With the deadline about 4 days away and the Ottawa Senators amid another losing streak some big time changes are expected by Tuesday at 3 PM. Chris Neil’s injury to his knee has all the signs of a long-term injury which leaves a definite gap in the overall toughness of the forwards.
Sure Mike Fisher and Christoph Schubert can provide a strong forecheck and finish off their hits, when Neil plays the game that brought him to the NHL he is without a doubt one of the most effective agitators in the game. He’s also got a mean streak in him that I just don’t see in Fisher or Schubert.
Most likely players on the Sens’ roster to be used as trade bait:Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly, Nick Foligno, Andrei Meszaros
Long shots:
Ray Emery, Martin Gerber
Minor Leaguers and prospects possibly available:
Jeff Glass, Igor Mirnov, Rushlan Bashkirov, Alexander Nikulin, Ilya Zubov, Brian Lee, Josh Hennessy
I tend to read most, if not all, of the major NHL news and information sites. The positions and player types that are most often connected to the Ottawa Senators are:
1. A veteran winger with Stanley Cup experience
2. A veteran goalie with Stanley Cup experience that can fill in if one of the 2 current goalies cannot handle the load
3. A puck moving defenceman
4. A shutdown defenceman
I’d really expect Bryan Murray to package 2 players mentioned above for either a top-rated rental player that is willing to re-sign with the Senators in the off-season or 2 role players. Some of the combinations of players that may be available and would definitely help the Sens for an extended playoff push:
1. Trade for 2 veterans on the St. Louis who are quickly dropping out of the playoff picture. Probably wouldn’t take much too take these guys off the Blues’ roster
from St. Louis: Bryce Salvador D ($1.4 million/year UFA)
from Ottawa: Andrei Meszaros D ($.984 million/year RFA) or Tomas Kudelka D (minor league prospect)
Possible combinations:
Phillips-Volchenkov
Redden/Salvador-Commodore
Salvador/Redden-Richardson
2. Make the same 2 for 2 trade with Atlanta. This could be tricky because Atlanta wants to push for the playoffs this year and Ottawa doesn’t want to give up more players off their roster:
from Atlanta: Pascal Dupuis LW ($.880 /year UFA) and Garnet Exelby ($1.392/year UFA in 2010-11)
from Ottawa: One of,
1. Antoine Vermette ($1.0/year)
or
2. Ilja Zubov (entry level) or Alexander Nikulin (entry level) and a pick in 2009
Possible combinations:
Dupuis-Kelly-Stillman
Dupuis-Fisher-Alfredsson
Phillips-Volchenkov
Redden-Exelby/Commodore
Exelby/Commodore-Richardson
3. Trade with the provincial rivals. Nearly impossible to do because of the strong rivalry that has definitely diminished over the past few years:
from Toronto: Chad Kilger LW ($.900 / year signed until 2009-10)
from Ottawa: 3rd or 4th round in 2009 or 4th round in 2008
Possible line combinations:
Kilger-McAmmond-Donovan
Kilger-Robitaille-Schubert
I think the Sens have most of the major pieces in place to make another splash this year. As much as I’d love GM Murray to land a big fish at the deadline, a few role players here and there could potentially be a huge boost to the Sens’ chances.
