Vokoun Signs in Washington

An interesting move pulled by the Washington Capitals, as they have lured goaltender Tomas Vokoun away from unrestricted free agency and signing him to a 1-year deal, reportedly worth $1.5 million for the season.  The 35-year old keeper did not wait too long on the open market, but somewhat surprisingly, took a large pay cut to come off, shocking many.

In 2011, Vokoun did not have one of his better seasons, winning only 22 games, registering 6 shutouts and adding an assist, picking up 57 points for the pool.  Those numbers had him down in 22nd among all goalies, down from being 19th a year ago.

The move to Washington is even more curious from his standpoint, because he won't immediately be the number one goalie and he'll have a good fight to be the back-up, with Michal Neuvirth and Braden Holtby ready to put up a good fight for these jobs.  What Vokoun brings to the table is veteran experience, although his playoff experience is somewhat limited as well, only seeing two playoff series with Nashville, the last time was in 2007.

The Capitals should be able to use Vokoun's veteran status as a good tool for their two young goalies and I would imagine that the veteran will get a chance to take over the number one job at some point, but when and for how long will definitely affect his numbers going forward.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Alex Ovechkin	Dennis Wideman	Michal Neuvirth
Nicklas Backstrom	John Carlson	Tomas Vokoun
Alex Semin	Roman Hamrlik	Braden Holtby
Brooks Laich	Mike Green
Mike Knuble	John Erskine
Joel Ward	Jeff Schultz
Marcus Johansson	Tom Poti
Jeff Halpern
Jason Chimera
Matt Hendricks
Eric Fehr

The Capitals have solidified some spots in their line-up with some clever signings in this off-season and a bargain signing for a goalie like Vokoun can go a long way.  Currently, I have the Capitals with a projected salary cap number of $63.2 million for the team above, 11 forwards, seven defensemen and three goalies, plus a buyout.  Some shifting of players down to the minors may give the team the space it needs for one more quality forward, but likely a depth player will be added for cheap.