Jason Arnott Heads To The Capitals

Added on Mar 01, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

The Washington Capitals Jason Arnott from the New Jersey Devils after he waived his no trade clause. They added size, depth and experience, and the Caps needed it. Capitals General Manager George McPhee said they added Arnott for a bunch of reasons, and also added Dennis Wideman and Marco Sturm in the past three days. He said “We’ve got a young group, as we all know, and we got guys that have been around a long time. Specifically with Arnott, he’s been a captain of an NHL team and he’s won a Cup and those kind of intangibles are something that we wanted in the room like we had when we got Sergei Fedorov 3 years ago.”

The 36 year old Arnott, who is 6-foot-5, 220-pound and has 24 points in 62 games this season. He was also an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. McPhee said of the trade “There weren’t many centers available and [Arnott] was one that a lot of people wanted to have. He had a no-trade-clause and when Devils GM Lou Lamoriello told him we were interested, he was hoping that it would work out with us, and Lou played it real well and made it happen.”

McPhee was on the hunt last year during the trade deadline too. He brought in four players in less than a week. Knuble even described it as being awkward playing with so many new players. However, McPhee isn’t worried about that. He said “Not this year because we’re addressing specific needs that we had where we were a little bit thin. Last year we were a good team and we were trying to add depth and hoping that depending on who we were playing in the playoffs, that we would have [the best] lineup to play certain teams. Had we won the first round, it might have worked out very well, but when you don’t, they tell you it wasn’t a good idea. But I don’t think it will be an issue this year because we had a couple of holes to fill and we filled them.”

The Capitals had to give up Dave Steckle and a Draft pick next year. Steckel, 28, registered 11 points (five goals, six assists) and 24 penalty minutes in 57 games with the Capitals this season. In 291 career NHL games, all with Washington, Steckel has recorded 58 points (23 goals, 35 assists) and 113 penalty minutes. The 6’5’’, 217-pound center was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, 30th overall, in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

McPhee said they had to make a tough choice in the decision to give up Steckle. “He’s done really well for us here and he’s become an NHL player, a solid NHL player. We felt that we had some depth there with Boyd Gordon and Jay Beagle, and if we were going to upgrade the club at another position, this was asking price. We do it reluctantly, but it’s a decision you have to make in this position sometimes, and as much as you don’t want to see a guy go, you know you have to do it to improve your club.”