After inking Andrew Hammond to a new three-year extension worth an average annual value of $1.35 million per season, Senators assistant general manager Pierre Dorion made an appearance on TSN 1200’s ‘The Drive’ yesterday afternoon to provide some insight on the deal and offer comments on other important issues that will be part of this summer’s agenda.
To listen to interview, just scroll to the bottom of this post where it is embedded.
As always, my thoughts are in bold.
On going through the process to get Hammond signed and how talks seemed to have progress over last 48 hours…
“Actually, they have, but we try to keep these things in house and obviously under the guidance and direction of Bryan Murray, we started these contract talks just a few days after the regular season. I think that really, the first time that we talked we said, both Dan and I agreed that we wouldn’t talk until the end of the season. We talked for the first time on April 27th and then we talked a few times before I went to Europe. I went to Europe for the World Championships and got back on the 12th then my first call in the car was about 4:30 after I landed with Dan (Plante) and we kind of both said, ‘Okay, let’s get this done.’ Obviously with me checking in with Bryan (Murray) after every conversation and I think Dan and I have spent the most time on the phone between two people in the last week. In the last week we’ve talked every day except I think Sunday we didn’t talk. We were at a point where we were really close and this morning I said, ‘Dan, like we’re too close here not to get a contract done today’, so this morning at about nine or so, we finally got something done.”
It’s completely unrelated to Dorion’s comments in regards to the development of Andrew Hammond’s contract development, but what I’ve noticed since Bryan Murray’s stage four colon cancer revelation is how frequently Dorion goes out of his way to reaffirm that Bryan is still involved in hockey ops and is more than just a figurehead. I don’t know if it’s his own way of letting the fans know that Bryan Murray is doing okay and business is normal, but I find it comes across as unnatural and wish he’d refrain from doing it.
On how difficult it is to project what Hammond is going to be based on his unsustainable numbers…
“Well, if we just go by his numbers from last season, he’s probably an eight-million dollar goalie. Obviously we both know that’s not the fact. Hopefully *chuckling* one day he can become an eight-milion dollar goalie, but the comparables were fairly tough here and Andrew being a UFA, it was his choice to sign the contract or not. I think for them, they wanted a bit of security and us giving him three years, is something we were very happy to do to get a goalie in his prime between 27 and 30 (years of age) is something that is great for our organization. Great for our fans and helps us, I think, win when he’ll be in the net. But it was tough because there are not many guys that have come in and done what he has done, except if you can remember Steve Penney in the ’80’s. So I think it was tough for us to come to a number or come to a term on the contract, but we feel happy with what we’ve done. I think Andrew is very happy too.”
Steve Penney is an interesting comparison. After posting a 26-18-8 record in 54 appearances for the Habs during the 1984-85 season which earned him some Calder votes (he finished third in balloting) and Vezina votes, Penney would only go on to play 33 NHL games during the rest of his career. I hope Hammond proves to be something more than Steve Penney.
On what they do now with their three goaltenders…
“Bryan obviously said it at his year end press conference. Bryan mentioned that if and when we were able to sign Andrew Hammond, we would look at moving one of our goalies. Just signing Andrew today, we’re going to evaluate who we feel is going to help us win in the short, medium and long-term and do what is best for the Ottawa Senators organization. I don’t think teams have phoned Bryan already. Maybe they have. I know I talked to him earlier this morning and we’ll just go about it that way once we get to that point.”
I find it hard to believe that these evaluations would not have been made in advance of the decision to sign Hammond, but you can’t blame Dorion for not wanting to tip his hand.
On whether they will be swayed by some offers or whether they will firmly decide which of the two they will move and go from there…
“That’s a good question. We’re going to have to find out what the market is for any of our goalies. Obviously whether we like one guy or the other one, we all know that Anderson is one of the best goaltenders in the NHL and we all know that Robin Lehner is going to be one of the best goaltenders in the NHL if he’s getting very close to that, but he’s younger. Obviously Craig has more experience, but (we’re) going to see what teams phone and inquire about. We don’t know which goalies certain teams like more than the other one. So I think it’s something that we look upon, but obviously if we get an offer that you can’t say no to and it’s either goaltender, you really have to consider it.”
Had you asked me at the beginning of the offseason which goaltender the Senators would unload this summer provided Hammond would re-sign, I would have said Lehner’s name without any hesitation. Now, I’m not so confident. Continuing with his refusal to tip the organization’s hand, I certainly wouldn’t expect Dorion to downplay the abilities of Ottawa’s two other goalies. I mean, if the Senators really felt that they had one of the best goalies and someone who was really going to be one of the best, the easiest choice would have been to hold onto those two assets and simply let Hammond go. Inevitably, the Senators will now have to trade one of them, maybe the Senators can leverage their situation and extract a much better return for moving a veteran like Anderson,
On where Robin Lehner is health-wise…
“Robin has been in the building this week. He’s working out. He looks good and obviously he hasn’t been on the ice in a while, so obviously he wouldn’t be able to play right away but I think once training camp comes around, he’ll be ready, good, willing and stopping a lot of pucks.”
On Craig Anderson being injury prone and whether there is any concern for his health or stability…
“No, not at all for us. I think a lot of the injuries that happened to Craig have been freak injuries and sometimes, you can’t control those things. But I think Craig is a pretty durable goalie. He’s been through a lot. I think the way that he has battled back from some of the injuries shows us the type of character he is. So I think those injuries don’t worry us at all. They’re not like something that’s lingering or the same injury that (keeps reoccurring). When it’s a knife and you’re cutting chicken, those are just things that happen.”
Maybe that’s why the Senators re-signed Hammond. Knowing that he has his ‘McDonald’s For Life’ card, the Senators goaltenders can lean on him for a late night snack instead of separating frozen pieces of poultry in the early hours of the morning after a game.
On moving Ben Bishop to a division rival last time and if there is a preference for moving the next goalie to the Western Conference…
“Well, obviously you’d like to… because both are… or all three guys that we have now are all good quality NHL goalies in our eyes, so obviously you wouldn’t like to face them, but you always have to think to do what’s best for the team. Whoever makes us the best offer or whoever’s offer that Bryan seems to like the best is probably the direction that we’ll go in. You can’t just not trade a guy to a certain team just not to hurt your team at that point in time. I think you have to do what’s best for the team and wherever we trade one of the guys, we’ll just have to accept that.”
I don’t have a problem with this philosophy. Ottawa’s not really in a position where they are good enough to have the luxury of choosing where to send their assets in a deal. With a number of holes on the parent roster and some depth issues at the AHL level, maximize the value of the asset(s) and move on.
On Matt O’Connor’s signing with the organization and how that influenced the goaltending situation…
“Well, I guess getting one of the best young goalies who is a prospect is a great thing for our organization. I wish, on a personal note, I could take credit but a lot of credit has to go to Randy Lee, our other assistant general manager. He had a relationship with Todd Reynolds. Randy worked extremely hard. He had a lot conversations with Matt O’Connor and tried to convince him to come to Ottawa and I think that was a big part of Matt coming to (visit) us. Sometimes I’ll get on the radio and sometimes Randy will get on the radio, but Randy sometimes doesn’t praise himself a lot. He really did an outstanding job in getting Matt to come to Ottawa and also, we have to look at what Rick (Wamsley) did in his conversations with Matt. Matt is a very studious guy and he asked a lot of questions to Rick and Randy and those two guys really (played) big part in it. Another two people that had a little part in it was we had Daniel Alfredsson phone Matt O’Connor and Daniel didn’t have to do it. I think Matt was really pleased by it. I’ve never done this in my NHL career, but I went and grabbed Erik (Karlsson) out of the dressing room before game three and he came in and shook Matt O’Connor’s hand, so we did quite a few things. We’re not trying to reveal all of our secrets, but I think as an organization, we really did a good job, everyone included, but a lot of credit should go to Randy and Rick on this one.”
On Erik Condra’s UFA status and what he expects on that front and on the RFA front…
“I mentioned this in the conference call, again, Bryan allowed us… it was me that made the call to Steve Bartlett, but just to let Erik know that we still have interest in Erik and we would like to keep him on our team, but we have to do a few other things. We would like to make an offer at some point in time before free agency starts. We’ve talked with Erik’s agent and as far as the RFAs, I had about an hour and a half call with Craig Oster of Newport (Sports Management) on Mika Zibanejad and Mark Stone when I was in Europe. Just preliminary talks about… at times, you have to find out what they want as far as term or what they’re looking for as far as money. Alex Chiasson’s agent, I talked (to) before I went to the World Championships. We expect to make an offer in the next week or so. (Jean-Gabriel) Pageau’s agent I’ve exchanged texts with, so I think that pretty much covers everyone. But again, on (Mike) Hoffman and Chiasson, both of these guys have arbitration rights so we know that these (contracts) will be done by… I think the last day of ruling is August 6th or 4th or 6th, so we know those will be done in due time. We’d like to avoid arbitration. Arbitration is never pleasant for either of the parties, but sometimes that’s part of the business. With the rest of the guys, it’s just feeling out. Do they want to sign a bit more term? Do they want a bit more security? Do they just want to see if they want to do a one-year deal? So we’ve talked many scenarios, especially with considering Mika and Mark, we’ve talked multiple scenarios with Craig (Oster).”
Dorion seems pretty confident about retaining all of his RFAs, but it would have been interesting to hear his comments on the team’s limited budget, some of the immovable veteran contracts the team has, and whether the threat of an offer sheet is worrisome. Considering how rare offer sheets are, maybe they aren’t as bothersome, but at least from his comments we can infer that the Senators are looking at various terms for the likes of Zibanejad and Stone while a guy like Hoffman is probably in line for a short-term deal to prove that last year’s production can be replicated.
On the Senators’ need for a top six and whether that would be the ideal return in exchange for one of the goaltenders…
“I think we’re really early in this process. Obviously we would like to add as many good pieces to our team to keep on what we’ve built, especially over the last three months. It’s tough to say. We don’t know yet what teams are going to offer for our goaltending, even if we feel we have two or even three great assets in nets, you can always be thinking of (supply) and demand (principles). I think we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves now, but I know that Bryan has mentioned that if we can add another piece as a forward, we felt we could be even more competitive. But I think today, signing a guy like Andrew Hammond, who only lost one game through the regular season, is a great day for the organization. Just so everyone remembers, we had five UFAs – fairly big UFAs – and we’ve signed them all, so I think Ottawa is a place where a lot of players, even if they have the choice to walk away, stay in Ottawa.”
Craig Anderson is one of the best goalies in the NHL. Robin Lehner can become one of the best goalies in the NHL. Andrew Hammond only lost one game in regulation and re-signed so it’s a great day for the organization. Randy Lee and Rick Wamsley were awesome and instrumental in bringing in one of the best young prospects in the game. Going out of your way to say that all of the UFAs want to remain in Ottawa. Maybe we should stop calling him Pierre Dorion and start referring to him as PR Dorion.
Jokes aside, it’s one thing to champion the fact that guys like Greening, Phillips, Michalek, Ryan, Anderson, Methot and now Hammond have re-signed in recent years, but I don’t really give two shits about whether players want to stay here or not (note: similarly, nobody should give two shits about where players are from either). I want the Senators to be shrewd with their assets, maximize value when they can and know when to walk away, even if it may be an unpopular decision with fans.
I understand that the Senators were concerned with the optics created by the departure of captains Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza in consecutive offseasons, but fans can tolerate the departures of players provided that the team is a better team on paper for it and the contracts from a long-term perspective won’t be detrimental in the long-term. With the exception of Methot and Anderson, I’m not sure there’s another UFA that the Senators have kept who we can say that about. Mind you, the Senators painted themselves into a corner by jettisoning a sizable trade package for Ryan and the one-year of term left on his deal, they essentially had to retain Ryan at any cost. And at seven years and a $7.25 million cap hit, that is a contract that can rear its ugly head.
On the preparations for the draft where the Senators will be picking 18th this year…
“I just stepped away from our scouting meetings here in the last hour. We’ve been preparing our list for the draft. Our new chief scout, Bob Lowes, is doing a tremendous job running the meetings and we feel really confident we’re going to get a good player at 18. I’m still a bit involved with the draft, especially with the first rounders. That’s what Bryan asked me when I took on this new role. So from us winning, I went from the range of watching guys who were going to go in the top five to guys that were going to go outside the top 15. No, I think we’re going to get a real good player for the Ottawa Senators in the upcoming year. I’m not sure he’s going to play right away next year depending on who we get, but it’s someone that I know for sure is going to be a top two line guy or a top four defenceman.”
Bold statement about what kind of value they believe they can get.
On whether Daniel Alfredsson will have a seat at the draft table for the Senators…
“I think that (question) is above my pay grade. I’m not sure exactly, but I think Bryan mentioned that there will always be a spot for Daniel to do whatever he wants. I don’t know if I was supposed to say that Daniel reached out to Matt O’Connor, but I can tell you on a personal note, it was great to have Daniel around during the playoffs. He’s a very knowledgeable hockey person. I think he really understands the game. He’s interested about the game, so whether Daniel joins us at any point in time and in any capacity, I think he’ll just be a great addition to our staff.”
An addition to the staff that will make a lot of people happy.
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