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Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Jose Theodore signed a two year, $9 million contract to play for the Capitals yesterday. Theodore brings a lot of great accomplishments and a lot of question marks to the Capitals. Last year in Colorado, he took turns losing the starting goalie job with younger disappointment Peter Budaj. Still, Theodore is the answer on paper to many of the Capitals' questions.
NHL free agency started yesterday--the time when veteran players who have finished their previous contracts take new offers from any interested team. The Caps made headlines immediately by re-signing First Team All Star defenseman Mike Green. That deal was quickly followed by the departures of Olaf Kolzig to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Cristobal Huet to the Chicago Blackhawks. Kolzig, 38 with bad knees, won the Vezina trophy as the NHL's best goalie sometime last millennium with the Capitals. Huet, 33 with occasional back problems, replaced Kolzig in Washington at the end of last season and helped the Caps reach the playoffs, taking them to overtime of game seven against the Philadelphia Flyers.
With both goalies gone, the Capitals had to figure out how to add a solid netminder, make up for the loss of a former Vezina trophy winner in Kolzig and still leave enough room in the budget to resign Sergei Fedorov, a former superstar who won the Hart trophy as the NHL's MVP back in the '90s and once attracted international tabloid attention for his relationship with tennis player Anna Kournikova.
Theodore, 31 with questionable self-confidence, might be several years removed from winning as consistently as Huet did to end last season, but he has had some good times lately and his signing fills all of the above needs. He gives the Caps an experienced starting goalie who has won a Vezina trophy this millennium, thank you. He also leaves enough room in the budget to give the Caps a chance to re-sign Fedorov.
Theodore compliments some of the things Fedorov brings to the table, since Theodore also won a Hart trophy--this millennium--and has even made brief tabloid appearances of his own, for holding hands with Paris Hilton. Theodore may have a harder time emulating Fedorov's offense and Stanley Cup winning experience, but for now, while there's still time and room to sign Sergei, we'll take it.
Video of Theodore's backup watching him warm up by Poulet16bits
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Theodore's a gamble - and it's not going to be until November before we see just which Jose showed up to the Caps locker room.
Big risk. We'll see.