During the first intermission of Wednesday night’s game between the Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues on Sportsnet, Jeff Marek announced that forward Nic Dowd of the Washington Capitals is “Very much on Edmonton’s orbit of interest.”
The 33-year-old Dowd has 16 points through 45 games this season and 143 points through 481 games in his NHL career. He has not played since Feb 20th last week due to an upper-body injury, and the Capitals put him on Injured Reserved a couple of days later. In total, he has missed 13 of Washington’s 58 games.
One intrigue that comes with Dowd is his history of playing a physical game in past seasons. His highest hit total was 145 in the 2016/2017 season, he has 888 overall. Bob Stauffer had him as one of his preferred targets for quite a while. He plays a lot of minutes on the penalty kill and is good at face-offs. He’s not one of those shiny toys for secondary offense that Edmonton could also use. However, if you want to see about getting the PK back on track and not letting it slump again, he might be a good target to consider.
That being said, it’s been reported the asking price from Washington would be a first round draft pick. As much as I just complimented the intangibles in Dowd’s game, it’d be really hard to justify that sacrifice for someone who has never put up more than 25 points. Perhaps if the Capitals lower that asking price, most Oilers fans would be more open to acquiring him.
Would you want Nic Dowd? Would you not? Let me know.
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