Sabres GM Tim Murray said last weekend that there was minimal, if any, trade talks in the market during the Olympic break. Many NHL execs took personal holidays and used the time to reconvene with their scouts. Others, like Murray, gassed up the pickup truck and sloshed through the slush to watch young prospects in the OHL, “The Dub”, “The Q”, and NCAA hockey.
McPhee said on Thursday that he has his dealing shoes on and is ready, willing, and able to trade away futures and picks now in order improve his team’s current on-ice roster.
Thanks, Monumental Network
Hell, the way this season has gone for GMGM, he may be willing to make two or three trades in order to insure a playoff berth and a trip to the second round and beyond.
Ryan Miller? Matt Moulson? Steve Ott? Why not? If a player makes sense, McPhee will consider it.
“…I will always continue to try and help the club that's on the ice and if there's something at the deadline that we think's going to help this club that's been battling all year, we're going to do it and I will trade picks and young players again to make this team better if that's what's necessary."
McPhee’s Capitals will have to string together a gargantuan winning streak in order to catapault into a playoff spot. The Caps sit in ninth place today, tied with Ottawa and Columbus (63 points). Detroit presently holds down the 8th seed (64 points). Carolina and New Jersey are nipping at the Caps’ skate heels (61 points apiece).
The Caps can ill afford to stumble out of the blocks when NHL action resumes on Tuesday night. McPhee knows that an uphill climb is in his team’s future for the final 23 games of the regular season. Failure is not an option.
Goaltending is the one are of urgency on the Caps roster roster right now.
You'll recall that before the Olympic break that McPhee told Joe Michelletti of NBC Sports that he thought that his team would have 10 more points in the standings if his goaltending was playing at a higher level. The GM's comments sent shock waves through the NHL and served to dump more gas on the Ryan Miller to Washington trade rumors.
Today, GMGM took a more diplomatic tack when discussing his goalies Holtby and Neuvirth:
"The goalies had a soft stretch there but we really like the way they're playing now
GMs have a tough time trading players that they've previously devalues in public. You think McPhee would stutter step if given the opportunity to trade Holtby, a top prospect and a first rounder (ie: 2013 1st rounder Burakovsky or 2013 1st rounder Tom Wilson) for Miller?
I don't.
Sabres GM Tim Murray said last weekend that he like "big" goaltenders.
Holtby is 6'2 and could use a change of scenery.
I find it hilarious that McPhee needed to be corrected that Burakovsky is not "Burmistrov". Talk about embarrassing.
Don’t be surprised if McPhee has been having serious conversations with rival GMs during the Olympic break. The Olympic roster freeze will be thawed at 11pm EDT on Sunday February 23.
I predict that McPhee will be very active in the trade market in the days to come.
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McPhee was asked to comment on one of his top futures and top prospects who he may consider trading before the March 5 NHL trade deadline as a means to improve his team’s on ice performance now. Erie Otters superstar forward (2013 1st rounder), and Connor McDavid line mate, Andre Burakovsky is attracting a ton of attention from scouts and GMs around the NHL ever since he starred for Sweden at the IIHF World Junior Champuionships in Malmo, Sweden in January.
"He might be one of the best picks we've ever made."
“ He's an exceptional player who has all the things that we're looking for in a player. His IQ is really off the charts. He's two or three plays ahead. He's a really good skater. He's got a great shot. He plays a two way game...I thought he was exceptional in the world junior tournament."
Would McPhee include Burkovsky and other valuable pieces in a package for say, Ryan Miller?
With GMGM, you should NEVER say never.
McPhee did the unthinkable last March when he traded Swedish rock star and NHL stud-in-the-making Filip Forsberg for veteran Martin Erat. McPhee has been widely criticized for trading Forsberg who was voted the MVP of the recently concluded IIHF World Junior Championships.
Anything can happen and it likely will as long as McPhee is a GM without a contract extension for next season and beyond who is trying to salvage an Eastern playoff berth right now.
Desperate? ‘Lil bit.
Source: Sky Kerstein
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Alex Ovechkin’s world was put into proper perspective on Wednesday when it was learned that his father is ill in Russia.
Washington Capitals GM George McPhee announced on Thursday that Ovechkin will remain in Russia after his father, Mkhail, underwent emergency heart surgery earlier this week.
McPhee said that Mikhail Ovechkin was taken ill on February 16 following the Russia vs. Slovakia game in Sochi.
McPhee said Mikhail Ovechkin “probably had a heart attack and had surgery.” The elder Ovechkin was placed in the ICU immediately following the surgery. He is listed in stable condition.
McPhee said he spoke with Ovechkin on the phone Wednesday and he told his captain to “stay as long as necessary” in Sochi with his mother and father. Family definitely comes first for Ovechkin.
McPhee said Ovechkin didn’t know about his dad’s surgery until after his Russian team was eliminated from Olympic competition by Finland on Wednesday.
“It’s a difficult time for him, really difficult,” McPhee said Thursday. ([We) expect he’ll be pretty darn good when he gets back here.”
GMGM was quick to point out that Team Russia’s failures at Sochi are not to be blamed on Ovechkin.
“For people to blame Ovechkin for that team’s (Team Russia) failure is not proper. There’s a lot of players that haven’t produced over there,” McPhee said.
The question still remains as to what state of mind that Ovechkin will be in when he finally returns to Washington. Will he shake off the blues of being eliminated from the Olympics without a trip to the medals podium? Or, will he be overcome by the enormity of it all?
Ovechkin scored 42 goals and had 89 points in 54 games before the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver. When the games concluded, Ovechkin scored only 8 goals and 20 points in 18 games.
Will history repeat itself?
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Comes news today that there may be an explanation for Austria’s poor performance at the Sochi Olympics. On Tuesday, the Austrians played listlessly against team Slovenia in their quarterfinals win-or-go-home-game versus Slovenia.
According to Eurohockey.com, members of the Austrian team were celebrating until all hours of the morning after their win over Norway to close out the preliminary round on Sunday.
"We had a real chance to reach the quarterfinals I don't know why this happened, especially before what is most likely the most important game for modern era Austrian ice hockey. It was a shock what happened after the game against Norway," Austrian head coach Manny Viveiros told the media on Wednesday afternoon.
Viveiros:
"I had no idea about it. I was shocked. We knew the players went there (Austria House) to eat something. But it was planned that they return to their rooms right afterwards."
Vivieros
Viveiros is especially disappointed with former Buffalo Sabre, current NY Islander and soon-to-be Minnesota Wild sniper Thomas Vanek who he installed as his team captain.
According to ÖEHV (Austrian Ice Hockey Federation) president Dieter Kalt:
"He also chose Vanek as team captain to have an experienced player and this obviously went wrong". The report states that Vanek and fellow NHLers Michael Grabner and Michael Raffl apologized in a letter for their "behavior".
WE haven't heard the end of this Sochi party flap. Names will be made public shortly.
It is not yet clear how many players were involved but Viveiros said that "there will be consequences" and "we will publish their names in the next days."
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The Amherst Ale House In Buffalo wants you to know if you want to drink a Canadian beer at their joint while you are watching the Team USA vs. Team Canada quarterfinals game on Friday afternoon, you've got another thing comin'!
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