It would make sense that the hockey player who was the symbol of American patriotism at the last Winter Olympics will now make his living in the nation’s capital. T.J. Oshie was traded to the Washington Capitals today in exchange for Troy Brouwer, minor league goalie Pheonix Copley, and a 2016 third round pick.
Oshie is a fairly consistent 20-goal a year scorer with a .25 goals per game average, and is a good get for the Caps who sorely lack secondary scoring. Adding Oshie to Jay Beagle and Evgeny Kuznetsov will definitely help guys like Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in that regard. And in the regular season, as you saw in Sochi, he will be deadly in the shootout.
Too bad the Caps aren’t going to be able to use him multiple times unless they petition for a rule change. But even so, having Oshie in Washington is just too perfect for words. Rangers fans would probably feel differently, but at least they loved him during the Olympics:
I don’t think they’ll be chanting his name too often this year.
As for the Blues, Brouwer will supply a physical presence, and they get an interesting goalie prospect back in Copley:
Pheonix Copley (17-4-3) ranked seventh in @TheAHL in GAA (2.17) and sv% (.925) in 2014-15 https://t.co/v35tRrHmag
— AHL Communications (@AHLPR) July 2, 2015
I’ll speculate, but perhaps this enables the Blues to see what they can get in return for Jake Allen from teams still looking for goaltending help.
