(UPDATE- 12:18 PM)- Well that takes some of the fun out of it.
Okay maybe we were a little premature on the buckling. Can never be too cautious, I suppose.
While there was some wheeling and dealing ahead of the protection list deadlines, the Senators remained quiet.
And that’s probably a good thing.
Pierre Dorion and his staff have put Ottawa in an ideal spot heading into this evening’s Expansion Draft. They’ll lose someone but certainly not an impact player. Goaltending depth might take a bit of a hit if Joey Daccord goes or a forward spot may open up if it’s one of Chris Tierney or Evgeni Dadonov but in all three scenarios, the loss is fairly manageable.
And unlike the Vegas expansion process, the “side deal” action seems to be pretty quiet. Teams have clearly learned their lesson from the way George McPhee and the Golden Knights worked the process last time around and are going in with a more guarded approach. Deals may trickle in obviously but so far there doesn’t seem to be much going on.
And so we wait. Unless there is another leak or two, we’ll find out who the Seattle Kraken select tonight at 8:00 PM.
God I hope they take Carey Price.
-While Expansion continues to dominate the attention of the hockey world this week, the Entry Draft is now just days away. With Round 1 scheduled for Friday night, business should pick up again around the league. In Ottawa, there’s plenty of talk about the possibility of selecting a goalie at 10th overall. Certainly not my preferred approach but you can see the logic. There are a couple of first round calibre prospects on the board (Jesper Wallstedt, Sebastian Cossa) in the range where Ottawa makes their pick and there’s a chance the Sens lose a goalie in the Expansion Draft. We’ll see what happens- still hearing that pick might be in play.
-Ottawa’s search for help at centre should ramp up again once the roster freeze is lifted too. Nazem Kadri was the name that seemed to be coming up the most in the last couple months but now it sounds like the Avs might be considering hanging on to him. Adam Henrique, Ryan Strome and Sean Monahan have also been mentioned as possible trade targets.
-And then there’s Logan. While Logan Brown was included on Ottawa’s protection list heading into tonight’s Expansion Draft, it does sound like Pierre Dorion has held talks with a few teams on a deal involving Logan Brown. This has been mentioned before but had he been healthy leading up to last year’s deadline, there’s a good chance this trade already would have happened. The Senators certainly aren’t looking to give him away but should there be an opportunity to get something back for Brown, perhaps a player in a similar situation, then Ottawa would certainly consider it. We’ll see if anything comes together once the roster freeze is lifted.
