No Love For Sasha

We are now 21 days into Free Agency and one star has yet to be signed. So, who wants the Caps talented but, "coach killing, island misfit, lazy, egotistical" second line winger? As of right now, it seems to be no one. Here is how I see Alexander Semin's remainder in Free Agency playing out:

Lets be honest here, Alex Semin is an extremely talented player. He has the potential to be another Pavel Datsyuk if he wanted to be. Semin has one of the smoothest pair of mitts in the NHL today. Its just he is way too full of himself and he plays like he doesn't care. He has yet to show up for a Capitals playoff run. He's been in the line up night in and night out during the Capitals runs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs but mentally he has not been in attendance and its driving Caps fans nuts. It is also being noticed by GM's around the NHL and all over the world. The man we refer to as Sasha is getting no love in Free Agency.

Its a known fact that he has been in contact with a few teams in the NHL and possibly a couple teams over in the KHL. His priority is to sign with an NHL team. However, no one has come close to signing him. The reason why? Maybe his rent is "too damn high" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0). But seriously, his asking price is too damn high. Last season he made $6.7 million from the Capitals on a one year deal. No NHL team wants to come close to that annual number for his next deal. The GM's in the NHL are in control over him, or, in other words, the ball is not in Semin's court.

Another reason he has had such a failed Free Agency is because of his agent. His agent is not only a bad person that GM's around the NHL don't want to deal with, he is a terrible agent. He made up a rumor that Semin got an offer from CSKA Moscow (GM'd by ex-Capital Sergei Fedorov) for 3 years and $30 million. Do you really believe anyone in their right mind would offer Alex Semin $10 million a year? Blasphemy! So anyways, Semin's agent's (Mark Gandler) tactic to drive up the asking price for his prized client failed, rather miserably.

So here's the deal with Semin (in my opinion of course!). Nobody seems to want him for the price in which he is asking. Therefore, a little bit of money is better than no money at all. I do believe that the Capitals will resign Semin for around $4 million a year before the season starts. He has grown accustomed to playing in DC and seems to be happy here. Semin owns a home in northern Virginia and for him to sign elsewhere for a low amount of money would not be cost effective for him. GMGM is a clever man in that he had an idea that other teams were going to attempt to sign him for an amount he would not agree upon. The Capitals next attempt to sign Semin will be more or less a "take this amount or you get nothing" type of contract talk. In the end, Semin will sign on the dotted line with the Capitals and will have to earn the contract money he really wants. None the less, Sasha will return to DC continuing his foolish ways:

Tired Sasha

Until We Meet Again,

Will