The big news from yesterday’s practice in Boston pertained to the health of two of Ottawa’s centers. After lengthy period of time in which there were very few and relevant updates on the Peter Regin, the Senators organization revealed that the Danish center underwent a successful surgical procedure on his left shoulder that will keep him out of action for the next four to six months. Barring some miraculous postseason run, it’s likely that Regin’s ailing shoulder has ended his season for the second consecutive year.
It’s the latest in a series of disappointments that have plagued him since he broke into the league as a promising rookie during the 2009-10 campaign. While injuries and opportunity have contributed to some inconsistent and modest offensive production, Regin has always been a responsible two-way center who posted some impressive puck possession metrics throughout his career. According to the advanced statistical metrics at Behind the Net, in 2009-10, Regin’s relative Corsi of 18.9 led Senators players and he followed that up by posting an 8.4 in 2010-11. (Note: Per Behind the Net’s FAQ, Corsi measures puck possession by using a simple plus/minus-like rating of the total number of shots on goal, missed shots and blocked shots directed at the opposing net while a player is on the ice at even strength. Relative Corsi refers to the difference in Corsi between a player’s on-ice performance and his team’s performance when he’s on the bench. The higher a player’s rating, the better.)
Having entered this season as the Senators’ second line center, Regin now finds himself on the sidelines and without a contract for next season. As an impending RFA, there are whispers that Regin may not even be tendered a qualifying offer by the organization so that he would remain under team control. With the addition and production of Kyle Turris and an influx of prospects like Jakub Silfverberg, Mark Stone and Mika Zibanejad expected to be in competition for top nine jobs next fall, he could be cut loose.
Per article 10.2 (a) (ii) (C) of the NHL’s CBA, since Regin’s NHL Salary is equal to or greater than $1,000,000 for this season (it’s $1.050M), his qualifying offer must be at least 100-percent of this season’s salary so that his rights are retained. Working under the assumption that Regin is offered a qualifying offer, if he accepts, he has the opportunity to determine whether he receives a one or two year contract.
Although I think it’s far too early to start throwing around the phrase career threatening injury, for the cost of one million dollars per annum, it seems like paltry sum to risk losing a player who can either help the current roster or could be packaged in a trade. (Note: with impending UFA centers like Konopka and Winchester and Zibanejad profiling as more of a winger, Ottawa may need more depth at center this summer.)
Speaking of Winchester, he’s the other center who I was alluding to in the first paragraph of this post. Yesterday, he was skating at practice for the first time since suffering a concussion after being hit from behind by Paul Gaustad.
Nikita Filatov Goes Back to Junior:
According to Pavel Lysenkov of Sovietsky Sport, CSKA has demoted Nikita Filatov from their KHL team to their junior team. Shit, and I thought Peter Regin was having a rough season. This, kids, is why you stay in school. As easy as it would be to pile on here and criticize the player for listening to the advice being given out by Paul MacLean or Bryan Murray, this latest event is the exact reason why Filatov made the right decision to chase the money and go back to Russia. Given Ottawa’s depth in their pipeline, it was only matter of time before Filatov was passed in the depth chart by a number of other forward prospects anyways. Assuming that he didn’t sign a two-way KHL contract, at least he maximized his earnings – which is exactly what the player wanted.
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