Capitals sign Brendan Morrison

From the Washington Capitals:

The Washington Capitals have signed unrestricted free agent center Brendan Morrison to a one-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A 5’11”, 181-pound native of Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Morrison has had 50-plus points six times, including four 20-goal seasons. He has played 755 career games with four teams – Dallas, Anaheim, Vancouver and New Jersey – spanning 12 NHL seasons. Morrison has 175 goals and 330 assists (505 points) in his NHL career, with career highs in goals (25), assists (46) and points (71) coming in 2002-03 with the Canucks.

Read entire post here.

The signing doesn’t cost much (JP says it’s for $1.5 million) and is only for one year, so I don’t really see much downside.  Morrison is a good passer but he has slowed down significantly the past couple of seasons.  The Capitals have snipers like Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin that will benefit from playing with a passer like Morrison–especially on the power play.  However, Morrison is not the player he was earlier this decade in Vancouver, so expectations need to be kept in check.  A rebound to the 50-55 point mark seems reasonable if he plays with some of the Capitals’ offensive players.

If you want more Morrison information, Japers’ Rink has put together Morrison’s career statistics.