Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The Deal Gets Done

As we all know by now, there is an agreement in principle to a new CBA. Specifics are all over the internet, so I'm not going to bother noting them generally.

ESPN has a rundown of where each team stands in light of the new deal. So does TSN. It doesn't look good in Capland. However, since they were the second worst team in the League in the last year that they had an NHL season, they should have a good shot at a decent draft pick, no? No. Based on the League's ridiculous formula they have the same chance that the best teams in the League have (look for the fix to be in for the Rangers to be able to grab Sid Crosby). The Caps' chance is halved by the fact that they won the draft lottery last year and got to take a guy (Alex Ovechkin) who was, by many accounts, a toss up with the number two pick, Evgeni Malkin. To top things off, my understanding is that they must sign Ovechkin by July 20 or he will be locked into his contract in Russia, but the Caps can't sign him until the CBA is officially signed, which will take "a week or so" according to most accounts. Do the math. Things may be going from bad to worse to disaster for the Caps.

[Update: Dave Fay seems to be equally pessimistic about the Caps' Ovechkin situation in this morning's WTimes.]

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