In anticipation of 2005 4th overall pick Niklas Backstrom’s arrival from Sweden, the Capitals had already signed marginal Swedish defenseman (and former Capital) Josef Boumedienne to a one-year contract to interpret at the airport and through training camp. Therefore we have to try to look at the signing of Swedish center (and former Capital) Michael Nylander, to a four-year, nineteen and a half million dollar contract, as a hockey move. We said, “try.”

Nylander initially came to the Caps in a salary dump at the start of the 2002-2003 season. That year saw the recent cup contender suffocate under a horrendous coach who showed up late for practices and replaced world-class defensemen with his friends from his minor league days. Friends like Josef Boumedienne.

When Nylander arrived the first time, Caps fans regarded him cautiously as a chump at the end of a mediocre career whose sole virtue was that he cost less than the combined salaries of slumping center Andrei Nikolishin and non-fighting heavyweight fighter Chris Simon, both of whom he was traded for. The biggest upside of that trade was that Chicago threw in a third-round draft pick.