The dust is finally starting to settle on the NHL’s free agent frenzy.
Most of the big names have already found new homes and rosters for next season are beginning to take shape. And while there are a few intriguing names still on the list of available free agents, including the 45 year old legend Jaromir Jagr, the roster moves have slowed significantly in the last day or so.
Obviously, it has been a fairly quiet off-season for the Senators.
They lost a top four defenceman in expansion, signed their back up goalie, added a fourth line centre, locked up a handful of Belleville Senators and that has been it from Pierre Dorion and his staff. And while Dorion has indicated publicly that he’s happy with this roster going into next season, he has also stated that if there is an opportunity to improve the roster, he will consider it.
Which is good, because that’s sort of his job.
One interesting name that may still be linked to the Senators is Viktor Stalberg.
Acquired at the trade deadline last year, Stalberg gave the Senators some much needed speed in the bottom part of their line up and was a great fit within Guy Boucher’s system. While his offensive production is limited, he’s a responsible two-way player that can take a regular shift on the penalty kill and is capable of playing up in the line up in a pinch.
Early on July 1st, there were rumours that Stalberg may be returning to Ottawa but after the signing of Nate Thompson, it seemed like things were already pretty crowded up front.
The Senators have 10 guys already signed to one way deals (Ryan, Hoffman, Brassard, MacArthur, Turris, Stone, Smith, Burrows, Thompson and Pyatt), two RFAs that will certainly be back (Pageau and Dzingel) and then a handful of prospects expected to push for spots including Colin White, Nick Paul and Max McCormick.
If they want to have room for one of the young guys to earn a spot out of camp, bringing Stalberg back might complicate things. But if they’d rather have those guys playing big minutes in Belleville to start, then they could still use another veteran forward.
It doesn’t sound like the Senators have completely closed the door on bringing Stalberg back next year.
While Stalberg may have interest from other NHL teams and perhaps an offer to play overseas, the word is he’s still on Ottawa’s radar. Stalberg earned $1.5 million on his last deal and you would think he’s looking for something similar to that on his next deal.
He’s almost certainly going to have other options but bringing back Viktor Stalberg would give the Senators some added depth up front heading into the 2017/2018 season.
