Washington Capitals HQ - SpezDispenser GM

A crazy day in Washington has finally seen the major trade go down.

Ryan Miller is now a part of the Capitals organization - and we're very excited to have him.

Two excellent players in Dan Ellis and Ryan Shannon are leaving us sadly, as well as Orlov - a top D prospect and a previously acquired 1st round pick, but also coming to Washington are Patrick Kaleta and Scott Walker.

so....Ek was wrong again?!?!? :handsup:

Pending league approval, the Washington Capitals have made what they hope will be their final trade of the year.

Washington will welcome Rusty Klesla, B.Morrison, Mason Raymond and a Vancouver pick and will say goodbye to Keith Tkatchuk, Jeff Halpern, Thomas Hickey and Cody Bass.

In a quick interview, GM SpezDispenser has this to say about the recent transaction:

In the grand scheme we would have liked to keep guys like Keith, Jeff and Cody - and especially Thomas Hickey, but when you're playing with a hard cap, there are sacrifices that have to be made. We hope that these guys can mesh well, we know that Klesla will love it here - and Mason Raymond will have every opportunity to show us what he's got.

SpezDispenser admits he never wanted to let Morrison go

Well no, when a guy is signed to an attractive contract like that - and can play at a high level, we didn't want to let him go, but as I said, it's a salary cap age - and that's the bottom line. We're very pleased to have him back now. With this transaction the Caps lose some depth, but gain some great experience on the blueline. We felt it was a necessary step to take to get us to our final goal of competing for the Cup.

Likes dealing with the Canucks

I won't lie to you, we've dealt with the Canucks a couple of times now, and we've come away from both transactions feeling pretty good about the way it was handled. Dave is a good guy who knows what he wants - and we will absolutely approach him in future about other deals.

with filed from the AP

SpezDispenser wrote:Pending league approval, the Washington Capitals have made what they hope will be their final trade of the year.

I think you'll think differently when the Ducks start offering up some players after the FA period

Amnesia021 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Pending league approval, the Washington Capitals have made what they hope will be their final trade of the year.

I think you'll think differently when the Ducks start offering up some players after the FA period

Notice it said 'what they hope'.

SpezDispenser wrote:Pending league approval, the Washington Capitals have made what they hope will be their final trade of the year.

Washington will welcome Rusty Klesla, B.Morrison, Mason Raymond and a Vancouver pick and will say goodbye to Keith Tkatchuk, Jeff Halpern, Thomas Hickey and Cody Bass.

In a quick interview, GM SpezDispenser has this to say about the recent transaction:

In the grand scheme we would have liked to keep guys like Keith, Jeff and Cody - and especially Thomas Hickey, but when you're playing with a hard cap, there are sacrifices that have to be made. We hope that these guys can mesh well, we know that Klesla will love it here - and Mason Raymond will have every opportunity to show us what he's got.

SpezDispenser admits he never wanted to let Morrison go

Well no, when a guy is signed to an attractive contract like that - and can play at a high level, we didn't want to let him go, but as I said, it's a salary cap age - and that's the bottom line. We're very pleased to have him back now. With this transaction the Caps lose some depth, but gain some great experience on the blueline. We felt it was a necessary step to take to get us to our final goal of competing for the Cup.

Likes dealing with the Canucks

I won't lie to you, we've dealt with the Canucks a couple of times now, and we've come away from both transactions feeling pretty good about the way it was handled. Dave is a good guy who knows what he wants - and we will absolutely approach him in future about other deals.

with filed from the AP

:happydance:

:^^^^:

The Washington Capitals have made their biggest trade in franchise history today, acquiring marquee center Mike Cammalleri as well as powerplay specialist Mathieu Schneider, young goal-scoring D-man Anton Babchuck as well as one of the most promising of the young players in today's game Nikita Filatov.

Also in the deal: young prospects Mayorov and Matthias as well as veteran NHLer Taylor Pyatt.

Leaving the Caps' organization is Nik Backstrom, Slava Kozlov, Sami Salo and Swedish prospect Gustafsson.

Conditional picks were also involved, but GM SpezDispenser didn't want to get into the details.

"Not right now, this was a major trade that came together in the last 3 weeks or so. It serves two major purposes for us: first off, it give Ovechkin a major marquee center to set him up - and also a center who has the shot to finish off Ovechkin's passing abilities. Alex is extremely excited - as is Dany (Heatley), who unfortunately is injured at the moment, but we talked to him as well to make sure this was something that would make all three of our top stars happy."

Face-lift for the D.

"For sure it is, yeah. It's a major re-working of the D. We like what Derek Morris brings - and obviously Chris Pronger is a delightfully nasty D-man, but we felt there was a chance to bring more offense from the back end with this deal. Outlet passes are the key to the new NHL. Getting the puck from our zone to Ovechkin, Heatley, Cammelleri, Laich and the group of forwards is very important - and once they have the puck, the know how to finish plays off."

Massive young talent.

"Mind-boggling the amount of talent Filatov has. We were extremely excited to have him, we talked to him briefly this afternoon, and although he won't be ready to return for six or seven weeks, he's very excited about the Washington Capitals. And really...right now, who isn't?"

The final pieces of the deal has been agreed to, with Ottawa sending Minnesota's 1st Round Pick 2010 to Washington in return for their 3rd Round Pick in 2010.

To WSH:
Scnhieder
Cammaleri
Babchuk
Filatov
Mayorov
Pyatt
Matthias
Minnesota 1st Round Pick 2010

To Ott:
Backstrom
Salo
Kozlov
Gustafsson
Washington 3rd Round Pick 2010

It wasn't too long ago that Caps GM SpezDispenser thought he was done dealing for the year. "I did. I really did. No one expected anymore activity - especially after the massive trade with Ottawa."

So, how surprising was it to come face to face with another massive trade?

Well...the deal for Datsyuk came up rather quickly, so we needed to make a decision in a shorter amount of time than usual. Pronger was a strong player for us on the back end, but the way we were looking at it was that we were going in pretty strong on D, we added Schneider and Babchuk and we already had Morris, Klesla, Colaiacovo and Schubert - not that these guys can replace Pronger, but we figured we had most areas covered well. Pronger was definitely out leading minute-man though, so we'll see how these guys adapt.

What do you expect Pavel Datsyuk to bring to the Washington Capitals?

When I make a trade, no matter how big or small, I want to make sure we're getting the best possible value. If I was going to trade Chris Pronger it wasn't going to be for anyone other than a Hart and Selke nominee. This is a guy who can put up points, defend and is obviously one of the top players in the entire league. Knowing that before you make a trade is an added bonus to both us and the NJ Devils. We both knew exactly what we were getting. I think Pavel will feed Ovechkin and Heatley like there's literally no tomorrow. Not to mention that we like how Datsyuk handles himself on the PP, the PK and 5 on 5. We're all very excited.

What about the rumours floating around that Martin Havlat is a Washington Capital?

*laughs* Yes he is. Things happen very quickly in this game. Mike Cammelleri knew the moment we acquired him that we probably wouldn't have the cap space to keep him and while Martin Havlat only saves us a million on the cap, we felt it was a move that didn't really give up too much talent to save the million - and as RobbyJ knew, that was a pre-requisite of us making a transaction. We had one of the premiere goal-scorers in the league and we got what we feel is pretty fair value.

So, you're hoping to score a lot of goals?

Yes we are. We're quite aggressive.

What will happen with Nikita Filatov when he's back from injury?

Two options: one, we'll assign Nik to our AHL affiliate in Hershey until we've made room for him. Two, we'll make room for him.

Are you planning on playing him this year?

Rest assured, at one point or another, Nikita Filatov will play NHL hockey for the Washington Capitals.

Unless you get another trade offer you can't refuse.

*laughs* Took the words right out of my mouth.

-with files from the Associated Press

Dude. Check your PMs.

As the Washington Capitals prepare for the stretch drive to the playoffs, they find themselves in first place in the East. We caught up to GM SpezDispenser this afternoon and he sat down with us for a very quick Q & A.

So, first place?

Yeah, but the thing to realize here is that the Caps have played more games than other teams in the East, so I wouldn’t put that kind of stock in the standings right now.

You’re downplaying the spot you’re in?

Not really downplaying it, but I’m not ready to declare the Caps the winners of the Conference - not by a longshot. Especially if you’ve been around our environment here, we take this very seriously and we want to win, but absolutely nothing is a given, everything is a battle in this league - especially with the number of enormous trades that happen almost on a daily basis.

Besides, while it matters where we finish, as long as we make the post-season, we’re in a decent position to play some good hockey. We’d prefer home ice, but again, we’re a pretty decent road team and we feel we can put pressure on other teams.

Speaking of enormous trades, it’s been a while...

We made a transaction with Ottawa this afternoon and it’s been approved, so there’s our first one in quite some time.

Does it address the need you had?

Hopefully, yeah. We felt that we needed a small boost in our top 6, which is not to undermine the performances of anyone on this team, it’s simply to bolster our roster and make us as dangerous as possible. We gave up some significant pieces to do this, so we hope it’ll work, but we acquired two Cup winners in Selanne and Skoula to hopefully offset the losses of Glencross, Schneider and the 1st rounder. It hurt to lose Schneider, he was great for us, but you have to give a veteran like that to get a guy like Selanne.

How long where you looking for the right deal?

Specifically, this deal took minutes, but it's been a solid two months since we put our needs out there to other GMs and have been looking around ever since. This is an easy league to trade in, but a dollar for dollar - especially when you like your group of players - is very difficult.

How about losing Schneider?

Again, we felt we had to give up something to get something. It’s hard because he’s a major cog for us, especially on the PP, but we have Weber and Babchuck, so the thought it, they can carry the load for us. The thing that probably made me make the deal was the fact that Skoula can play more of a shutdown role and when we watched our team play, we wondered why there wasn’t enough puck clearing from the front of the net, or aggressive play. We wanted a little more out of our D and we need to put Ryan Miller in a position to be able to make one or two saves, then have the D help him out. As it stood, we watched as Miller would have to make three, four, five saves in one sequence and that’s not good enough, especially so close to the playoffs.

Are you excited to get to the post-season?

Of course. We had this in mind since day one. We’ve come a long way here in Washington, nothing was handed to us on a silver platter. We upgraded the goaltending, the D and arguably we even upgraded the offence now. All we can do now is look forward to the post-season with some anticipation!

So no more deals?

(laughs) Where in the world did I say that?

A small trade has been made between the Anaheim Ducks and the Washington Capitals. The Caps have acquired Miro Satan for Taylor Pyatt this afternoon.

A brief release from Caps HQ:

"The thought behind this is, we need a little skill and a little finish to go with Morrison on our 3rd line. This opportunity came up, so we thought we'd give it a try and the money was about even."

Caps GM SpezDispenser is on his way to Hershey to watch prospects Shawn Matthias, Mayorov, Nigro amongst others. The thought is that these prospects could make the Washington roster as early as next season.

The Washington Capitals are proud to announce that they have come to terms with the following players:

Teemu Selanne - 1 year, 4 million dollars.

David Steckel - 5 years, 800K per year

Rusty Klesla - 3 years, 2.5 million per year

Carl Colaiacavo - 3 years, 2 million per year

Brendan Morrison - 2 years, 2.5 million per year

No mason raymond?

marakh wrote:No mason raymond?

Yeah, no...I couldn't...ran out of signings, Steckel is the faceoff guy. Why you want Raymond, make me an offer before the deadline and we'll 'chat'.

The Washington Capitals have made a minor deal. The team has acquired a 6th round pick in 2010, a 7th round pick in 2010, a 7th round pick in 2011 and ECHL goaltender Cedric Desjardins in exchange for prospect Jack Hillen and a 4th round pick in 2012.

GM SpezDispenser had this to say "We don't really care about the mid tiered picks, we think, the more the merrier! Let's find that Alfredsson or Zetterberg! We also pick up a good young prospect in goalie Credric Desjardins who will get every opportunity to play in Hershey immediately."

I like the copy/paste job

stempniaksen wrote:I like the copy/paste job

What are you talking about?

In the final deal of the night, the Washington Capitals have re-acquired Matt Bradley and top prospect Viktor Stalberg for Mason Raymond.

Bradley will shift onto a line with Morrison and Satan, Stalberg is immediately assigned to Hershey.