Washington Capitals give Mike Knuble one-year extension with team – NHL Update
The Washington Capitals right wing and veteran player Mike Knuble has been offered a one-year extension worth $2 million by the team management. He has been compared to fine wine because he keeps on getting better with age, as described by Capitals coach
Bruce Boudreau.
Washington team management announced the deal on Monday while their team is preparing for the quarter-finals of the National Hockey League play-offs which start on Wednesday 13 April. The Capitals face the eighth place team, the New York Rangers.
With 107 points, the Capitals managed to overtake the first place Philadelphia Flyers for easy positioning in recent weeks and have maintained their Number one seed to end the play-offs while securing the Eastern Conference.
The 38-year-old player from Toronto is playing for Washington in his second straight season. After being drafted in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, he moved on to teams like the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers
and finally ended up in Washington in 2009.
At the start of the season, Knuble looked to finally be under the influence of his age as his performance remained low key. He had only one goal and three assists in his first 13 games but finished the season on a strong note with nine goals and four assist
in the final 14 games.
Many team-mates termed him as the best player on the team for the last half of the season at a time when they really needed someone to lead them. Knuble closed off the 2010-2011 season with a total of 24 goals and 16 assists, missing only three games in
regulation. It brought his ranking in the players who are 35 or older to third overall under Martin St. Louis and Teemu Selanne who both had 31.
His final goal before an uncertain retirement is to reach the 1,000 games played milestone. Currently he is at 968 in his 14 seasons played so far and will be easily able to reach his target within next season if he remains healthy.
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