Belanger, Walker, Corvo coming to Washington
The Capitals were busy at the NHL trade deadline on Wednesday, making four separate deals to bolster the roster for a Stanley Cup playoff run.
Washington acquired forwards Eric Belanger and Scott Walker along with defenseman Joe Corvo. The team also reacquired defenseman Milan Jurcina, who was traded to Columbus on Dec. 28 with Chris Clark. All four players are unrestricted free agents this summer.
The Caps gave up little from their NHL roster, save for defenseman Brian Pothier, who went to the Carolina Hurricanes along with AHL prospect Oskar Osala and a second-round draft pick in 2011 in exchange for Corvo, 32. The puck-moving defenseman can anchor the team’s second power-play unit and makes slightly more than Pothier’s $2.5 million salary.
Belanger, 32, is a versatile center, good on faceoffs and a fine skater. Caps general manager George McPhee surrendered this June’s second-round draft pick in that deal with Minnesota.
Walker, 36, is a gritty forward who scored the series-winning goal for Carolina against the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring. That trade took only a seventh-round draft pick. Jurcina, 26, played for Slovakia in the Winter Olympics last month, but has been diagnosed with a sports hernia, according to the Columbus Dispatch. McPhee sent a sixth-round draft pick to the Blue Jackets.
“Just excited to go to one of the most exciting teams in the league,” said Walker, who had a no-movement clause in his contract. “Really tough to leave Carolina after all the things we’ve been through. … But [Washington is] in first place. How do you not go?”
