Recently, Martin Erat requested to be traded from Washington to another organization despite being traded to the Caps right before last year’s trade deadline. This request should come to no surprise to Cap fans, as the first approximately 10-15 games Erat was merely used in a 4th line and PK specialist role. Brutally honest, it is surprising that Erat waited this long because most top-6 forwards would not have waited over 25% of a season; especially considering he was seeing over a 5 minute decrease in ice-time. People will site that Erat was under-preforming, but honestly he was never given/had the chance in Washington.
Upon acquiring him last year, Erat was injured early in the playoffs and didn’t get the chance to showcase the veteran leadership he was brought in for. Following this, Erat started the season on the 4th line with 19 year old rookie, Tom Wilson and Aaron Volpatti (waiver claim from Van). While both of these young players have bright futures; does it really surprise anyone that he couldn’t produce with limited ice-time while being on a line with two guys who aren’t proven offensively at the NHL level? Not to knock Wilson, however, if there was no NHL-CHL agreement do you really think he would be dressing at the NHL level (He would be with his OHL Plymouth teammate Connor Carrick in Hershey developing his skills rather than fighting)? Unfortunately, this agreement is set to protect the CHL, however it hurts the Caps and Tom Wilson honestly wouldn't have developed with another year in the OHL, thus the Caps were forced to keep him in the lineup but in a limited capacity (4th line). To scratch him night in and out also doesn’t make sense when trying to develop a young guy because there is no reason a first-round draft pick should be filling a "tough-guy" role. So why the problem...to begin with it was that Erat was underplayed and paired with significantly sub-par NHL talent.
To put it bluntly, Erat is a top-6 forward who needs to have a supporting cast to be productive because he is a natural playmaker, not a scorer. He has modest size, coming in around 6’0 and 200 pounds, thus isn’t much of a net presence either. Bringing him in from the start was a stretch, the Caps already had too many playmakers who struggle to score in our top-6 to top-9 (IE Backstrom, Mojo, and ex-Cap Perreault). Adding another problem is that the Caps top-9 is already over-booked and made zero to no sense. To add salt to the wound, let’s take a look back at the beginning of this horrible trade saga that has lead to the Caps having Martin Erat and this debacle.
General Manager George McPhee had an “overcrowded… crease and believed that Neuvirth was the Caps future in goal. Looking at the statistics, all three goaltenders (Holtby-14, Neuvy-48 and Varly-27) played that season and the “starting… job was given to Neuvy. In addition, he played in the playoffs for the Caps seeing 9 games. Given that during Holtby’s limited time he had the best stats of all of them- GMGM had to decide which goaltender to move. Unfortunately, GMGM choose the wrong goaltender sending Varlamov to the Aves for first and second round draft picks in 2012. Since then, Neuvy has played a limited amount and is paid an astronomical amount ($2.5 million) for a backup goaltender who is sparsely used and gets paid more closely for a goaltending situation consisting of a "1A and 1B". In addition, looking at both goaltenders development it would be a hard argument to say that Neuvy has developed better than Varlamov.
Moving forward to 2012, the Caps used the Avalanche draft pick to draft Filip Forsberg, a highly promising prospect who is playing for the Predators. GMGM not only traded away Varlamov, but then decides to trade away Forsberg a little over a year later at the deadline to the Predators. Thus, the Caps received Latta (Hershey) and Erat. Ultimately, the Caps gave up a starting goaltender to trade away their prized prospect and now are left with an unhappy veteran and Latta…that just seems like a horrible sequence of trades on GMGM. This leaves the question, as posed in an earlier blog on HB by Travis Yost, who would be a good trading partner for the Capitals. In my opinion, if the Caps were to go for a forward-I would look to Martin Havlat. He is in the similar price range, drafted the same year as Erat and is only 1 year older, brings similar size and is currently under a lot of scrutiny from the Sharks. Both players have two years remaining on their deals, and both players are approximately a $500K difference in salary cap hit making it plausible given both teams cap constraints. To help matters, both players probably do not want to relocate to non-cup contending teams, Havlat and Erat both have trade clauses. Ultimately, there are going to be few teams that have the cap space to take on Erat that would make his list. In addition, even fewer teams that are cup-contenders who Erat would accept that have expendable guys they would be willing to part with that would work for the Caps economics. Given the history of horrible GMGM trades, now is the time to make one that makes sense.
Looking at the Caps, the offense is relatively well-rounded and Erat really hasn’t had a role within the top-6, and not even the top-9 really. While I think Havlat would be an asset on the powerplay and could fit well into Coach Oates system, they really need to get another solid top-4 defender to help minimize the amount of scoring chances against. The Caps give up an astronomical amount of shots, sitting at 34.6 shots (26th), only to be worse than Buffalo, Ottaw, Toronto and Phoenix. Dallas sits at 25th, and gives up 2.4 fewer shots-meaning, there is a serious gap between the bottom 5 teams. The Caps have been riddled with injuries on the defensive side and have been playing “musical chairs… since game 1 of the season. The big question coming into this season revolved around the D and it really hasn’t gotten much better.
The waiver claim of Urbom made great sense, and he has been a great addition on the blue-line because of his presence and youth. He has probably solidified his role within the top-6, however definitely is not yet reliable enough to be in the top-4. This would allow good competition among the remaining blueliners for the 6th spot night in and out, while also waiting on Erskine and Hillen to recovery from injury. Ultimately, this would give the Caps some much needed support in the top-4, solidify the entire defense and still leaves some young guys in the organization with hopes that one of them is really NHL “ready.…
Thus, now is the time that GMGM makes a “smart… move and brings in another defender, who also has playoff experience. It doesn’t particularly make sense to simply move Erat away for pennies and it doesn’t make too much sense to bring in another forward with the current situation with the offense. I cited Martin Havlat merely to show the minimum of what they should accept if the Caps couldn’t secure a defender. Given that his value isn’t at his height, the Caps may have to give up another component with him to get a quality defender. The Caps should look at sending away Erat and a draft pick or top prospect, ensuring that they acquire a piece to help them win a Stanley Cup. Trading away Erat probably won’t get much of a return unless GMGM gives up something extra. Given the trade sequence, now is the time to not make the previous series of trades into a trilogy of mistakes.
If you were GMGM, who would you target? In conclusion, it is an unfortunate situation that Erat is in because he honestly deserved better after the time he gave to the Predators. It is sad to see such a classy guy being wasted in an NHL where GM's have started cutting corners with their 3rd and 4th lines because of salary constraints. This deal was bad from the start and ended just as poorly. Let's see what asinine trade GMGM will make in this series of "head scratching" trades.
Thanks for the read and comments are always appreciated. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @BCASE30.