While most of the team has packed up and headed somewhere warm for the five day bye week, General Manager Pierre Dorion has instead traveled to Montreal to catch the rest of the World Junior tournament and is apparently “ready to deal”.
Specifically, Dorion is said to be looking to add depth up front.
Recognizing that this site’s initial popularity was based on rumours and speculation, I must admit even I’m a little skeptical about these recent rumblings.
There’s no doubt that Dorion would like to improve his hockey team (we’ve seen a few articles suggesting as much this season) and no GM would say he’s not willing to trade, but I’m not sure the Senators have a ton of flexibility financially right now.
There have been a couple interesting depth options on the waiver wire this season and the Senators didn’t make a claim. And while Friedman didn’t say it directly, he suggested that financial considerations may have been at least part of the reason the Senators didn’t make a claim when Teddy Purcell was available. If that’s the case, it should give you a pretty good sense of Ottawa’s current situation.
Since the holiday roster freeze lifted, there have been a few interesting names on the waiver wire. Ty Rattie (claimed by Carolina) and Reid Boucher (claimed by Vancouver) would have been decent depth guys although neither made it to Ottawa’s spot in the waiver priority. Matt Nieto is on waivers today and is probably worth a look.
It’s been the name of the game for a while now in Ottawa but if Dorion is going to make a significant addition, it’s likely going to have to be of the money in/money out variety.
When quoted on the record about his current approach, Dorion has been fairly non-committal and made it clear that he’s not desperate to make a move. Seems as though a lot of it depends on the possible return of Clarke MacArthur, although nobody seems willing to put a date on that at this point. Dorion was on TSN 1200 this afternoon and mentioned that while talks are “heating up” around the league, there’s nothing imminent for Ottawa right now. He again specifically emphasized that his focus is on adding depth up front rather than on the blueline.
Based on his comments on TSN 1200, it seems pretty clear we shouldn’t expect the Senators to be overly active leading up to the March 1st trade deadline.
Of course the looming expansion draft remains a bit of a wild card of sorts. We have yet to see any GMs make a deal motivated by the expansion draft but it’s going to happen and it has to be on Pierre Dorion’s mind leading up to the March 1st deadline.
From Ottawa’s perspective, they seem fairly content with what they have right now and seem willing to wait until a little closer to the deadline before deciding whether they are buyers or sellers.
-Still a few more days without Senators hockey but there’s no shortage of World Junior hockey to help pass the time. Thomas Chabot and Team Canada will be looking for an upset in over Jonathan Dahlen and Team Sweden tonight (7:30 PM) in the semis. Meanwhile Colin White and the American take on Team Russia (3:00 PM) in the other semi-final. A Chabot vs. White Final would be fun to watch.
