Alexander Semin

The big Holiday news is Alexander Semin's one year $6 Million contract extension.

At first blush the short term of this extension may appear somewhat curious but it makes a lot of sense. According to GM George McPhee (GMGM), the one year deal was requested by Semin and agreed to by the Caps because it works for both sides.

Its worth noting that few members of the Red Army create as much discussion and divided opinion as Alex Semin. While his production is undeniable there is a strong feeling that he is inconsistent, frequently unmotivated, and has a penchant for bad penalties.

For Semin - at the end of this season he is a Restricted Free Agent so his ability to negotiate in the open market will be hampered by the draft choices an acquiring team would have to surrender. At the end of next season, he'll be an Unrestricted Free Agent and the sky will be the limit. If he continues to produce over the next season and a half at the same pace he has so far he will be in some seriously elite company:

"Semin, Washington's first-round choice (No. 13) in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, has 226 points in 231 games during the last four seasons, among the top 20 point-per-game scorers in the NHL in that time (0.98). He is tied for 14th in goals in that span with 112, and is one of only 20 players League-wide to score more than 25 goals in each of the last three seasons. He is on pace to hit that mark again in 2009-10.

"Semin established a career-high with 79 points (34 goals, 45 assists) in 62 games last season. He finished fourth in the NHL in points per game (1.274), trailing only teammate Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. His career-high of 38 goals came in 2006-07."

The thinking here - based on this deal and other comments form his agent - is that he's going to be looking for $8-10 M and that he doesn't particularly care where he plays.

From the Caps perspective this works out because they're getting Semin through next season for a fair price and without committing to long range salary cap liabilities. I don't see the Caps spending $8M or more on Semin if that is his asking price. The fact is, it will be very difficult to keep Semin, Ovechkin, Green and Backstrom together for any length of time under the limitations of a salary cap.  The one year deal ensures that the core group will be together for one more season and two legitimate Stanley Cup runs.

GMGM mentioned that this deal gives the Caps more "flexibility". Flexibility in this case means the more room to negotiate a deal with Backstrom who is (arguably - but not by me) the more important long term contract to nail down.

There has been a lot of discussion among Caps Nation denizens about what to do with Semin and how the Caps might handle the contracts coming up for re-negotiation over the next couple of seasons (Morrison, Poti, Backstrom, Knuble,  Steckel and, down the road, Varly and Neuvirth) while keeping under the cap. But I think if you read between the lines on this one, the answer is that Semin is gone after next season and the Caps can spend money on beefing up the second tier of the team (the defense in particular). Losing Semin will hurt but the Caps have shown that they have a strong talent stream to develop. It was noted on the Caps web site over the weekend that all three teams in the organization - the Caps, the AHL Bears, and ECHL Stingrays - are at the top of their LEAGUE in points.

So onward and upward.