Lang a Wing

The Wings made a huge commitment to winning the Conference and Cup today when they acquired the Caps' Robert Lang for prospect Tomas Fleischmann, a first-round pick in 2004 and a fourth-round pick in 2006. Lang is tied with Martin St. Louis for first in the league in scoring with 74 points and is in the second year of a five-year, $25 million contract. Washington's GM, George McPhee, said this in a prepared statement:

"We could not have asked for more from Robert Lang over the past two seasons, he has been a terrific player for our club and we consider him as the best free-agent signing in the team's history. We have given Robert a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup while adding a good young player and two valuable draft choices to our organization. We wish Robert and his family all the best."

I am very happy with this trade since the Wings got Lang for what honestly amounts to very little and now they have arguably the top player available this trading season. The best part of the deal is no one on the regular roster was involved in the trade so the core wasn't diminished. Lang said earlier this month that he didn't want to be part of a re-building program in DC and would love to play for Detroit or Dallas, two teams he saw as real Cup-contenders. Now the Wings won't have to spread their centers so thin, especially Steve Yzerman. He's decently young (33) too and will hopefully be more than a rent-a-player for the Wings. It's a shame that so many teams have to dump their top players this year. I'd feel terrible if the Wings had to trade away Nick Lidstrom for practically nothing which is comparatively what a lot teams have done so far this season. I'm not all that happy about losing Fleischman but he isn't Henrik Zetterberg or a player of that caliber and the Wings definitely got the good end of the deal. I'm not too worried about the first round pick because that's not where the Wings find their gems. Now the actual trade deadline is going to be relatively boring for Wings fans because I doubt they'll make any other moves. The Avs will probably counter this move with a blockbuster one of their own, though they have been making a lot of minor deals which may indicate they are going that route this year. Who knows? There will be a press conference at 4:00 EST at the Joe. I'm not sure if it will be televised or not but it will very likely be on the radio (1270 AM). There is a good chance that Lang will play Sunday though they might hold him back to make sure he knows the system first. Not a pressing need at the moment so there's no rush. He wore #20 for Washington but Mark Mowers has that number here. However, Mowers may be sent down now so we could see him wearing that number after all. Check out Eric McErlain's take on the trade.