Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I'm your host, Travis Yost.
Bit of an interesting story coming out of Washington the last couple of days, with winger Martin Erat requesting a trade out of the nation's capital. Erat was acquired in a big deal with Nashville last season, which cost the Capitals the likes of Filip Forsberg, one of Washington's highly-touted prospects.
Erat has grown frustrated with his diminishing role, and as such, has asked the front office in Washington to move him.
Via
Katie Carrera at the Washington Post:
Erat has a full no-movement clause in his contract and would need to approve any trade, but McPhee said he doesn’t expect that to be a problem because the winger has been “flexible” and “accommodating” with what teams he would be willing to move to. McPhee said he has been talking to some teams and is working to find a trade.
“We’ve always told our players, and our policy for 15 years or so, if you don’t feel like you fit in, if you feel like it’d be better for your career to be someplace else, let us know and we’ll try to accommodate you,” McPhee said. “I admire him for it. He’s been professional, he came in and he’s not pointing fingers or anything like that. He said, ‘These things happen and it’s not working out for me. I’d like an opportunity someplace else.’ No promises on when it happens. We’ll see how long it takes.”
Erat's sort of an interesting player. His three-year point-per-game average coming into this season was an impressive 0.75; this season, it sits at a pedestrian 0.26. Some of that can certainly be chalked up to a diminished role (his TOI has dropped by nearly five minutes per game), and some of that can be chalked up to playing with a lesser quality of teammate than he's probably accustomed to.
It's a tough spot for the Capitals front office, with a player (a) demanding a trade; where (b) value is probably at it's low-point. The old adage of buying low and selling high won't be available to McPhee here, which could drag this situation on a bit.
I don't think there's a question of whether or not Erat has value -- based on his prior sample, one has to assume that this year's poor play is sort of a blip on the radar. The question is, what team would be willing to move an asset or two for a top-six winger on a fairly expensive contract? The demand for such a player, when you factor in needs
and costs, are probably lesser than you think.
The Q: What NHL team should call in and inquire about Martin Erat? And, what should they offer?
I'll leave my opinion in the comments below shortly.
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