Posts
The Capitals have signed center Brendan Morrison to a one-year contract worth $1.5 million, per Tarik. The acquisition of Morrison appears to address the team's vacancy at second-line center. Morrison, 33, split last season between Anaheim and Dallas, recording 16 goals and 15 assists in 81 games.Drafted by New Jersey in 1993, Morrison spent nearly a decade in Vancouver from 1999-2008; he put up his best numbers on the team's potent top line alongside Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi. He recorded a career-high 71 points (25G, 46A) in 2002-03, but hasn't cracked the 50-point plateau since 2006-07.
Now, whether B-Mo can adequately fill the second-line center spot remains to be seen. One thing is certain, however: he's an improvement over the Tin Man.
ReplyDeleteBut really, isn't it nice to finally have a Morrison who spells his surname without a superfluous N?
Big picture:
ReplyDeleteKozlov + Fedorov ($6.5 million in cap space, 24 goals, 74 points)
replaced with
Knuble + Morrisson ($4 million in cap space, 36 goals, 78 points)
That's damn shrewd.
i agree rover, at that price morrison is a great pickup.. but will morrison/sasha chemistry be as good or better than feds/sasha chemistry? remains to be seen.
ReplyDeleteand i can't say i've been watching this guy, but he was waved by the ducks at the deadline last year, a team that generally seems to overachieve and make the most of personnel. and while BMo doesn't really fit the gritty power forward mold that they look for, in fact he's kind of the opposite, there's not much here to make me think morrison is going to have a turn around season or play considerably better than he has over the past couple seasons. we probably got what we paid for. a 1.5mil a year, 34 year old aging speedster of a center.
well, i contradicted myself in that last post in terms of the dollar value of morrison's contract. if he has plus chemistry with sasha we got a great deal, if he has neutral chemistry we got a slightly above average deal, if he has negative chemistry and we have to shuffle because of it, we probably would've been better off using the cap room for the deadline, or trading to fill the gap at C.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how I feel about this signing. I'm leaning toward agreeing with Bushwhacker...I really don't seen Semin and Morrison having great chemistry together. In fact, I may rather see Nylander in that spot.
ReplyDeleteThere's no getting around it: Nylander was absolutely atrocious last year, salary notwithstanding. Throw in his cap hit and you've got a major problem. But the fact of the matter is WE ARE STUCK WITH NYLANDER.
Before his injury a couple seasons ago he was averaging nearly a point per game through about 40 games. Yes, it was in Hanlon's rather than Boudreau's system, but I still hold out hope he can figure it out and form a nice chemistry with Sasha and give us 15 solid minutes a game.
The Morrison signing creates quite a logjam at center. Is Nyls really going to be a $4.875 million healthy scratch all season?
yeeaaaa that really is the question. if you rank all of our potential starting forwards based on overall ability, Nylander has to be in the top 12 (9-11 probably). but when you try to draw up 4 lines.. he just doesn't fucking fit anywhere. fleischmann too, to a lesser extent. they just feel like liabilities. (though flash had flashes of not sucking last year... he still has glaring inadequacies)
ReplyDeletemaybe stick both of them on the same line and play a super passive trap for like 10 minutes a game while the real offense takes a breather. i have no fucking idea. can we actually sit a guy making 5 mil a year? does he make any line better by being there in a boudreau offense?