What to Do With $4.875 Million?

If the reports are true, today is the last day (or one of them, anyway) that Michael Nylander will be a member of the Caps. And that means there's $4.875 million in cap space that's suddenly available. So what should the Caps do?

They'll probably save some space for the March 3 trading deadline -- especially given its proximity to the Feb. 28 end of the Winter Olympics. Since the Caps have been up to the salary cap ceiling for so long, having some breathing room might not be a bad thing.

But one's got to suspect that the space cleared finally will allow Karl Alzner to take his rightful (and permanent) place on the Caps' blueline. He did very well in his stint last year and would help stabilize the team's defensive prowess. Alzner only has two assists for the Bears but is a plus-nine.

Speaking of cap casualties, Chris Bourque is hardly thriving with the Pittsburgh Penguins -- even with all the injuries. In nine games, he's racked up one assist, four penalty minutes, a minus-three rating and 11 shots on goal. So it doesn't look like the Caps made a bad decision after all -- at least not yet.