This is an expansion of some chat posts a while back.

Much of the talk recently (and appropriately so) has been about the Caps 2C problem.

The unfortunate part may be that there likely is no silver bullet here.

Let's look at the 1C/2C Cup winning tandems over the past several years:

In 2004 Tampa Bay had Vincent Lecavalier (1998) and Brad Richards (2000)
In 2006 Carolina had Eric Staal (2003) and Rod Brind'Amour (1999)
In 2007 Anaheim had Ryan Getzlaf (2005) and Andy McDonald (2001)
In 2008 Detroit had Pavel Datsyuk (2001) and Henrik Zetterberg (2002)
In 2009 Pittsburgh had Sidney Crosby (2005) and Evgeni Malkin (2006) and Jordan Staal (2006)
In 2010 Chicago had Jonathan Toews (2007), Patrick Sharp (2006) and Dave Bolland (2007)
(if anyone out there wants to delve further back, that would be great)

The year in parentheses after the player is the year they started playing for that franchise. The shortest amount of time any of those centers had w/ a team is 2 seasons before winning the Cup. Simply put, they knew the team, its system, and had continuity.

It should be noted that during that discussion, Knee High pointed out that, "One small fly in the ointment is Pittsburgh; there was player continuity, but the system they won the Cup with was about as different as it could have be from Therrien's strategy." True, there is that. It could be an outlier, or perhaps it's not system related, but more related to players' tenure together.

Certainly the 1C/2C dynamic is just one of many ingredients that make up the amorphous recipe for "What it Takes to Win the Cup" stew (along with you aren't likely to win if you aren't above .500 ten games into the season, etc., etc.).

The problem I have w/ a 2C solution for this season is that it's unlikely the Caps are going to bring in a 2C at the trade deadline (I think there are only about 40 days left until then), have them learn the system in a month, then guide us through the playoffs in the harshest conditions possible.

Not saying it can't be done, but the odds of the Caps shipping in a quick fix 2C does not leave me encouraged considering the broader scoring issues the Caps' Young Guns are having this year (and now the injury to Fehr).

Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping they do bring in a 2C, and not just a rental. While the Caps have center prospects in the pipeline (Eakin, Kuznetzov), MarJo and MP85 are developing, there's a few years' development (and no guarantees) any of those four will solve the problem long term. I'd like to see them bring someone on for a couple years to bridge the gap.

Let's stipulate that Brad Richards is not coming over since Dallas is doing too well and he'd be the hottest (read, most expensive) player on the market if he was being shipped out. The second most mentioned name we've been hearing is Florida's Stephen Weiss:

Stephen Weiss, FLA

LENGTH: 6 YEAR(S) VALUE: $18,600,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2007-08 $1,800,000 $1,800,000 $3,100,000
2008-09 $2,500,000 $2,500,000 $3,100,000
2009-10 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $3,100,000
2010-11 $3,200,000 $3,200,000 $3,100,000
2011-12 $4,000,000 $4,000,000 $3,100,000
2012-13 $4,100,000 $4,100,000 $3,100,000
KNOWN CLAUSES: NMC

Considering the remainder of Weiss' contract is only a $3.1 mn against the cap, he'd arguably be a steal for the next couple of years (to put it in perspective, compare that against Poti's $2.875 mn cap hit for the same time period).

Below are the top two centers from teams that are for the most part out of playoff contention, or might be most willing to deal (h/t to Rather Bengt for posting these the other day). And yeah, I realize that some of these guys aren't going anywhere.

So put on your GM hat. Who'd you go for? Who's realistic to get? What would you give up?

(all salary data from CapGeek)

Eastern Conference:

NJD

Travis Zajac
LENGTH: 4 YEAR(S) VALUE: $15,550,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2009-10 $2,750,000 $2,750,000 $3,887,500
2010-11 $3,500,000 $3,500,000 $3,887,500
2011-12 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $3,887,500
2012-13 $4,800,000 $4,800,000 $3,887,500

Jason Arnott
LENGTH: 5 YEAR(S) VALUE: $22,500,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2006-07 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $4,500,000
2007-08 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $4,500,000
2008-09 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $4,500,000
2009-10 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $4,500,000
2010-11 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $4,500,000
KNOWN CLAUSES: NMC

NYI 

John Tavares
LENGTH: 3 YEAR(S) VALUE: $2,700,000 TYPE: ENTRY LEVEL EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY P. BONUSES CAP HIT
2009-10 $67,500 $900,000 $2,850,000 - $3,750,000
2010-11 $67,500 $900,000 $2,850,000 - $3,750,000
2011-12 $67,500 $900,000 $2,850,000 - $3,750,000

Rob Schremp
LENGTH: 1 YEAR(S) VALUE: $750,750 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $750,750 $750,750 $750,750

OTT 

Mike Fisher
LENGTH: 5 YEAR(S) VALUE: $21,000,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2008-09 $6,000,000 $6,000,000 $4,200,000
2009-10 $4,000,000 $4,000,000 $4,200,000
2010-11 $4,000,000 $4,000,000 $4,200,000
2011-12 $4,000,000 $4,000,000 $4,200,000
2012-13 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $4,200,000

Peter Regin
LENGTH: 2 YEAR(S) VALUE: $2,000,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $950,000 $950,000 $1,000,000
2011-12 $1,050,000 $1,050,000 $1,000,000

Chris Kelly
LENGTH: 4 YEAR(S) VALUE: $8,500,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2008-09 $2,500,000 $2,500,000 $2,125,000
2009-10 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,125,000
2010-11 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,125,000
2011-12 $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $2,125,000

TOR

Tyler Bozak
LENGTH: 2 YEAR(S) VALUE: $1,750,000 TYPE: ENTRY LEVEL EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY P. BONUSES CAP HIT
2009-10 $65,000 $875,000 $2,850,000 $3,725,000
2010-11 $65,000 $875,000 $2,850,000 $3,725,000

Mikhail Grabovski
LENGTH: 3 YEAR(S) VALUE: $8,700,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2009-10 $2,750,000 $2,750,000 $2,900,000
2010-11 $2,850,000 $2,850,000 $2,900,000
2011-12 $3,100,000 $3,100,000 $2,900,000

FLA

Stephen Weiss (see above)

Mike Santorelli
LENGTH: 1 YEAR(S) VALUE: $600,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $105,000 $600,000 $600,000

Western Conference:

EDM

Andrew Cogliano
LENGTH: 1 YEAR(S) VALUE: $1,000,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000

Sam Gagner
LENGTH: 2 YEAR(S) VALUE: $4,550,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $2,275,000 $2,275,000 $2,275,000
2011-12 $2,275,000 $2,275,000 $2,275,000

CGY

Olli Jokinen
LENGTH: 2 YEAR(S) VALUE: $6,000,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $3,000,000
2011-12 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $3,000,000

Matt Stajan
LENGTH: 4 YEAR(S) VALUE: $14,000,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $3,500,000
2011-12 $4,500,000 $4,500,000 $3,500,000
2012-13 $2,500,000 $2,500,000 $3,500,000
2013-14 $2,500,000 $2,500,000 $3,500,000

CBJ

Antoine Vermette
LENGTH: 5 YEAR(S) VALUE: $18,750,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $3,750,000 $3,750,000 $3,750,000
2011-12 $3,750,000 $3,750,000 $3,750,000
2012-13 $3,750,000 $3,750,000 $3,750,000
2013-14 $3,750,000 $3,750,000 $3,750,000
2014-15 $3,750,000 $3,750,000 $3,750,000

Derick Brassard
LENGTH: 4 YEAR(S) VALUE: $12,800,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: RFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2010-11 $2,800,000 $2,800,000 $3,200,000
2011-12 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 $3,200,000
2012-13 $3,300,000 $3,300,000 $3,200,000
2013-14 $3,700,000 $3,700,000 $3,200,000

MIN

Mikko Koivu (not going anywhere, but what the heck)
LENGTH: 7 YEAR(S) VALUE: $47,250,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY S. BONUS CAP HIT
2011-12 $7,290,000 $7,290,000 $1,890,000 $6,750,000
2012-13 $5,400,000 $5,400,000 $0 $6,750,000
2013-14 $7,290,000 $7,290,000 $1,890,000 $6,750,000
2014-15 $5,400,000 $5,400,000 $0 $6,750,000
2015-16 $7,290,000 $7,290,000 $1,890,000 $6,750,000
2016-17 $5,400,000 $5,400,000 $0 $6,750,000
2017-18 $9,180,000 $9,180,000 $3,780,000 $6,750,000

Kyle Brodziak
LENGTH: 3 YEAR(S) VALUE: $3,450,000 TYPE: STANDARD EXPIRY STATUS: UFA
SEASON AHL SALARY NHL SALARY CAP HIT
2009-10 $1,050,000 $1,050,000 $1,150,000
2010-11 $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $1,150,000
2011-12 $1,300,000 $1,300,000 $1,150,000

SJS

Joe Thornton
Logan Couture
Sorry, not wasting my time, these guys aren't going anywhere.

(Also, thanks to F&B for the salary consult)