Caps have made their first deal of the day, acquiring defenseman Dennis Wideman from the Florida Panthers for ECHL center Jake Hauswirth and a third-round pick. [Wideman trade reaction]
Wideman is a right-handed shot and under contract next season at a salary-cap hit of $3,937,500. He will turn 28 on March 20 and has bounced around a bit. This will be his fourth NHL team. Had 13 goals and 37 assists in 2008-09 with Boston – though new Washington teammate Marco Sturm says the fans in New England gave Wideman a hard time during his tenure there. He had another 30-point season in 2009-10 and has nine goals and 24 assists in 61 games with the Panthers this year.
Why make this move? Well, the Caps just aren’t sure about the health status of either defenseman Tom Poti (groin) or defenseman Mike Green (head injury). Those are two of their three puck-moving defensemen. John Carlson is the other. But that’s too much pressure to put on a rookie and Carlson’s power-play minutes have pushed up his overall ice time with Green on the shelf lately.
Wideman can play on the power play. He can give Washington some ice time when short-handed, too. He has a goal and 21 assists in 30 career playoff games – all with the Bruins. Wideman was an eighth-round draft pick in 2002 by the Buffalo Sabres and made his NHL debut in 2005-06 with the St. Louis Blues, where he played just 13 games over two seasons.
“I think it’s a great pick-up. You look at our situation with Mike Green not being available probably for the next week at least [and] that we’ve only got six healthy defensemen,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “I think it’s no secret that our power play is struggling and Dennis Wideman is a good power-play point guy, a good puck mover. He’s a solid veteran who’s played on really good defensive teams and he plays lots of minutes for whichever team he plays for.”
Does this trade say something about the status of Green and, especially, Poti? He has played just 21 games this season, after all, and can’t seem to get his groin injury to heal properly.
“It means we don’t know,” Boudreau said. “And this is the last day. If we don’t know then we’re in trouble. But even if we have both of these guys healthy, [general manager] George [McPhee] makes a great pick in getting [Wideman].”
The fans in Boston turned on Wideman despite his point production last season. That’s because he also finished a -14 on the season and admittedly let that negativity sap his confidence. That plus-minus rating has been even worse in Florida (-26), but with the obvious caveat that Wideman is playing with far less talent around him than he did in Boston.
“[Wideman] was good, a funny guy. I think everyone likes him,” said Sturm, who himself had just completed his first practice with Washington on Monday morning. “He had a tough time in Boston though with the fans. It’s always hard to get booed at the rink. I think for him it was a good move to get out of there. And he’s a good player. Even before he got traded [from Boston] he was our best defensemen in the playoffs and played really well.”
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