The Washington Capitals have sent Michael Nylander away again, but this time they’re moving him a little further than Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League.  They’ve re-assigned the veteran centre to Jokerit, in the top Finnish league.

Nylander’s familiar with the SM-Liiga; he played there during both NHL lockouts, impressively managing 30 points in 16 games in 1994-95 and hanging around just under a point-per-game pace over 23 outings with Karpat in 2004-05.

Nylander’s AHL numbers have been tepid, at best – two goals and 16 assists in 24 games, along with a minus-8 rating.  Still, he should be an impact player over in Europe, and most importantly for Jokerit it will be the Capitals who have to pay him; they get cap relief but no relief whatsoever for that nearly $5.0 million in salary that they’ll pay him for the remainder of this season and 2010-11 as well.