Caps Sign Taticek, Fill Enigmatic-Czech-Named-Petr Void

In case you'd forgotten the Petr Sykora experiment ("It took the Capitals three years to get Petr Sykora to come to the NHL, and it took the player less than three months to decide it wasn't for him."), here's Version 2.0, courtesy some goofy Czech webiste:

Petr Tatíček zůstane v zámoří, dohodl se na dvoucestné smlouvě s Washingtonem

Loose translation: "Petr Taticek, who should probably be off herding goats in Moravia, has signed with the Caps" (apologies - my Czech is a little rusty).

You might recall Taticek as a Florida Panther farmhand. More likely you don't recall him at all. In any event, here's what TSN has to say about him:

Assets: Has tremendous playmaking skills and is comfortable in all three zones of the ice. Is developing into a better-than-average offensive center.

Flaws: Must add even more bulk to his 6-3 frame and get a lot stronger in order to play regularly in the NHL.

Career potential: Second line center.

Pretty sweet. Hockey's Future is less optimistic, grading him a 5.0 D (5.0 indicating that his talent tops out at fourth line forward, D indicating that he's "unlikely to reach [that] potential"). In other words, don't think that this guy is going to step in and be the number two center the team's been looking for. But as a roll of the dice? Probably not a bad move, especially when you read that one line in the HF analysis:

Taticek thrives when playing with skilled wingers, because of his stick-handling ability and hockey sense.

An interesting side note: the Caps now have six - count 'em, six - players on their roster who were drafted in the first round in 2002. Unfortunately, none of them is named Nash or Lehtonen, Pitkanen or Ward.

Update: Here's an HF Panthers board thread from when Taticek was traded for Ric Jackman this past season. And here's one from the Pens side.