As the Senators’ brain trust meets with scouts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to review this year’s draft class and determine the course of direction for the rest of the season, one NHL “insider” is reporting that the Senators are looking to add some offence.
From ESPN‘s Pierre Lebrun:
The Ottawa Senators haven’t given up on the playoffs.
A source told ESPN.com on Thursday that veteran general manager Bryan Murray has been calling around looking for help to bolster his offense.
Nothing seems imminent, but time is of the essence. It’s a January deal that Ottawa needs, not a March 2 trade. They need help now in order to make their way up the standings.
That was written yesterday before last night’s 5-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in which the Senators dominated from a possession standpoint, but just didn’t receive the same kind of bounces or level of goaltending that Colorado did.
The Senators may not have given up on the playoffs, and the organization or its players wouldn’t admit that they have publicly, last night’s loss was devastating to their playoff chances.
As it currently stands, the Senators are 10-points back of the Washington Capitals for the Eastern Conference’s first wild card seed. Things aren’t much better when you look at the jockeying for the second wild card seed. The Boston Bruins currently hold that spot with 48 points in 42 games and judging by recent comments made by their CEO Charlie Jacobs, they are under the pressure to add and improve their lineup. So even though the Senators have two games in hand on the Bruins and sit eight points back, I don’t like their chances and the fact that they’re already separated from the Bruins by two other teams. Moreover, teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets only trail the Senators by a point.
Adding to the roster when the team’s playoff odds are all sorts of terrible isn’t a new phenomenon for the Senators. In 2011 when the Senators had some of the best lottery odds to land a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or a Gabriel Landeskog, Bryan Murray flipped the middling Brian Elliott for impending UFA Craig Anderson. The intent was to get a better look at Anderson, a goaltender who Murray allegedly liked from Anderson’s days with the Florida Panthers. Instead of electing to wait until free agency where the Senators could simply offer him the number one starter’s role and simply spend more money than other suitors on his services, they made the move before the deadline. Everyone knows how that ended. Anderson played the Senators out of a lottery position and signed an extension before the season was over.
Despite incredibly long playoff odds at last year’s trade deadline, the Senators flipped two future assets — a 2014 fifth round pick and a 2015 third rounder — for Ales Hemsky. Like Anderson before him, the Senators figured it would be an opportunity to add Hemsky and give him an extended look and opportunity to play in Ottawa to see if he would enjoy it and hopefully sign an extension — all the while giving the team a more competitive lineup. The Senators ultimately missed the playoffs by five points and Hemsky bolted as a UFA to Dallas.
You can downplay the significance of sending to mid-round picks on a flier like Hemsky, but moving future assets to chase the almost-impossible playoff revenue dream was foolish nonetheless.
But hey, prioritizing short-term results over a patient and diligent plan is something that fans have grown accustomed to under this management group.
Bertuzzi Signs PTO
After a few days of speculation, the Binghamton Senators announced today that the organization had agreed to a 25-game professional tryout with 39-year old forward Todd Bertuzzi.
The Senators will assuredly receive their share of criticism for the decision, but in essence, giving Bertuzzi an opportunity to play in Binghamton doesn’t really hurt the organization since Bertuzzi never signed a professional contract with the Senators that counts against their limit of 50 professional contracts.
Le Droit‘s Sylvain St-Laurent mentioned via Twitter that he believes the Senators have 48 professional contracts already, so barring some trades, it wouldn’t really make sense to sign Bertuzzi since it would restrict the number of collegiate free agents that the Senators could sign later this season.
More importantly, Bertuzzi’s PTO is just an opportunity to prove that he can still play and be an NHL player. The PTO doesn’t restrict him from signing exclusively with the Senators, so if anything, the PTO allows him to pursue his goal of returning with another NHL team as much as it does with the Senators. If it’s true that this PTO was a way for the Senators to do Bertuzzi’s Newport group a favour, then whatever. It doesn’t hurt.
Other News and Notes
– ESPN Insider (paywall to read) outlined 10 rising NHL GM candidates. Obviously with Bryan Murray’s health, the Senators will eventually have to find a successor for him, so this list of names is an interesting look at some of the bright minds coming through the ranks. The Los Angeles Kings’ AGM Rob Blake tops the list and is viewed as a potential successor to Dave Nonis in Toronto, but the name that I really liked on the list was that of Tampa Bay AGM Julien BriseBois.
Here’s Craig Custance’s brief blurb on BriseBois’ resume:
“There might not be a more well-rounded GM candidate than BriseBois. He has a background in law, having worked arbitration cases for Heenan Blaikie. He spent nine seasons with the Montreal Canadiens and won a Calder Cup when he was in charge of the Hamilton Bulldogs. He does contracts, works in analytics and has helped make the Lightning a model franchise in prospect development. With his ability to speak French, he’s a five-tool GM prospect.”
– After last night’s loss, Sportsclubstats gives the Senators an 11.1-percent chance of reaching the postseason.
– Speaking of ESPN Insider, Corey Pronman reviewed and graded every organization’s drafted prospects who participated in this year’s World Juniors tournament. While Buffalo and Winnipeg earned top grades (A’s) in the rankings, Pronman gave the Senators a ‘B+’, writing the following about their prospects:
Andreas Englund wasn’t that noticeable, which was mostly because he was used as a No. 7 defenseman, with occasional usage on the penalty kill. He flashed decent-to-solid defensive skills and physicality, but next year will be the tournament for him to display his abilities in a bigger role.
Canadian captain Curtis Lazar was tremendous last year, and was expected to be the same this time around. He wins battles, pressures with speed, makes defenders miss, gets to the net and plays good defense. He didn’t blow anyone away offensively — that’s not his game — but he still got his points.
Nick Paul was decent. He’s appealing as a big, strong forward with skill who can play quality defense. There were times he seemed to get lost in the quicker pace of the game, and his lack of foot speed got exposed a few times.
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