Caps trade Flash

The Washington Capitals today traded Tomas Fleischmann to Colorado for defenseman Scott Hannon.

While this move does not actually impact the Hershey Bears directly it does affect them indirectly.

First let's consider the good news of the situation...this gives the Caps another defenseman, 8 total. That means call ups of Brian Fahey will be much less common. While that definitely isn't what Fahey was looking for it does help the Hershey Bears as a team.

Now let's consider the bad news of the situation...Flash was one of the players keeping guys like Gordon, Perreault, and Beagle in Hershey. Washington still has 13 forwards so while a call up is not going to happen immediately it does make forward call ups much more likely going forward. One or two injuries to forwards in Washington will result in fewer players in Hershey.

Surely the players I mentioned above (Gordon, Perry, Beags) are happy about this. They were kind of stuck until now as the Caps had 2 extra forwards so call ups were rare. But this will surely make call ups more likely as we move forward.

The likelihood of a Bear forward getting a long term recall is still unlikely (barring a bad injury) it is much more likely that Hershey will be without players for a few games here or there.

So while the trade is actually good news for the short term as Fahey will no longer be getting called up regularly it will hurt down the road IF Caps forwards start getting hurt.