement player would produce, and Wideman’s 9.9 is right in line with that. The true downside of taking on this contract — barring an offseason trade — is it probably signals the end of the Scott Hannan era after this season. And that is a true loss.

Jason Arnott also will be rocking the red, but at the expense of fan favorite faceoff force David Steckel and a 2nd rounder in the 2012 draft.

I have mixed feelings about this one. Arnott is clearly an upgrade over Steckel offensively, but I wonder who is going to take the defensive zone faceoffs. Boyd Gordon will certainly fill that void at the beginning, but nagging injuries don’t give me the warm and fuzzies that he can be a reliable solution. The more probable outcome is that Backstrom will be left carrying most of that burden, and that means less offensive zone starts for him and Ovechkin. Make no mistake, it does make a difference. Look at how percentage of starts in the offensive zone affects even strength points per 60 minutes while on the ice over the last three years throughout the league:

This season, Ovechkin has seen 50.6% of his starts in the offensive zone and has been on ice for 2.37 EV points per 60, Backstrom 51.7% and 1.94 pts/60. Last year, Ovechkin saw 55.6% and 3.70 pts/60, Backstrom 58% and 3.03 pts/60. In contrast, the Sedins see over 70% of their starts in the offensive zone. Is this the sole reason for the Caps offensive woes? Of course not, but I don’t see Arnott easing that burden either.

Since New Jersey’s progression to the mean, Arnott’s production has decreased, not only seeing less points per game but also slightly reduced ice time as well. Don’t get me wrong, I think it was a good deal for Washington, who shed a not so great contract and get some more offensive firepower to go along with a solid playoff resume. I just am skeptical it will help as much as others may think.

In front of a sparse Monday morning crowd, the Capitals’ rookies took to the ice for their second day of Rookie Camp. The prospects were put through a extended practice that consisted mostly of tedious timing drills. The usual suspects, guys like Cody Eakin and Marcus Johansson, impressed the coaches with their skill while RMNB worship idol, Stanislav Galiev, showed-off his blazing speed. Trevor Bruess also showed improvement throughout the session, darting easily through the timers that were set up to record their speed.

Bruce Boudreau noted that all of the players were in great condition for camp. And it’s true. The boys were moving faster and looking less winded after each and every drill. However, the session ended with the dreaded set of Herbies, which we can only describe as the worst suicides on earth. The sprints included skating back and forth repeatedly across varying widths of the ice, full throttle. By the end, all of the players were doubled over, struggling for air.

During the drills, I did manage to notice that Galiev and Dmitry Kugryshev spent most of practice standing together, speaking in their native Russian. Sadly, they were separated for most of the session from their fellow countryman, Nikita Kashirsky whose group spent more time training off-ice today.

Not long after the rookies left, the veterans made their way out of the locker room. There were many new members joining the skate today like Brooks Laich, Michal Neuvirth, John Carlson, and Andrew Gordon. They put together their own makeshift practice, including a very informal scrimmage of white versus black. There were a lot of smiling faces as the guys returned to work. It was nice reminder that we’re less than a month away from Opening Night!

Make sure to check out all the photos from the day of hockey below. Photos of the Caps veterans are on the very bottom.

Pictures From Day 2 of Rookie Camp

Photos from the Caps Informal Practice

Team White celebrates their shootout victory as Russian Prospect Stanislav Galiev is the only player to score. (Photos by Addison Huber)

Scrimmage

By 9am the stands at Kettler were about 1/3 filled as the Capitals’ prospects took the ice for their second scrimmage of 2010 Development Camp. In marked contrast to yesterday’s chippy, gritty scrimmage, today’s affair was much more fluid and wide open, resulting in over 30% more scoring. On the red team the lines stayed pretty much the same as the first scrimmage. On the white team, Stanislav Galiev was bumped down to the second line, serving with Wade MacLeod (Jr, Northeastern) and Garrett Mitchell (WHL, 2009 Draft, 6th Round, 175th overall). The chemistry of the Galiev-MacLeod-Mitchell line was palpable: the line exploded for the first three goals of the scrimmage – MacLeod was 2-1-3 and Galiev was 1-1-2. Galiev scored his goal camped out in front of the net on a nice deflection that beat goalie Taylor Nelson (So, Ferris State) Red quickly responded with a pair of goals from Jake Hauswirth (both on mostly empty nets) and one from Stefan Della Rovere. The red and white teams alternated goals for the remainder of the game, with Cody Eakin and Evgeny Kuznetsov scoring for the red team and Marcus Johansson and Felix LeFrancois both picking up their first goals for the white team. In the overtime shootout Galiev scored the only goal to win the game for white with a sick deke in front of the net.

Kuznetsov the Pest?

As Peter mentioned in his earlier post, there was an incident featuring Braden Holtby and Evgeny Kuznetsov. As Kuznetsov aggressively forechecked into the offensive zone, he came into contact with Holtby, knocking Holtby out of the play and allowing Jake Hauswirth to score an easy goal. After Kuznetsov gave Holtby an earful, Holtby responded after the play by taking his stick and whacking Kuznetsov across the back of the legs. This was not the only incident of the day involving Kuznetsov. A short while after the Holtby incident, Kuznetsov held and hooked Marcus Johansson at center ice. Even after being called for a penalty, Kuznetsov continued to jaw at Mackan in broken English, leading to a dirty look from the Swede.

Stanislav Galiev is certainly full of personality. (Photos by Addison Huber)

Day 3 was a busy day for the draftees and invitees at Capitals Development Camp. Both Group A and Group B were on the ice in the morning, and the whole squad took the ice in the afternoon for a scrimmage. The additional activity made for an extremely long day, one that not only left me exhausted, but also (and more importantly) left me feeling like a full-time member of the media. I also increased my attempts at multi-tasking: interspersing periods of photography with Tweets, especially during the afternoon scrimmage. Day 3 also provided a glimpse into the world of the best PR staff in the NHL when Nate and Kelly  invited all the bloggers in attendance to a roundtable to discuss ideas and innovations.

Group A Observations

Both groups were put to their first quantitative evaluation today, with the coaching staff giving the prospects a battery of skating tests, including blue-line-to-blue-line skating, straight-line speed, and S-curves. Because of the nature of the early part of the day, there was a notably decreased media presence around the Kettler practice rink. Evgeny Kuznetsov remained the class of Group A, using long, confident strides to fly around the ice. Dmitri Orlov also displayed impressive handling and speed, but did so by utilizing compact, powerful, quick steps. The Swede in Group A, Anton Gustafsson, looked a bit less confident than many other members of the group, was not as fast as expected, and almost fell several times. The biggest members of Group A, Joe Finley and Jake Hauswirth, both succumbed to gravity and took hard falls during the S-turn speed test. After the testing concluded, several players, including Kuznetsov, stayed on the ice to play keep away and shoot the puck around. Kuznetsov looked like a kid in a candy shop, skating with a smile stretching from ear to ear as he deftly moved the puck around the ice – clearly the kid loves to play hockey.

Group B Observations

Shortly after Group A finished their testing, Group B had their chance to show off for the coaches and assembled fans. As expected, Marcus Johansson was far and away the best skater from Group B, clearly having benefited from the increased level of competition in the Swedish Elite League. Johansson’s skating style is almost technically flawless, which allowed him to sail through all the tests with an easy grace. In addition to Johansson, Stanislav Galiev also put on quite a skating clinic and Dustin Stevenson displayed better than average speed (for a defenseman). On a slightly less positive note, Trevor Bruess did not leave a terribly good impression, especially for a prospect who has spent some time in the AHL. Bruess was not as fast as some of the other prospects and seemed a little hesitant at times through the corners in the turning speed test.

Scrimmage

The highlight of Development Camp day 3 was the first official scrimmage of the summer. The two groups ditched their color coordinated line jerseys for sharp-looking red and white team threads with gray highlights and piping on the sides. The two sides fought to a stalemate, leading Coach Boudreau to quip to the assembled bloggers: “next time we’re going to a shootout.” The MVP of the scrimmage was 2010 draft pick Kuznetsov, who potted two goals and an assist – while just missing a hat trick. His first tally was a Knublian deflection off a shot from the point that he garnered by holding a spot at the top of the crease. The physical play of several prospects stood out during the scrimmage: Stefan Della Rovere was throwing his body around, landing several crunching hip checks; Sean Wiles made some sacrifices blocking shots; and Cody Eakin played way bigger than his size, holding the puck and winning battles along the boards. The goalies were also fairly solid, stopping all the penalty shots except one. Most notably, Phillip Grubauer displayed good positioning, astute awareness, and keen anticipation of the puck. The most exciting moment of the scrimmage came after all-around nice guy Joe Finley crushed Zach Miscovic at the half-wall, leading to an exchange of pleasantries with fellow bruiser Anthony Pisano (Bridgewater, MJAHL). The two heavyweights calmly discussed the incident and ended with a hug, leaving all satisfied.

Extra Photos