The Caps have signed veteran right wing Mike Knuble to a one-year contract extension for $2 million. The 38-year-old started slow this season with just three goals and five assists through Dec. 1. He’s been a consistent force since, however, with 21 goals and 11 assists in the last 57 games, including 13 points over the final 14 games.
“He’s like fine wine, I guess,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “He just keeps getting better. Last half of the year he’s been arguably our best player.”
That’s a salary cap-friendly deal for Washington, which had a cap hit of $2.8 million for Knuble the last two seasons and seven players who will be unrestricted free agents this summer. Not all will be back, of course. But a little added flexibility is nice for general manager George McPhee.
The 6-foot-3, 227-pound winger is one of just eight active players with at least eight consecutive 20-goal seasons. Knuble posted 29 goals and 24 assists in his first season with Washington after signing as a free agent with the team in the summer of 2009.
“I’ll be 39 years old next year and I’ll still have the chance to play this game and play in Washington and I’ll always be thankful for that,” Knuble said. “It’s something I wasn’t ready to give up yet.”
Knuble is closing in on 1,000 career games. He sits at 968 at the conclusion of the 2010-11 regular season. He has played 14 seasons in all with five teams – Detroit, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. Knuble won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 1998.
Knuble takes a pay cut and acknowledged that he could have gone out on the open market and scouted for a two-year deal or maybe more money. But Knuble, who makes his offseason home in the Grand Rapids, Mich. Area, also has three young kids who had questions of their own: about what school they’d be going to, what sports teams they’d be playing on, etc.
“You get to a certain point in your life and things are not necessarily about dollars and cents all the time,” Knuble said. “Other things are important to you and your family. So I’m lucky I’ll still be able to take advantage of that and have some say where I’m playing, where we live, where our kids go to school. I’m thrilled about it.”
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