Alexander Semin

All season long, the NHL's rumor mill has been churning out potential deals involving the Washington Capitals' Alexander Semin, but as things stand today, it appears that Semin wil

With word that Philadelphia's captain Chris Pronger is out for the rest of the season, the focus now turns to Claude Giroux and what will become of the future superstar.

Claude was accidentally kneed in the back of the head by his teammate Wayne Simmonds a few games back, and hasn't been feeling right ever since. There is still hope that he will return this season, but the longer he's out of the lineup, the less and less likely it will be that he sees ice time again this year.

Washington Capitals winger Alexander Semin is set to make $6.7 million this season as he enters the final year of his current contract, and with several young players to sign long-term next summer, the Caps should trade him. The Detroit Red Wings are a good fit for several reasons.

According to hockey rumor-monger Eklund, the Vancouver Canucks have an interest in trying to acquire Alexander Semin from the Washington Capitals. If this rumor were true, would it be a good fit for the Vancouver Canucks?

It's a new season, and the Caps roster looks relatively new. There isn't a Caps fan in the world who isn't excited to see what this team can do.

There are quite a lot of players on that team that have faced a lot of criticism recently, last year in particular, and those players go into the new season with everything to prove. 

Here is our pick of the top five Capitals players with things to prove in 2011/12:

After another disappointing playoff exit, the Washington Capitals might just see their fortunes change.

Alexander Ovechkin has been the NHL's most exciting and popular player for the past six years now, but has always failed to carry the Capitals to lifting the Cup. Not entirely his fault, not by a long shot, but you always expect your team's top player to step up when it matters the most—right Canucks fans?

This afternoon, Danick Paquette's name likely blew up in Google search topics as thousands of Washington Capitals fans probably wanted to know more about the unknown prospect they just received in a trade.

At 5 p.m. EST, Washington Capitals Vice President and General Manger George McPhee announced that the Capitals traded RW Eric Fehr to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a fourth-round pick and 20 year-old prospect Danick Paquette.

NHL fans regularly dream about blockbuster trades they'd like to see, but rarely do they actually happen.

It sure is fun to think about, though, especially with all of the marquee players who have been speculated to be available at the right price.

Here are 15 deals that we'd love to see, with varying degrees of realistic-ness. I've rated them from one to 10, 10 being most realistic and one being just a dream.

The deals are in no particular order, and some use the same pieces as others.

With 10 games remaining in the regular season, what better way to create excitement than to have the top two teams in the conference face off against each other?

However, tonight's game between the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers may not turn out to be your typical "Beasts of the East" matchup.

Just because the trade deadline has passed, doesn't mean that we can't see anymore trades!

Well, technically it does, but only until the Stanley Cup Final is done with. Once its done, teams can start wheeling and dealing and gearing up for the following fall.

With the free agent pool not being very strong this year, we may see a few more offseason trades go down.

Some may be a shock, but some may be of the "everyone saw that coming" variety.