Caps resign Fedorov, Laich

According to TSN (via OFB and Japers' Rink), the Caps resigned C Sergei Fedorov to a 1 year, $4 mil deal. And according to Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post, forward Brooks Laich was resigned to a 3 year deal worth $1.7 mil in 2008-09, $2.1 mil in 2009-10 and $2.4 mil in 2010-11.

A week ago today, I posted up my predictions: Feds at $2.5 mil and Laich at $1.75 mil. I was pretty dead on about Laich and pretty far off about Feds. I am in love with Brooksie's deal (as opposed to most women, who are just in love with Brooksie). He's signed 3 years for fairly cheap. If he progresses rather than regresses over those 3 years, he can be a pretty special player. Feds' deal I'm a little skeptical of. I guess you can't put a dollar amount on a player that is good himself and makes other players better as well. I can't be negative about the signing. I'm glad to have Feds on our team still.

With a combined $5.7 cap number between Feds and Brooksie, the Caps have roughly $3.55 mil left to spend on Fehr, Morrisonn and Gordon. As my friend Emily graciously pointed out: Gordo is a luxury at this point. We don't really need him back, and it's probably in our best interest to save ourselves the cap room. As commenters on Capitals Insider pointed out, Karl Alzner's contract has to be in the mix too. Crap. His cap number is $1.675. So basically we have $1.8 mil to resign Fehr, who will take his qualifying offer and Morrisonn, who hopefully will come back at a discounted price. The Caps will have a lot more breathing room if Pothier is put on the hockey equivalent of the physically unable to perform list (called the LTIR by Emily), as his contract won't count against the cap. That would give them an extra $2.5 mil to play with. Also, a guy like Jurcina ($912k) could be dealt before the season starts to clear room for Kap'n Karl.

Just put your trust in GMGM's ability to navigate the salary cap. No matter what, it's a good day to be a Caps fan!