More on Green, Heatley, Gonchar and the Devils’ draft struggles…

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Japer's Rink takes a deep dive on the Capitals' options with Mike Green.

There was no question of Green’s expendability two months ago. (That is, he was a core piece.) The Caps had just four clear-cut, reliable NHL defensemen: Green, Dmitry Orlov, Carlson, and Karl Alzner. After this latest spending spree, they’re up to six (or, at least, five plus one who could be in the right situation). That doesn’t mean the Caps are good enough to lose Green, but it does open the possibility of the organization having enough depth to construct a championship contender despite losing him.

A few thoughts on Green:

I think he's been such a criticized player that he's veered into the underrated portion of the ledger. If you accept his flaws (poor defensive zone play/injury prone) he's still got top notch puck moving ability, which will keep him a valuable NHLer for years to come. Is he $6 million valuable? Probably not but hopefully that means he takes a discount on his next deal.

Along with the negativity surrounding Green as an NHL player, there's even more for him as a fantasy asset because of heavily he let people down following his back-to-back 70+ seasons. Obviously we are never seeing that guy again. But again, if we can accept Green's flaws (injury prone/inconsistent) as a fantasy asset we can still acknowledge that he has plenty to offer. Even a Green that is missing 15-20 games will get you around 40 points with strong multi-category numbers. That's a guy I want on my team.