Ottawa Senators (present and past) TIDBITS & QUICK HITS!

Well, that's terrible news for Nicholle and the whole family. Hopefully they get a promising outlook and things go as well as they can. I can't imagine having to go about everyday life with this hanging over you like a dark cloud.

Hopefully they caught it early enough and the prognosis is positive. Guess we know whose name will be on those "I fight for ..." signs the players will be holding up.

Have you guys had a look at the expansion draft template on cap friendly?
I tried to simulate a draft and pick an expansion team. There are so many good top 4 D that are good that I'm starting to think that we won't be loosing methot at all. If anything we should be looking at our forwards and not the ones we think.
I think we could leave MacArthur exposed without even having to worry about him being picked up.

If anything a guy like dzingel and lazar with their lower cap hit might wind up being the targets of Vegas. Bang for the buck if you will (well with lazar it's more about what he could be)
. I'm starting to think we might want to protect dzingel. Does that mean we lose lazar? If we protect lazar it's a pretty sure thing we'll lose dzingel. I doubt that even if we resign smith they will go after him. They are going to be shopping for the best bang for their buck as they have 30 players to pick. And I think they can probably get plenty of top 4 D men elsewhere and all our top 6 with Pageau will be protected (not Mac but he's à stretch to get picked) so that really leaves those two as stand outs.

I've been saying for a while: we were top-9 in the league in scoring and 30th in giving up shots on goal, so why would anyone be picking our defensemen ahead of our forwards? If Anderson is left unprotected (unlikely, given how the backups have performed) he might be taken, but the most likely is a forward.

It's not likely a forward is taken. If it's methot vs a forward, there isn't a forward who is close to him in value. Unless they already have 6 d better than methot.

Also, they need to reach the cap floor. They will need to pick some expensive contracts.

wprager wrote:I've been saying for a while: we were top-9 in the league in scoring and 30th in giving up shots on goal, so why would anyone be picking our defensemen ahead of our forwards?  If Anderson is left unprotected (unlikely, given how the backups have performed) he might be taken, but the most likely is a forward.

That is poor logic. None of the players who contributed to that scoring will be available to be picked.

MarkStone wrote:

wprager wrote:I've been saying for a while: we were top-9 in the league in scoring and 30th in giving up shots on goal, so why would anyone be picking our defensemen ahead of our forwards?  If Anderson is left unprotected (unlikely, given how the backups have performed) he might be taken, but the most likely is a forward.

That is poor logic. None of the players who contributed to that scoring will be available to be picked.

And none of the defensemen *not* responsible for the play inside our blue line would be, either. It's not poor logic. Is it watertight? Of course not. But I would be surprised if a D-man gets picked. Anderson would be the one I'd go after. A goalie who can still be the #1 for the remaining years of his contract, who will be an excellent mentor for a younger goalie, and whose contract is still fairly cap-friendly.

Of course if they are still struggling to reach the floor (unlikely, IMO) then they would be more likely to go after Fleury or Bishop. There are plenty of decent, if overpaid, players in this league that will be left unprotected. Don't think Vegas will have a hard time reaching the floor.

MarkStone wrote:It's not likely a forward is taken. If it's methot vs a forward, there isn't a forward who is close to him in value. Unless they already have 6 d better than methot.

Also, they need to reach the cap floor. They will need to pick some expensive contracts.

Have you tried to do a mock draft for the expansion? I suggest using the caphit site. You will likely see that there are much better admen that will have to go unprotected. Not only that, they won't have 6 D men that are caliber top 6. Your logic about reaching the cap floor might be off a bit. There are plenty of contracts that will help them in that depeartment. I don't think it's about reaching the floor. Theres gonna be at least 7 bodies that will have to be picked that will start at the AHL for them and they'll have to pick them somewhere.
I seriously doubt now that methot gets picked.
We should be more worried about dzingel or Lazar.

There wouldn't be 8 better d than methot. I don't see much chance of him going unclaimed.

If they really want dzingel or lazar. Sure go ahead. Not a big loss unless dzingel has a huge year. We need room for white and brown anyway

wprager wrote:

MarkStone wrote:

wprager wrote:I've been saying for a while: we were top-9 in the league in scoring and 30th in giving up shots on goal, so why would anyone be picking our defensemen ahead of our forwards?  If Anderson is left unprotected (unlikely, given how the backups have performed) he might be taken, but the most likely is a forward.

That is poor logic. None of the players who contributed to that scoring will be available to be picked.

And none of the defensemen *not* responsible for the play inside our blue line would be, either.  It's not poor logic.  Is it watertight?  Of course not.  But I would be surprised if a D-man gets picked.  Anderson would be the one I'd go after.  A goalie who can still be the #1 for the remaining years of his contract, who will be an excellent mentor for a younger goalie, and whose contract is still fairly cap-friendly.

Of course if they are still struggling to reach the floor (unlikely, IMO) then they would be more likely to go after Fleury or Bishop.  There are plenty of decent, if overpaid, players in this league that will be left unprotected.  Don't think Vegas will have a hard time reaching the floor.

If I was them I wouldn't go after bishop. Tampa is pretty much Cussed. They will lose a forward. And a fairly good one at that.
They could technically sign bishop once July 1st comes around if he isn't resigned by then. They could easily also go after Howard in Detroit as I think that's what Detroit is hoping for. (Although It sure looks to me like Detroit will be losing Erickson on the back end)

Once we pass the trade deadline I'll make a contest topic to see if anyone can predict who gets drafted.

MarkStone wrote:There wouldn't be 8 better d than methot. I don't see much chance of him going unclaimed.

If they really want dzingel or lazar. Sure go ahead. Not a big loss unless dzingel has a huge year. We need room for white and brown anyway

You want a 5 mill d man as a 7 or 8th Dman? Unlikely. I think you are overestimating how much cap room they will have

Methot is far better than Ericsson so that's one tick in then methot column . Ericsson is a bottom pair d

Bishop won't be aviable because he's being traded

Flo The Action wrote:

MarkStone wrote:There wouldn't be 8 better d than methot. I don't see much chance of him going unclaimed.

If they really want dzingel or lazar. Sure go ahead. Not a big loss unless dzingel has a huge year. We need room for white and brown anyway

You want a 5 mill d man as a 7 or 8th Dman?  Unlikely. I think you are overestimating how much cap room they will have

youre underestimating. There's best players will have 5 or 4 million dollar contracts. They will be a terrible team and won't be close to the cap

Doing this cap friendly calculator was a real eye opener about how many quality D-men are available. It will be interesting to see the creative moves we see happening between now and then for GM's to protect and maximize all of the value of their players.

MarkStone wrote:Methot is far better than Ericsson so that's one tick in then methot column . Ericsson is a bottom pair d

Bishop won't be aviable because he's being traded

I still think they won't be loading up on 5 mill players with history of injury to fill the 6 to 8 spot.
I'll bet methot is a Sens come next September

Anderson will be a $4.2M cap hit and $3.7M salary next season. I could see Las Vegas going for that.

As for Methot, the Sens would love for someone to take him. Pageau and Dzingel need new deals next season (same for Kelly/Neil, Smith, Puempel, Pyatt but I'm not convinced any of them are coming back) so there's another $2.5M more; then the following year you have Turris/Stone that will likely get a combined $5-6M raise, plus Ceci ($1M) a #1 goalie (if it's not an internal promotion will likely be more than Anderson's current salary), Wideman and a backup. And by that point Chabot is looking for a spot, as are Englund and Claesson and others. This team will look very different in two years' time and I don't know if there will be room for Methot.

I also don't think they would mind it if Lazar got plucked because, let's face it, he has not panned out the way they had hoped and White is the straight-up replacement for what Lazar was supposed to be.

I don't see a replacement for methot internally for next year and that should worry the Sens bUT again I doubt he's gonna be their target.
I doubt they'd be happy if lazar was the target. He still has value and I'm sure they'd rather male full on that value and not simply lose it to expansion. Still too early to tell what dzingel will be but he might turn into something more productive than lazar. It will be interesting to see.