It has been a pretty quiet off season in the Nation’s Capital.
Outside of the Draft Day goalie trade, Bryan Murray, Pierre Dorion and the rest of the Senators Brass have been pretty reserved. They’ve quietly worked on getting their own guys signed to team-friendly contracts and for the most part, will go with the same roster that made that miracle run to the playoffs last season.
It’s tough to blame the Senators for their reluctance to mess with a good thing. Under Dave Cameron, the Senators were one of the best team’s in the entire National Hockey League and a lot of that had to do with their terrific chemistry both on and off the ice. And while the organization resisted big changes over the summer, there were still lots of things that they talked about and considered.
Let’s take a walk through some of the possibilities that didn’t pan out this off season. This is sort of a combination of rumours I was hearing during the summer months along with some known scenarios that just didn’t play out.
Craig Anderson traded instead of Robin Lehner
As much as this was drummed up as a possibility leading up to the Draft, I’m really not sure how seriously the Senators ever considered trading their number one goalie. It would have had to have been a heck of an offer and while they were certainly listening, no teams really seemed interested in offering more for Anderson than what Ottawa ultimately got for Robin Lehner. St. Louis had some interest. San Jose and Edmonton too. At one point, we even heard that Anderson himself expected to end up in Edmonton this off season. The fact is since last season (well before Hammond emerged and O’Connor was signed) the Senators were thinking about trading Robin Lehner. They finally pulled the trigger this summer.
Giving up on Jared Cowen
While a healthy majority of the fan base gave up on Cowen long ago, the Senators also seriously considered the possibility this summer. It has been talked about on a few occasions but teams were calling the Senators about Cowen at last year’s deadline but the Senators weren’t quite ready to give up on the former first round pick. I think they could have moved him again this summer but it really would have been an instance where a team was doing Ottawa a favour to take on a bad contract. There would have been next to no return and really, the organization would have been selling at rock bottom. Instead, they decided to give him one last chance to prove he’s the player they thought he was a couple seasons ago.
Drafting Travis Konecny
This was a possibility that many Senators fans were hoping for on Draft Day. The Ottawa 67’s star was available when the Senators stepped up to the mic at 18th overall but apparently, he was never really a serious consideration for the Senators and their scouts. Same thing at 21st overall. Ottawa was thrilled to walkaway with Thomas Chabot and Colin White and apparently never really considered Konecny as an option in the first round. They may have rolled the dice if he was still there in Round 2 but there was no way he was sliding that far.
Keeping Erik Condra
The organization likes Erik Condra. Dave Cameron loves the guy. Leading up to the opening of free agency, I think Condra legitimately thought he would end up staying here in Ottawa but it just didn’t work out. The Senators refused to negotiate a contract longer than two years and that extra year of security ended up being a deal breaker for Condra. Condra lands in a great situation with his friend Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay and the Senators open up a roster spot in their bottom six.
Shedding Greening instead of Legwand
All along, Murray and Dorion were pretty set on the idea of including one of their bad contracts in the goalie trade. There were concerns that their insistence on doing so might hamper the return but in the end, they got a pretty good deal from the Sabres on Lehner. Ottawa was able to include Legwand in that trade but it could have just as easily been Greening that was packaged with Lehner, quite possibly in a deal with the Oilers. Word was the Oilers were willing to give up the 16th overall but only if they got the 18th in return. The Sabres ended up as the highest bidder and David Legwand got the ticket out of Ottawa that he was hoping for.
Trading Mike Hoffman
Leading up to the arbitration date at the end of July, I was hearing this rumour on an almost daily basis. With the Senators up against their own internal budget, the rumours of a Mike Hoffman trade would not go away and had the arbitrator ruled at or close to the $3.4 mil Hoffman was asking for, I think the Senators would have seriously considered dealing him. Instead the arbitrator settled on a salary of $2 million and gave Murray and Dorion a little breathing room financially. Hoffman stays, for one more season anyway.
The “Big Deal” with Edmonton
If you followed the site leading up to the Draft, you’ll know that on a couple of occasions I hinted at a big deal the Senators were working on with the Oilers. And from what I gather, the two teams have been talking trade since last season. Edmonton has a stable of young talented forwards and Bryan Murray is/was desperately looking for another top six forward. A couple days before Lehner ended up in Buffalo, I received a somewhat random and unfortunately unconfirmed rumour that the Senators were talking about a huge deal with the Oilers. Was never able to confirm that rumour but what I do know is the two sides had been talking trade for a while and it primarily focused on Robin Lehner. At one point last season, the Senators apparently made an offer on Taylor Hall so it would not surprise me if they tried to revisit that possibility this off season.
Adding a top four defenceman
Anytime Bryan Murray spoke to the media he was always quick to point out his desire for a top six forward but what the Senators weren’t as open about was their quiet search for a right shot defenceman. They kicked tires on both Adam McQuaid and Kevin Bieksa. Keeping Chris Wideman around for another season slowed the search a little bit but I think defensive help remains an area of interest. Not a necessity but something they would be open to doing if the right deal came along. It’s tough now with the team already operating slightly above their internal budget.
