The Caps made their first NHL trade deadline salvo on Saturday by acquiring forward Marco Sturm on waivers from the Los Angeles Kings. There’s likely more to come. But for now – why Sturm? This is a player, after all, who has fought to regain his form after a devastating right knee injury suffered last May 1 while playing for the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Sturm spent the first two months of the season rehabbing with the Bruins, who then dealt him to Los Angeles on Dec. 14. He initially played in 15 games with the Kings, posting four goals and four assists, but had a setback when tendonitis in his left knee set in. Sturm was out five weeks – missing the Kings-Caps game in the District on Feb. 12 – before finally returning to action on Feb. 23. He added one assist in his last two games with Los Angeles, which needed a roster spot in anticipation of its own potential deadline moves and gambled that no one would claim Sturm on waivers.
So what are the Caps getting and where will Sturm play? This is a guy with some mileage on his 32-year-old body. Besides his torn right knee ligaments last spring, Sturm also tore the ACL in his left knee Dec. 18, 2008. He missed 12 games that season with post-concussion symptoms. He broke his left leg playing with San Jose on March 5, 2004 and missed the rest of that season and all 17 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. But Sturm is also a tough, versatile two-way player who can contribute on the penalty kill and is a super-streaky scorer when in form. He has seven 20-goal seasons in nine years and the two down years spoiled by serious injuries.
Sturm finished his short tenure in Los Angeles playing on the top line. Obviously, he doesn’t do that here in Washington. Remember, the Kings offense is about as putrid as the Caps’ has been with one more goal (167) in one less game played and they have little depth at left wing. But I also can’t see Sturm on the second line ahead of Brooks Laich, who showed signs of life with four goals in February and is at 13-21 for the season.
Get down to the third line, however, and you have something. It’s no secret Jason Chimera has struggled lately. He had 13 penalty minutes in 12 games this month, including three minors in the last six games. He’s a -11 for the year. He has one goal and two assists over the last 14 games.
Probably not worth analyzing this until we know for sure what the roster will be going forward. At the least Sturm gives Washington some depth at forward. Maybe he continues to improve as we get further from his surgery – though that seems like a long shot in the middle of an NHL season. Just last season we saw Brendan Morrison 18 months out from ACL surgery and he hit a wall two months into the season. Sturm has played in 52 Stanley Cup playoff games and scored a huge goal for the Bruins late in Game 6 of a first-round series three years ago against Montreal. Boston was on the verge of elimination that night. Oh – and he can chat with Eric Fehr about what it feels like to do this.
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