Prospects, Promise and … “They Just Signed Who?!”

Over the years, we’ve seen the Senators organization employ a variety of slogans for each season:

My town. My team.

A force united.

One mission.

Be Red.

Blame Elliott.

One team. One goal.

Pass the rock to Alfie.

Our team. Our town. Our time.

Inspiring stuff. If I had to come up with one for the 2011-12 season, it’d be “Opportunity knocks” or “If Anderson goes down for an extended period of time, you can gift wrap that lottery pick for us”.

Now that the Senators development camp has ended, optimism is abound in the nation’s capital and for good reason. For the first time in awhile, it looks like there is talent, skill and depth at every position.

Bryan Murray even believes that three to five players from development camp should earn long looks once training camp starts in September.

“There’ll be three to five (guys who push for spots),” said Senators GM Bryan Murray. “That’s a really good number. I always believe that with young people if you have room and you put them on your team they just get better when the second half comes around. You have to win in the first half as well.

“(A spot) isn’t going to be available to every one of them. We’ll have these guys at training camp and we’ll see how they do when they start playing games.” ~ Via Bruce Garrioch, The Ottawa Sun

I’m not particularly sure if Murray would have included Filatov as one of the camp hopefuls as he’s already said that a top six opportunity awaits him in camp but Garrioch did go on to mention that Murray believes Jared Cowen, Mika Zibanejad, David Rundblad and Jakub Silfverberg look NHL ready.

Since Silfverberg has already admitted that he feels he needs another year of development with Brynas of the Swedish Elite League (SEL), whether Murray can convince him to remain in Ottawa is going to be an intriguing training camp subplot to follow.

Assuming that Bryan can actually convince Silfverberg to stick around, there’s going to be a glut of forwards who have the opportunity to play in Ottawa’s top 12.

And naturally, what was supposed to be an article about the intrigue and ice-time of Ottawa’s young players has now been hijacked by Don Brennan’s announcement that the Senators have signed Zenon Konopka to a one year, one way deal worth $700k.

Why?

I’m not entirely sure. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the move.

All I know is that the staff of the Ottawa Sun’s sports section must be doing cartwheels right about now. Long heralded as one of those players with Ottawa 67s roots, Konopka has had the likes of Tim Baines and Brennan campaigning for his return to the nation’s capital for awhile now.

This isn’t meant to be a knock on Konopka, as he’s proven during limited minutes (averaged 10:11 of ice-time) on the Island, he can win faceoffs (his 57.7% success rate was 4^th best in the NHL), fight and is well liked by his teammates.

But it’s not like the organization is bereft of toughness or is desperate to protect its young players. With Zach Smith, Matt Carkner and Chris Neil on the roster, PIMS and fisticuffs aren’t that hard to come by.

The one immediate benefit that I can think of is that this will mean that Jason Spezza will be used less regularly on important defensive zone draws. As demonstrated by Behindthenet.ca’s Ozone% statistic, amongst regulars on the Senators last season, Jason had the lowest percentage of offensive zone faceoff starts on the team. The hope is that by adding a reliable faceoff option in Konopka, this would give Jason the opportunity to be counted on more heavily on offensive zone draws which would in turn could, one hopes, would lead to more offensive production and puck possession.

Nevertheless, based off of what Murray has said about giving prospects a look and looking at Ottawa’s roster up front, I just don’t know whether this move makes a ton logistical sense beyond giving a local connection an opportunity to play.

Holding Murray true to his word, if Zibanejad is going to get a fair shake, what do you make of a center situation that already features Spezza, Peter Regin, Jesse Winchester and Konopka? Surely, you want to give Regin an opportunity to fail in a second line capacity before giving it to the rookie or using Winchester in a third line role that he’s probably ill suited for.

Or maybe this is an admission from the organization that it will bide its time with Zibanejad (or Silfverberg for that matter) and that they’re content using Spezza, Regin, Winchester and Konopka as their four centers for this one season?

Or maybe this simply reflects that the organization might soon be parting company with Matt Carkner now that Cowen and Rundblad are on the cusp?

In any case, the message is clear: the organization is rebuilding and if it means taking some lumps and a step back to take two steps forward, so be it.

Passing Thought On Filatov

I have to admit, I’d feel much more confident with the idea of Filatov panning out if he didn’t feel compelled to  answer every female fan on his Formspring page that told him he was the “best looking prospect in d-camp.”

Grading Ottawa in FA

From Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski:

The Senators won the Alex Auld Derby with a 1-year, $1-million deal, although on second thought it is a bit of a stretch to call a 1-team race a “derby.” Ottawa lost center Ryan Potulny to the Capitals after he wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer. If anyone sees Bryan Murray, tell him the free-agent thingy started on July 1. It’s possible he’s still giggling about Heatley getting moved to Minnesota, though. Or that he’s really living by the “restraint and patience are the new buzzwords” mantra. GRADE: D (Ed. Note: Late addition here. The Sens inked Zenon Konopka to a 1-year deal for $700,000, and he’s a really nice pickup for faceoffs and character. Bump this up to GRADE: C)

Originally, I remarked on Twitter that the D grade was like evaluating a “who’s the best drunk at a party” contest and punishing Ottawa because they were the designated driver. But then Greg changed the grade to a C due to the Konopka signing. Quite frankly, I think I would have preferred the D.