We all know who the best UFA centers out there are, and names like Matthew Lombardi, Saku Koivu, and Olli Jokinen have been thrown around on the Rink recently.  Even if we talk RFAs, the situation remains the same: the Caps are unlikely to sign any high-end name in free agency because they will command too high a salary for them to fit within the salary cap, too many years in term, and it's super unlikely for these free agents to produce points commensurate with their salaries.


So what if the Caps do the same thing they did last summer: pick up a second line center who’s available at a bargain-basement salary and short-term, either due to injuries or unproductive seasons? They could do this on the UFA market with a player who other teams have given up on, or they could do it by trading for a player whose value is low because of a bad season.  The short-term would give the Caps an option to use that center as a bridge to a future second line center (e.g. Mathieu Perreault, Marcus Johansson). Given these constraints, what options do the Caps have?  Who do you think would make a good rehab project (or longshot, for that matter) for the Caps?


I present a few, in no particular order, after the jump.

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So, lately, there's been this rumor going around that Alex Semin is about to be traded to the New Jersey Devils for Martin Brodeur.  And even though the rumor has been picked up on by the mainstream media to the point that Lou has had to officially deny that the Devils are trading their franchise goalie, it still seems that some people are having trouble figuring out that there's no way the Caps are trading Semin this off season.  And here are ten key reasons why:

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