Last week we reported that the Capitals signed unrestricted free agent center Michael Nylander to a four year contract worth $19.5 million (U.S.). One day earlier, an Alberta radio station reported that the Edmonton Oilers signed unrestricted free agent center Michael Nylander to a four year contract worth $22 million (U.S.). Reportedly Nylander’s agent had emailed acceptance to Edmonton, but Nylander’s wife then exercised veto power over the prospect of life in the Canadian prairie.

The NHL reviewed and upheld Nylander’s contract with the Capitals. The Oilers, who have won three times as many Stanley Cups as all of the teams in Washington’s entire division put together, are dumbfounded. They had no idea how much ladies love Washington, D.C. Additionally, Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe said that he had never heard of anything like this before.

Really? Lowe must not be much of a Caps fan. Sure, it must be terrible to watch a second-tier free agent slip through one’s grasp to accept an offer somewhere far away for ten percent less, but the Capitals have been through worse. In 2005, the Capitals’ all-time leading scorer told newspapers he was close to signing with Washington before quietly writing his name on a deal for seventy five percent less with the nearby Atlanta Thrashers (on a deal that, with incentives, could have paid more than the Capitals offered).