So the Caps signed both forward David Steckel and defenseman Tyler Sloan to contract extensions on Wednesday. Steckel, 27, gets a three-year deal. The 6-foot-5, 217-pounder leads the entire NHL in faceoff percentage (61.9 percent). With two goals and three assists he is far from a stat warrior, as coach Bruce Boudreau admits. But Steckel has performed in the playoffs for Boudreau time and again – in both Hershey and in Washington. Last spring, Steckel scored the game-winning goal in Game 6 at Pittsburgh to extend the series. He had five points in the playoffs. At Hershey, Steckel had 10 goals and five assists for Boudreau en route to the 2006 Calder Cup. The next year the Bears reached the finals and he had six goals and nine assists. He is also a key special-teams player and ranks ninth overall in shorthanded ice time (124 minutes, 14 seconds).
Sloan, meanwhile, is a 28-year-old who didn’t even make his NHL debut until last season. He has been a healthy scratch in nine of the last 11 games. Then again – he proved himself a versatile asset early in the season while switching smoothly between forward and defenseman. His contract is again a one-way deal so Sloan will make the same salary in Hershey if he doesn’t make the Caps out of training camp or is sent down for any reason.
“In a salary-cap world it’s a good idea to be versatile,” Sloan cracked.
General manager George McPhee has made a habit of signing specific role players to multi-year deals. It’s clearly an organizational strategy at this point. Defenseman John Erskine got one last year ($1.25 million, two years) along with forward Matt Bradley the summer before ($1 million, three years).
Why? The organization would rather overpay – relatively – to keep players who understand Bruce Boudreau’s system. It doesn’t hurt that the team’s front office intimately knows their strengths – and weaknesses, too. McPhee could find similar players on the free-agent market every summer if he wanted. But all the scouting in the world won’t tell you exactly what a guy brings to the table once he gets in your room.
That’s the rational anyway. You could argue that strategy backfired in deals for Chris Clark ($7.9 million, three years in 2007), Ben Clymer ($2.9 million, three years in 2006) and Matt Pettinger ($3 million, three years in 2006). The Caps are still paying Clymer $367,000 this season after a 2007 buyout. But none of those deals has crippled the franchise, either, and Clark was a team captain coming off a 30-goal season. Either way, it’s good news for both Steckel and Sloan, good guys who earn a tiny bit of security in a sport where role players don’t have much.
