Bewerbungen » in the $24-million-to-$25-

The Washington Capitals overhauled their defence, by paying huge money to a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins. Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik. The Capitals Get: D Matt Niskanen and D Brooks Orpik. Niskanen, 27, picked a terrific time to have the best year of his career, scoring a career-best 10 goals and 46 points while playing a career-high 21:18 per game. He was also a career-best plus-33, which is all well and good, but he was one of six regular defencemen (minimum 62 games played) to have a combined on-ice save percentage and on-ice shooting percentage (PDO) at 5-on-5 of 103.0 or better. An on-ice shooting percentage over 10.0% is difficult for any defenceman to sustain, but Niskanens 10.32% was the third-best of his career; basically, its the kind of good fortune that shouldnt be expected, but its not out of the realm of possibility from season to season for Niskanen. Where the puck luck really stuck with Niskanen last year, was that he also had a .928 on-ice save percentage during 5-on-5 play, so getting favourable percentages at both ends of the ice during the same year contributed to that strong plus-minus. That shouldnt diminish the evaluation of Niskanen entirely, though, because he has consistently been on the right side of the puck possession ledger, and that makes him an asset to any team that acquires him. While Niskanen hasnt typically played hard minutes, and in some years has been excessively sheltered, hes likely to face more difficult matchups now that hes the highest-priced defenceman on the Capitals roster. Signed for seven years and $40.25-million, Niskanen landed the biggest free agent contract of the year. There was probably an element of paying for the good fortune that Niskanen experienced last year, and it is a gamble that Niskanen is going to be able to live up to the money involved in that contract, but if a team is going to swing for the fences on a free agent defenceman, doing so on a guy with consistently strong possession numbers is at least a reasonable foundation on which to make that investment. Which brings us to Brooks Orpik, a 33-year-old who has made his bones as a physical, hard-hitting defenceman, registering more than 200 hits in five of the past seven seasons. The unfortunate part, however, is that Orpik in position to hit so much -- particularly in recent years -- because his team doesnt have the puck as often when hes on the ice and the problem with a defensive defenceman who is already on the wrong end of the possession game is that hes certainly not likely to get better as he gets older. For example, in the 2013-2014 season, there were seven defencemen that were over 35 and scored fewer than 20 points (as Orpik has in every season of his career, except one). Its an okay list, some useful players, but six of the seven were 35 or 36. Orpik is signed through his age 38 season and the only -- the only -- NHL defenceman that played more than 60 games without scoring more than 20 points last season was Tampa Bays Sami Salo, who has never played the kind of physical, banging style that characterizes Orpiks game, in part because Salo was always hurt anyway. This doesnt offer much encouragement that the Capitals wont have massive regrets about the Orpik signing; the only question is how soon will those regrets occur? Can he give the Capitals a couple of solid years, maybe facing lower-calibre of competition than he did in Pittsburgh? Thats probably the best hope, but its a longshot that the last two, maybe even three years, wont have the Capitals paying big money for a spare part on their blueline. Orpik is signed for five years, at a cap hit of $5.5-million per season. Big money, long term. Pittsburgh anticipated that they would lose both Niskanen and Orpik and, in addition to having an opening or two for some prospects, they also signed Christian Ehrhoff to add stability to their defence. Its entirely understandable for the Capitals to make a move to upgrade their defence. They allowed 33.5 shots per game, ranking 27th in the league, last season, so the defence needed to get better. Ultimately, the Capitals are better today after adding Niskanen and Orpik, but that should never be up for debate when committing close to $11-million annually to two players. What has to matter is how much better they are, whether the money spent is worth it and what the fall-out will be. The Capitals dont have to make any moves --- they are under the $69-million salary cap -- but they have $28,762,500 committed to their defence, according to Cap Geek. The only teams spending in that neighbourhood for their defence are Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, who have Chris Pronger and Mattias Ohlund, respectively, on long-term injured reserve. St. Louis and Chicago are spending in the $24-million-to-$25-million on their respective bluelines right now, so its hard to imagine that the Capitals maintain the status quo, leaving a hole at second line centre while sticking with the most expensive defence corps in the league. We will see what other moves the Capitals have in mind this summer but, right now, it appears that they spent a lot of money to get better in the short-term; signing deals that appear to have more downside risk because of the long terms involved. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Authentic Air Max And Jordans ... as usual. Even with the salary cap being set lower than many general managers expected and hoped for at $69 million and whats considered a shallow pool of top-end players available, this unrestricted-free-agent period figures to follow the familiar script of teams bidding up prices to keep up with each other. Cheap Authentic Air Max And Jordans . - Christophe Lalancette scored a third-period goal and added the shootout winner to lead the Drummondville Voltigeurs to a 5-4 win over the Quebec Remparts in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League play on Sunday. http://www.cheapairmaxandjordans.com/ . It will be their 15th head-to-head meeting and fourth in the post-season (Sunday at 2pm et/11am pt on CTV) and for his part, Brady isnt downplaying just how big the game is for him. "Im excited - Its everything you could ask for as an athlete," the New England Patriots quarterback told WEEI Radio in Boston on Monday. 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But after Mallett, Ryan Fitzpatrick and rookie Tom Savage all went down with injuries, the Texans called on Keenum again.And he delivered, guiding them to a 25-13 win over the Ravens to keep their playoff hopes alive just six days after re-signing with the team. Houston needs a win and losses by both Baltimore and San Diego to clinch a post-season berth.Theres really no normal right now, Keenum said. I cant even believe its Christmas Eve. I havent done a whole lot of shopping in the last few days.Running back Arian Foster said that Keenum was the first person at the facility and the last one to leave every day last week. Keenum wasnt sure exactly how many hours he spent working that week but knows it was a lot.I really dont want to estimate. Id probably count the hours I slept easier, Keenum said.So how many hours did he sleep?It went by too fast, he said. Not enough hours.Coach Bill OBrien was impressed with Keenums poise and the way he led the team Sunday. OBrien said its hard to be thrown into a locker room suddenly and be expected to be a leader.Coming in there andd having the recollection of our schemes that he did was really good, OBrien said.dddddddddddd When he got into the huddle, he did a good job.It was the first NFL win for Keenum, who lost each of the eight games he started for Houston last season. He was 20 of 42 for 185 yards with an interception against the Ravens.Keenum was excited to return to the Texans in the city where he starred at the University of Houston. He left the school as the NCAAs all-time leader in career total yards (20,114), yards passing (19,217), touchdowns passing (155) and total touchdowns (178).Despite his stellar college career, he went undrafted before being picked up by the Texans.After struggling in his first stint as a starter for the Texans, he is excited to have finally gotten his first NFL win. He said hes received too many well-wishes to count since the victory Sunday.Theyre all special and all mean a lot, he said. I dont play to prove people wrong, although thats nice to do. I play to prove people right that have been in my corner and been supporting me my whole life.Keenum thinks hes been helped by an increased knowledge of defences and how to pick up protections since being released by Houston in August. Hes still a bit in shock at the wild turn his life has taken in the last couple of weeks, but he has a plan to not let the situation overwhelm him.(Its) very crazy, he said. But I try not to pick my head up and look around. ... 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