Two in one

Well let’s see.  Where were we?  Scott Hannan got traded to Washington yesterday.  My first thought was “how’d they get him under the salary cap?”  Turns out the Caps are in pretty good shape, with almost all of their players making less than $2.5 million. 

It’s a pretty interesting strategy they have, and it will be interesting to see how long they can find success with goalies making entry-level contract money.

The best thing the Caps have done is keep their entry level contracts under control.  By avoiding the salary bonuses we see elsewhere, Washington maintains a ton of flexibility.  The Captials are spending just over $5 million on five entry-level players in their lineup.  Only Karl Alzner has a cap hit of $1 million or more in all of Washington’s system.

Many other teams have a lot of the wrong guys signed to long-term, big money contracts (looking at you, Edmonton and Shawn Horcoff) or two or more entry-level players taking up more than $3 million in cap space.

It will be interesting to see how Washington manages these entry-level deals as they start to expire, but they seem to be in really good shape.

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Elsewhere, some Twitter rumblings yesterday say the Bruins are considering releasing Tyler Seguin to the World Junior Team.  I can’t stress how much I think that’s a great idea.  Seguin had some benefits in being drafted second overall behind Edmonton’s Taylor Hall.

Hall had the pressure of being picked first, by a struggling Canadian team, after winning back-to-back Memorial Cups and playing at the 2010 World Juniors and was put on the cover of The Hockey New Yearbook.

Seguin was drafted second by a good team, and faced almost no pressure coming into the league.  Naturally, with less fanfare and pressure, Seguin has had room to grow and is quietly becoming a very good player.

Which is all the more reason releasing him to the World Junior team is the right thing to do.  It gives him the opportunity to take his new skills and new outlook on the game, and go lead a team while facing a ton of pressure.  Frankly, the Oilers would do well to release Hall as well.  Playing at the World Juniors has to be better for his development than sitting at the end of Tom Renney’s bench is.