I would have replaced him this year with Asham. Would have gotten a better player and saved a million bucks. Asham's a fa again next year. Could have done it then without having to make a trade.
There's a glut of good bottom six players out there. There's no need to hitch yourself to the likes of Chimera just because its convenient.
Yeah, I don't see the need to lock this guy up for another two years. Why not wait and see next off season? Maybe they feel he deserves a reward for something?
I would have replaced him this year with Asham. Would have gotten a better player and saved a million bucks. Asham's a fa again next year. Could have done it then without having to make a trade.
There's a glut of good bottom six players out there. There's no need to hitch yourself to the likes of Chimera just because its convenient.
Asham is a good player and I would have liked to add him in addition to Chimera not instead of.
Chimera is clearly important in the locker room if he wears the A so I dont think they resigned him out of convenience. There has been alot of roster turnover this year already so some continuity is welcome and it shows the caps reward those who bring it in the playoffs.
He has no hockey sense, doesn't play a role on special teams and is coming off the worst offensive season of his career at age 32. We should have looked elsewhere.
You and I can measure the on ice output of Chimera. We can't quantify his effect as a lockerroom guy. When I see signings like these from McPhee, they make me think this was a chemistry signing. Same with the Bradley extension a few years ago. Otherwise what else warrants this extension? His numbers? Doesn't seem likely. This is one of those deals we have to trust McPhee on. I'll stick with the same comment I made for Bradley's extension. Chimera is a guy who has shown he can raise his game in the playoffs. We need more players like that, not less.
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George McPhee....The Teflon GM. 15 years of failure and counting....
6 - Number of playoff series the Capitals have won since George McPhee took over as General Manager in 1997 (which makes him the third-longest-tenured GM in the League), three of which came in McPhee's first season on the job.
Not a bad deal based on team needs. But I don't see why we can't develop 3rd or 4th line gritty guys. You would think it would be easy to find a steady stream of guys to play that role in the draft. Everyone is looking for the next home run late draft pick. Who was the last home grown true bottom six guy?
To me, it makes sense to go for home run picks late in the draft. There are always guys like Betts and Asham out there you can pick up on short term deals for reasonable prices to fill bottom 6 roles. No need to spend picks on those guys.
I know earlier I said that I'm OK with the deal, but that is because I think he brings a little more than your average bottom 6 guy with his speed and forechecking. The Caps shouldn't need to be counting on more than the 12-15 goals he'll likely produce from 3rd liners anyways. Having a guy out there that makes life tougher for opposing d-men by making them chase more pucks and delivering solid hits is a needed skill on this squad. Plus, $1.75M per season for the two years after next is very likely going to be a smaller % of the cap, so I believe that it will be a decent value by then.
You and I can measure the on ice output of Chimera. We can't quantify his effect as a lockerroom guy. When I see signings like these from McPhee, they make me think this was a chemistry signing. Same with the Bradley extension a few years ago. Otherwise what else warrants this extension? His numbers? Doesn't seem likely. This is one of those deals we have to trust McPhee on. I'll stick with the same comment I made for Bradley's extension. Chimera is a guy who has shown he can raise his game in the playoffs. We need more players like that, not less.
Steckel, Poti, Clymer, Schultz and Pettinger. I don't really see a reason to trust him on signings of bottom half players.
Again, Asham has proven to be a great playoff performer as well. He makes less than $800k.
Dazzled how many people don't like this deal... Guy is the type of player who, even when his team is down by 6, will skate as fast as he can(faster than 90% of the NHL...) on the forecheck and just lay the bricks on a dude. For a paycut at that as well. Have the star players giving up in the crunch time not gotten to you folks? Or are we all just scared of players who play hard?
Don't mind the deal, but the timing is a little weird. Would have preferred to see what the cheaper options (Sjogren, Eakin, Bourque, etc) do as injury fill-ins in actual games before re-upping Chimera. But he's a good locker room guy by all accounts and it doesn't remove one variable for McPhee to worry about when budgeting for the other free agents. But someone is going to be a cap casualty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Langway
The additions of Ward and Brouwer should minimize the need to play Chimera in the top six.
Logic would have said having Eric Fehr and Marco Sturm/Tomas Fleischmann around would have kept Chimera out of the top six last year. But he still found time in the top six (and first line) both during the regular season and playoffs.
Don't hate the average cap hit, but don't like the timing and the 2 years, especially the timing. I'm not much of a Chimera fan, anyone can read my posts and know that, so my immediate reaction was serious questioning; a few hours later, hasn't changed much.
As others have pointed out, the timing, history with other players, the roster spot in the future, the addition of Ward, etc., I just don't get the rush and for 2 more years, it turns into 3 years of Chimera given the timing.
We got too many wingers for next season, aren't we?
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Doesn't add up.
Semin and Knuble are both UFA after this season, not that Chimera is competing for Semin's spot, or really for Knuble's IMO, but in terms of numbers of wingers.