Ladies and gentlemen of the SensChirp community- I have an announcement to make.
The NHL off-season is here.
We had the Draft and the excitement of watching other teams make moves during free agency. Add in a smattering of RFA signings, the Development Camp, the Belleville rumours and the return of Chris Kelly and we’ve been able to keep ourselves relatively occupied. Yes indeed, we have been spoiled in the first couple months without hockey. No big news but a steady stream of Sens-related content to keep things interesting.
Well folks, that stream is beginning to dry up.
We’re still more than two months out from the rookie tournament. It’s about the same amount of time till the start of training camp and three months plus a day until the start of the regular season. You might want to get on the RedBlacks bandwagon or maybe watch baseball or something because the dog days of summer are officially upon us.
In the meantime, a quick round-up of some Sens-relate news and notes from the last week.
-With Dave Cameron taking on a job as an Assistant Coach with the Calgary Flames, don’t be surprised if the Senators add someone else to their staff before the start of the season. Martin Raymond has been mentioned as a candidate for an Assistant job under Guy Boucher previously. Raymond’s name has come up in connection with a Head Coaching job in Victoriaville recently though. Something to keep an eye on anyway.
-The rumour mill was unusually active last week with a couple interesting names making an appearance. Both Mike Hoffman and Cody Ceci were mentioned as possible trade candidates with one scenario seeing Hoffman dealt to the Ducks and another sending Cody Ceci to the Oilers. Until those two RFAs are signed to new contracts, you can expect rumours like that to pop up from time to time. And while I can confirm that the Oilers have (or at least had) interest in Cody Ceci, I don’t think there’s a whole lot to the rumours on that front. As far as Hoffman’s concerned, same thing. The Ducks are in need of some goal scoring up front but Ottawa certainly isn’t shopping him.
-Those rumours aren’t going to go away anytime soon either because there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of movement in the negotiations with Mike Hoffman or Cody Ceci. Dorion and the Senators remain confident but obviously there’s still work to be done. Hoffman has now officially filed for arbitration which puts a little bit of pressure on both sides to get something done. From the Senators perspective, I just can’t see a scenario where they can allow it to go to arbitration. That one year deal would be a budget-breaker and could come in at like $5 to $5.5 million. With Ceci, they can afford to wait it out. Organization has all the leverage and will want to keep his salary the next couple years as low as possible. Bridge deal remains the most likely outcome.
-With Chris Kelly in the fold for next season, there are plenty of questions being asked as to where Curtis Lazar fits heading into training camp. He has played some of his best hockey at the centre ice position but a quick glance at the depth chart shows that his best opportunity to make the team may be at right wing. Most fans had assumed that Curtis Lazar was an automatic on next year’s team but some recent comment by Pierre Dorion seem to suggest otherwise. For the first time in his career, the AHL seems like a legitimate option for Lazar. Still think he cracks the roster but a spot certainly isn’t going to be handed to him.
-It’s been in the works for a while now but over the weekend we finally had confirmation from the parties involved- the Ottawa Senators are moving their AHL affiliate to Belleville, Ontario. The AHL Board of Governors still need to make it official but now both Belleville and Binghamton have confirmed that a move is in the works. And assuming that this is the last year the Senators’ AHL affiliate plays in Binghamton, I encourage you all to make a trip down if you can. I’ve been to a few games over the years and can’t say enough good things about the atmosphere and about the fans in Binghamton. The two games I went to during the Calder Cup run were about as much fun as I’ve ever had at a hockey game.
