Washington Capitals: Five Bargain Bin Free Agents To Consider
Mike Santorelli
Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Mike Santorelli is a player who I wanted the Washington Capitals to trade for at the trade deadline this year. He’s a great bottom six option as long as the Washington Capitals remember that he is a bottom six forward. He’s proven that he’s not quite top six caliber, though he could probably fill in short-term and not be horrible.
Santorelli isn’t a face-off specialist by any means, but face-offs are much less important than you think they are. He’s been a positive possession player on some pretty awful teams. That’s what matters. He has 61 points over the past two seasons. He would definitely add something to the Washington Capitals in terms of offense.
He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to have a huge impact in terms of puck possession, but he’s the kind of guy who’s not really going to negatively or positively affect your team in terms of Fenwick and Corsi. To me, that’s acceptable from a bottom six forward.
His HERO chart suggests that he was perhaps a bit misused in Vancouver and Toronto. Despite that, he still put up nice numbers.
CREDIT:
I think he’ll command a salary of about $2,000,000 for a one or two year deal. He might come even cheaper than that. I’d much rather have Santorelli than Chimera, so if needed, the Caps should ship Chimera out.
Next: Olli Jokinen