I agree with JP — the Erskine signing’s a serious head-scratcher. He entered this season lodged somewhere between 7th and 9th on the Caps’ blueline depth chart. When you think about his skill set (such as it is), you don’t quite come up with the prototype rearguard in the renovated NHL. Really — on any contending team, is he in anyone’s top 6?¬† And yet late yesterday we learned that he’d been inked to a deal that over the next two seasons will pay him no. 4 or no. 5 money.
Erskine is most effective when his minutes are carefully managed. This is not a deal commonly doled out to a 10-minute-a-nighter.
The deal invites a couple of forward-thinking hypotheticals. The first and most obvious is that soon-to-be 37-year-old Donald Brashear likely isn’t in the Caps’ 2009-10 plans. There are just too many promising young (and cheap) players pushing hard down on the farm. Brashear is the Caps’ only true Tier I enforcer. Locking up Erskine ensures a modicum of grit needed for accountability purposes next season. Also, Matt Bradley is a middleweight, and not, as we learned in Pittsburgh last week, a heavyweight.
But Erskine’s new contract also invites an unsettling surmise about the durability of the Caps’ top 4 core of blueliners going forward. The team engaged in distinctly acrimonious arbitration proceedings with Shaone Morrisonn this past summer. He emerged from them nearly a $2 million dollar man. He’s only 25, but he’s played 285 NHL games, totaling 6 goals and 292 penalty minutes (most of them, seemingly, with his stick). Karl Alzner’s a lock for the big-league blueline next season. And if John Carlson replicates his ‘08 training camp next fall, he may well see no time in Hershey. Is there room, at his production (penalties included), for a $2 million-plus Shaone Morrisonn in D.C. next season? Remember too that Tom Poti is inked through 2011, at $3.5 million per. As early perhaps as next autumn the Caps could conceivably get double or even triple the offensive production of Morrisonn from John Carlson, at half or less the cost. The young American has the look of a minutes-eater, too.
The timing of Erskine’s new pact is striking as well. A solid nine months before 2009’s free agency market opens, and well before John Erksine has with his play this season staked a rightful claim to top 5 blueliner money, he’s seemingly secured a coveted spot on what Washington hockey fans hope will be one of the best half dozen bluelines in the league the next couple of seasons. The point of course is that 28-year-old John Erskine’s game isn’t markedly improving from what we saw last season. John Erskine is what he is: at best a serviceable 7th man who can rain down some hard punches.
Does that make for a multi-year millionaire in your accounting spreadsheet?
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16 Comments
I don’t like this signing at all. I want to know what the deal is…GMGM doesn’t seem like a man who would overpay anyone but I really don’t think Erskine is the man to take Brashears spot…he’s a horrible defenseman, takes dumb penalties (a lot of our guys do) and does he really enforce all that well?!!?
I cringe when he’s on the ice.
I cringe when I hear people wanting to make the Caps D Corps even younger than it already is. The money may be a tad high, but good for John Erskine.
The Caps have three RFAs after this year — Morrisonn, Jurcina, and Schultz. Morrisonn and Jurcina are arbitration eligible. Given what Morrisonn makes right now, he could be a cap casualty in arbitration if the Caps walk. Jurcina might get a raise above what the Caps will pay Erskine, and it’s not as if Jurcina’s been the indispensable man on the blue line lately.
I am not necessarily surprised at the signing (seeing as how the Caps don’t have a defenseman of Erskine’s physical capabilities in the system ready to go next year); I am a bit at the price.
this is what we see in the Jeff Finger era!
I have never understood how Erskine has any relevance out there, much less getting a contract like that. Chimaera’s right: we can all thank Jeff Finger.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see Morrisonn moved…before the end of this existing season. It’s looking more obvious that the Caps are not going to be willing to pay him what he could potentially get come arbitration time, so naturally it could be setting the wheels in motion for them to get someone back for him, before it’s too late. Not to mention they have a cheaper (by only $300k) version of Mo playing in Hershey right now by the name of Karl Alzner. Young…but ready.
i can not believe Erskine will be making 1.25 million for the next two seasons. I was prepared to see the deal was for 800K but 1.25 is crazy.
I got it. This is linked to Eminger’s situation last year. Whatever John has over GMGM that made them play Erskine while leaving Eminger out to pasture is carrying over into Erskine getting this deal.
…….or not.
Oh, and I might be in the minority, but I don’t see it as an awful deal. The deal I would make? probably not.
If Erskine can stay healthy (and i don’t know if that is the case).
Next year, Brashear is probably done or just about on his last leg. 1.25 for a guy who can play defense or forward (if he can make the transition, which as a 8-9 minute forward I wouldn’t see why not) actually makes him pretty valuable. Is he a great fighter? No. But he is servicable to the point of where he can keep teams honest. Do I want him fighting Godard or Big George Laraque? Heck no. but he’s more than capable of tuning up Conboy and company in the SE.
He would also provide a lot of flexibility in the lineup, pending on where the young players are.
The Erskine signing is a bit odd, in that I just never got the feeling that there were going to be teams breaking down the door next summer to sign him. What was the rush, and why so much for so long? I have to think that this is part of a larger plan to ditch Juice, Mo or both, and go with the kids. Erskine provides some muscle that nobody else seems to have on the blueline, but he’s so immobile that this signing reminds me of how good an idea it was to lock up Ben Clymer for a few years…
I think this really puts Shaone Morrisonn on the hot seat for next season. His play this year has been less than stellar. Last night, I blame him for that second goal. Why did he choose to leave the guy on the far side completely wide open? Horrible coverage. When Karl Alzner is ready, Morrisonn could be on the trade block.
What to Do With Erskine……
I know I’m a little late to the party with this, but I’m still trying to figure out how John……
Sorry, another minority on this one, but big John hasn’t been quite the defensive casualty that everyone makes him out to be, let alone offensively. I have watched several instances already this year where he has sparked, or even created offensive plays that occur in a Caps goal. Good for John.
Definitely part of a bigger plan where something occurs with one of the other D getting traded, not signed etc. McPhee didn’t have to sign Erskine now, but he did, a definite sign that other moves are in the offing. Also a subtle mind game for both D-men on the Caps and in the system to step up their games – a spot will be open by year’s end. All GM’s are looking for D at the trade deadline.
I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too…
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