Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Did The Caps Make A Run At Signing Chara?

According to the Toronto Sun, the Caps were one of a handful of teams that offered more than $7 million per season to free agent defenseman Zdeno Chara this past weekend:
Chara told Sun Media yesterday the Leafs were one of seven teams (along with San Jose, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Washington, the New York Rangers and New Jersey) that offered more than $7 million a season before he took Boston's offer.
Very interesting (and encouraging), if true.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Encouraging? Didn’t the Caps learn from the whole Jagr experiment?
7 Mill goes to a guy that can carry a team especially with having to deal with a salary cap.
Sorry, I don’t see Chara as that guy.

JP said...

I largely agree. First of all, I don't think the Caps were, in fact, in the $7m club (the WaPo reports that they topped out just over $6m). Second of all, I'm sure the length of the contract the Caps offered wasn't nearly what the Bruins or others offered. Both are clearly lessons learned from Jagrgate.

That said, what is encouraging is that the Caps are showing that when the time is right, they're willing to spend and get the player(s) they need to fill in holes. It sends the right message to the players and the fans who may feel some frustration sitting on the sidelines while everyone else jumps in the free agent pool (mixed metaphor alert!).