Da Da Nabokov?

On Twitter this morning, one of our followers (@robotsvsunicorn) mentioned that the Pierre McGuire for Senators GM in 2011 Tour continued this morning on XM satellite radio where he mentioned that Evgeni Nabokov would be a nice fit here in Ottawa.

The former Sharks netminder spent the bulk of the season over in the KHL with SKA St. Petersburg before being released for “family circumstances“.

I ran through the term “family circumstances” through Yahoo!’s Babelfish translated which said that in Russia, family circumstances refers to a situation in which a NHL player cannot find a team willing to take on his contract demands at the beginning of the season, so hes signs a $24-million, $4-million deal to play in the KHL and then leaves once his 8-8-5 record, save percentage of .888 and 3.02 GAA were deemed shitty enough to jeopardize his chance at ever playing back in the NHL. Now that the NHL season is half over and teams are between a rock and a hard place now that the playoff push is on, he figured it would be an opportune time to find a team desperate enough to acquiesce to his demands.

Nabokov’s KHL stats notwithstanding, his  most recent NHL statistics are impeccable:

However, it’s the willingness of an organization like Tampa Bay to flip a prospect to the Islanders for Dwayne Roloson rather than sign an unrestricted free agent like Nabokov that has me skeptical. It all lends itself to the notion that Nabokov simply wants too much money. Even after the Philadelphia Flyers acquired exclusive contract negotiation rights to Nabokov from San Jose, the Flyers had to pull back in negotiations because the asking price became too high.

Although it’s probably in the organization’s best interests to sign a veteran goaltender to a short term contract and give Lehner an opportunity to play and develop at the AHL level, I’m not sure that Nabokov is that guy. Considering his asking price and the fact that the Senators have overpaid to bring in two aging Russian players as bandaid solutions, is this organization really in a position to commit the money and years to add a third?

News From The Rink Via Twitter

• Brian Elliott will get the start tonight in nets against the Calgary Flames. As the Team 1200’s Scott MacArthur (@ScottMacArthur) alluded to on Twitter, had Robin Lehner gotten the call, it would have been Lehner’s fourth start in the past six days.
• On Lehner, Cory Clouston want to out him in “situations where he’ll succeed.” The Citizen’s Wayne Scanlan (@HockeyScanner) remarked, “When do they play Isles again?”
• Also, Alexei Kovalev’s knee is improving. It’s unfortunate that you can’t say the same about his trade value.
• As per the Citizen’s Ken Warren (@Citizenkwarren) Jason Spezza skated today in full equipment.
• Another Warren Tweet: Cory clouston has 80 wins and 80 losses (64 in regulation, 16 in ot and shootouts) during senators coaching career