As incredible as it may seem, we may actually be nearing the end of Jared Cowen’s time in Ottawa.
In his Sunday column, Bruce Garrioch once again made mention of the fact that the Senators have a couple teams showing interest in Jared Cowen. From Garrioch…
“Senators GM Bryan Murray will sit down with his scouting staff this week. A couple of teams have shown interest in defenceman Jared Cowen so it will be interesting to see if the club finally decides to take action and move him.”
To be quite honest, I find this incredible.
I found it surprising when we heard the same thing in the summer and I find it even more remarkable now. I get the idea of reclamation project and realize that size is still an important element that General Managers look for in a hockey player but it’s safe to assume whichever GMs are showing interest at this stage haven’t watched him that closely over the last few seasons.
There’s a chance this is a situation where the Senators are trying to drum up interest a little bit but if it isn’t. I’m certainly not going to try and talk other teams out of it.
Moving Cowen, who makes $3.7 mil this season and $4.5 next, would be great news for a Senators team that is right up against their own internal budget.
Getting that money off the books now would give Management a chance to sort of “rebuild” this defence in the off season. Wiercioch, Ceci, Wideman and Claesson are all RFAs. Chris Phillips is a UFA and unlikely to play again. Along with Erik Karlsson and Marc Methot, only Mark Borowiecki would have a contract beyond this season.
The Senators have been criticized by some fans for the way they handled this whole situation. Bryan Murray was publicly supportive of Cowen in the off season and seemed to believe in a player that most others thought was a lost cause. But it wasn’t crazy for him to do so. The organization has put a lot of time and effort into developing Cowen and considering his injury-filled past, they wanted to give him one last chance to turn it around. It just hasn’t worked out.
Trying to predict the possible return here is difficult.
It’s hard to believe that another GM would offer something of value in this situation. We have talked about it previously but perhaps there’s a situation where another team is looking to unload a bad contract of their own. Given Ottawa’s current budgetary limitations, it would have to be the perfect fit.
Or maybe there’s a team (Colorado? Edmonton?) willing to roll the dice on Cowen in exchange for a late pick? Again, hard to believe but crazier things have happened.
One thing is clear though- it seems as though Jared Cowen’s days with the Senators are numbered.
-Late yesterday, the Ottawa Senators announced that they have recalled Chris Driedger from Binghamton of the American Hockey League ahead of this upcoming four game road trip which starts on Wednesday night in Anaheim. Andrew Hammond left the team to attend to a personal matter. No details on how long he will be away from the team but obviously for at least the one game on Wednesday. After that, the Sens are off until Saturday when they visit the Los Angeles Kings.
-If you missed it earlier, the Hockey News has a great article making the case for Erik Karlsson as a Hart Trophy contender. He’s currently considered a front-runner for a third Norris Trophy but the season he’s having is worthy of the MVP talk. The Senators probably need to make the playoffs for Karlsson to come away with either of those awards though.
