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Capitals trade prospect Stefan Della Rovere for Blues enforcer D.J. King

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While the Washington Capitals summer has been quiet, unless you count Maxime Talbot calling Alexander Ovechkin names news. Today, however, the Capitals made a definitive splash of sorts sending prospect Stefan Della Rovere to St. Louis for oft-injured enforcer D.J. King.

D.J. King is plain and simple, an enforcer. Guys in St. Louis loved him as defenseman Erik Johnson tweeted this afternoon. Another now former Blues tough guy teammate Cam Janssen had something else to share with fans and for D.J. King though.

Hey DJ, BTW... Wed, Dec 1 Caps at Blues....its ON!

Let’s just hope that Michael Buffer isn’t busy that night so he can introduce the combatants. Let’s also hope that King is healthy enough to play. Over the last four seasons, King has played in a total of 101 games in the NHL with 61 of those coming in 2007-2008. Last season, King played 12 games with St. Louis and ten with Peoria in the AHL. Keeping him healthy enough to fend off the heavyweight fighters in the Eastern Conference might be a struggle.

As for Stefan Della Rovere, referring to him as a prospect is a bit debatable. He was the Caps seventh round pick in 2008 but he’s made appearances with the Canadian World Junior team in 2009 and 2010, winning the gold in 2009. Della Rovere has also never played in the AHL to this point having stayed with Barrie in Canadian juniors. He’s yet to show what he’s capable of doing as a professional and that’s where the mystery comes in.

His career in juniors and the World Junior Championships is scattered with different questionable hits and incidents and he even got into a fight recently at the Capitals prospect camp. Perhaps the Caps motivation was to get a known quantity and give up a guy who they’re not quite sure what he’ll bring to the table as a pro. At least, I hope that’s what their motivation is, as on paper the deal doesn’t appear to make a world of sense. Perhaps the Caps have a better idea than we do at our computers as to what’s actually going on with Della Rovere.