Ideally, you would avoid the mistakes in the first place but you have to give the Ottawa Senators some credit for acting when it becomes clear that maybe it’s just not working out. For the player or the team.
First, they placed Matt Murray on waivers and reassigned him to Belleville. Not giving up on him completely but recognizing that it was going to be hard for him to get his game back on track here. And now this.
Earlier today, the Senators announced that they have placed veteran defenceman Michael Del Zotto on waivers.
Del Zotto makes $1.75 mil this year and $2.25 million next season.
To Del Zotto’s credit, it’s not like he has played terribly. But it’s been pretty clear from the get-go that he isn’t necessarily a fit with Head Coach DJ Smith. When he wasn’t in the lineup on opening night, you could see there was trouble ahead.
Del Zotto was brought in on a two-year deal to give the Sens a bit of a veteran presence on the blueline but it just hasn’t really worked out to this point. He is obviously well-liked by his teammates but holding down a spot in the lineup has been an issue through the first quarter of the season.
We’ll see what comes next for the now 31-year old defenceman tomorrow afternoon.
Here’s how DJ Smith had his team lined up at practice earlier today.
