Sportsnet‘s Elliotte Friedman published a weekend edition of his ’30 Thoughts’ column and within it he had a number of thoughts pertaining to the Ottawa Senators.
One drew on his own experiences to relay the same message that Bryan Murray conveyed to Michael Farber in his admission that he had stage four cancer. Do not take your health for granted. Get regular check ups and if you reach a certain age when you should be getting specific examinations, don’t neglect them or dismiss them because of you think your family history leaves you in good hands.
Secondly, Friedman noted that Senators assistant general manager Pierre Dorion was seen taking in two out of town games last week.
16. Scouting appearance that raised eyebrows: Ottawa’s Pierre Dorion at St. Louis/Rangers and Edmonton/Buffalo last week. Dorion obviously has a scouting background, but isn’t always out there, which is why it was noted. It’s no secret the Senators and Sabres, in particular, have spoken several times.
Crap, we are never going to shake these Chris Stewart rumours, are we? (As an aside, who do you think the Sens may have been looking at in those games? Jeff Petry perhaps from Edmonton? Let me hear your thoughts in the comment thread.)
Ottawa’s reported interest in Stewart dates back to the player’s time in St. Louis and maybe their interest goes back further than that.
Whatever the case, I’ve never understood why Ottawa’s interest in Stewart is so strong? I mean, I get that Stewart is the big toolsy power forward-type that has had some relatively productive season in his career, even if we are a few years removed from them now.
It’s just that the further removed we are from his days of filling the net, the more we have to wonder whether rolling the dice on Stewart and the possibility that he will continue to struggle to find his previous levels of production is worth enduring his middling underlying numbers when he doesn’t produce. Keeping in mind that the Senators already have other right wingers in Bobby Ryan and Alex Chiasson who aren’t necessarily great possession drivers, but who are counted upon to provide some offence.
Throw in the fact that Mark Stone is thriving in a secondary scoring role playing alongside Mike Hoffman and deserves to receive more minutes and you have to wonder where Stewart would ever fit in? It’s not like he’s going to come in here and just bump Chris Neil from the lineup.
Granted, the Buffalo Sabres have been awful and by extension, Stewart has been awful with them. Through 18 games, he only has one goal and two points to his credit. His underlying numbers are mediocre, but relative to the rest of the teammates, he’s actually posted positive relative possession rates.
Unless the asking price is so low that the Senators can flip a bad contract like Colin Greening’s to the Sabres for Stewart’s expiring deal that carries a $4.15M cap hit, I wouldn’t touch the player. Having said that, I feel like I’ve written so much about how the Senators should avoid Stewart that at this point, I feel a parent who keeps trying to forewarn their daughter or son about the douchebag they’re dating – which in turn, only drives them closer together.
Speaking of Colin Greening however, Friedman noted that the player is desperately in need of a fresh start.
17. Definitely time for a fresh start for Colin Greening, in the lineup just four times this season. The Senators could have traded him before his September 2013 contract extension— it’s believed the Rangers and St. Louis were among those interested — but decided to keep him. Now, that makes it tougher.
I’ve cracked a lot of jokes at Greening’s expense simply because it’s such low hanging fruit that it’s unavoidable. It’s not exactly his fault that the Senators management offered him an extension before he entered the final season of his last contract despite the fact that the Senators already had UFA signing Clarke MacArthur lining up with Kyle Turris in camp and Milan Michalek to play with Spezza.
At the time, the Senators probably looked at Greening like he was an insurance option in the event that a frequently injured Michalek had another setback. He was coming off an impressive postseason performance against Pittsburgh and cashed in. Having already had some modest success piggybacking Spezza and Karlsson’s great 2011-12 seasons, Greening was probably viewed as a relatively inexpensive insurance policy (if he wound up on Spezza’s line again) that could allow the team to walk away from Michalek, who also was scheduled to become a UFA at the end of the 2013-14 season.
Had the Senators heeded the warnings from Greening’s underlying numbers, perhaps the situation could have been avoided. At the very least, you’d imagine the Senators would have recognized that Greening’s numbers were inevitably going to suffer (and remove whatever bargaining power he had) now that he was removed from a top six capacity.
Making matters worse, Michalek remained healthy and Greening’s offence and overall game struggled, like anyone would struggle, playing alongside Zack Smith and Chris Neil for the duration of the season. His play and new extension not only convinced the Senators to retain Michalek before he hit UFA, it made Greening an overpaid fourth line player on a budget team.
That’s not his fault, that’s on management.
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