Thinking about the trade on Sunday of Mathieu Perreault to
the Anaheim Ducks, if you look back at the history of the Washington Capitals,
you could make the argument that Mathieu Perreault is unique. Perreault is that player who, as the last
player the Caps picked in the 2006 NHL entry draft (177th overall)),
became “the little player that could.”
Undersized, with all the baggage that goes with that sort of thing in as
physically demanding a league as the NHL is, Perreault painstakingly climbed
the development ladder, one rung at a time, until he made it.
After he was drafted, Perreault spent two more seasons with Acadie-Bathurst
Titan in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before graduating to the Hershey
Bears in the AHL. His apprenticeship at
Hershey reflected slow but steady progress in terms of the number of games he
played there and those he played when called up to Washington. In 2008-2009 he spent the entire season in
Hershey, playing in 77 regular season games and another 21 in the
playoffs. The following year his games
played in Hershey dropped to 56 in the regular season, while he was brought up
for 21 regular season games in Washington.
The scales tipped a bit more the next season – 34 games in Hershey, 35
in Washington.
Finally, in 2011-2012, his apprenticeship was complete. He spent the entire season in Washington,
playing in 64 games and surprising with 16 goals, tied for fifth on the team
with Brooks Laich.
Looking back over the draft history of the team, it is hard to
find a parallel to Perreault, a player taken in the sixth round who climbed
high enough to play in 159 regular season games for Washington. Only one player from the 2006 draft drafted lower than Perreault – Derek Dorsett
(189th overall) has played in more NHL games than Perreault.
If you go back into the distant past of the franchise,
perhaps a parallel could be drawn with Wes Jarvis, a 14th round pick
in the 1978 NHL amateur draft, and like Perreault, a somewhat undersized
center. He, like Perreault, split time
between Washington and Hershey over a three year period, but in his case, the
splits weighted more toward Hershey over time, unlike Perreault. He would be traded in 1982 with goaltender
Rollie Boutin to Minnesota for goalie Robbie Moore and a draft pick. It was a trade of little consequence for the
Caps. Moore played in one game for
Washington, and the draft pick became Anders Huss, who never played in the
NHL. Jarvis went on to play in 93 more
games for three different teams but not making much of a mark.
Maybe Andrew Brunette comes to mind. He was a seventh round pick in 1993 (174th
overall) whose perceived disadvantage was not size, but speed. He climbed through the ECHL (with Hampton
Roads) and the AHL (with Portland and Providence) before he got his shot in
Washington. He never could seem to catch
on, though. Over three seasons he played
in a total of 62 games, recording 18 goals in the process. He was lost to the Nashville Predators in the
1998 expansion draft. He developed a
reputation for having great hands and a goal-scoring touch. After leaving Washington he went on to record
250 more goals in 1,048 games with five different teams.
Perhaps Richard Zednik is an apt comparison. Zednik was a 10th round pick in
1994 (249th overall). He
spent two years with the Portland Winter Hawks in the Western Hockey League
before graduating to the Portland Pirates in the AHL in 1995-1996 (he got one
game in Washington that year). He split
time between Portland and Washington the next season and graduated for good in
1997-1998. Once with the team, “Zed”
became a fan favorite. There was quite
an uproar when he was traded (with Jan Bulis and a draft pick) to Montreal in
the midst of a stretch run for Trevor Linden, Dainius Zubrus, and a draft pick
in March 2001. After leaving Washington,
Zednik went on to score another 137 goals in almost 500 games for four teams (including
a brief return to D.C. in the 2006-2007 season).
Perreault, however, seems unique. Just the optics of it. A slightly built, mop-haired youngster
playing center in the National Hockey League in the land of the giants. A kid who kept plugging at every stop on the
development ladder, always (it seemed) dogged by the perception that he was too
small or too offense-oriented, to too something else.
But now, he will play on the left coast, reunited with his
coach from Hershey and Washington, Bruce Boudreau. And the return? John Mitchell (a minor leaguer two years
older than Perreault) and a mid-round draft pick. Not much, it would seem, for a player who
averaged 18 goals per 82 games over his last two seasons. For the Caps, we suspect it will be a trade
of no consequence. The Ducks will get a
guy who, if nothing else is said about him, certainly has the virtues of perseverance.
Good luck, Matty.
Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America
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