Earlier this week, the Washington Capitals let their Captain and hometown favorite Jeff Halpern leave town and join the Dallas Stars as a free agent -- a decision that in some quarters is proving to be unpopular. Here's one fan who left his concerns over at the Washington Post:
This is very disappointing. How do you let your captain and local caps fan favorite slip away for 500K? Especially when you have a low payroll? First Bondra, and now Halpy. McPhee needs to go.
As it turns out, in his latest column, Caps owner Ted Leonsis explained just how and why a decision like this gets made, at least here in Washington:
Under the salary cap system of the
I realize you’re probably not thrilled with having to face Witt back in the East again with the Isles (or that Witt ever left your Caps at all), but to say the Isles will “rue the day” they signed Witt and Poti is fairly silly and not acknowledging the reality of the situation.
After all, their once-deep blueline has basically been decimated over the past few years. Their d-men now consist of Zhitnik, Witt, Poti, Martinek, Grebeshkov (if they resign him), and Bouchard. Remove Witt and Poti from that blueline and it’s AWFUL. With Witt and Poti in there it’s a significant improvement over what could have been. Not great, but not so bad.
Witt is a solid signing for the Isles (or anyone else that would have signed him) and Poti is better than most anyone else they had. Considering their cap room (currently under $30m) the Isles could still sign another decent d-man still to round that group out.