Yesterday was an ugly, messy day for the Ottawa Senators and hopefully one that opened the eyes of the fan base a little bit to the precarious position this team is currently in.
But as a fan base, I get the sense that everyone is eager to move on from this whole debacle and look forward to what will certainly be an exciting year for the on ice product. Before that can happen, the Sens need to lock up one more critical piece on the back end and it finally sounds like some progress is being made.
Last night, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun suggested that the Ottawa Senators have offered defenceman Jared Cowen an 8 year deal worth $28 million. That’s a cap hit of $3.5 mil for a guy that should be a staple in the team’s top two pairings for many years to come.
From the Sens perspective, you can see why this would be an attractive option. They lock up Cowen at a young age, buy a few years of his potential UFA years and at a reasonable hit. For the Sens blueliner, he may be leaving some money on the table in that scenario but he also gets the long term security that every NHL player is after.
A win-win, as they say.
And while both sides seem eager to discuss the possibility of a long term deal, I still think this has shorter term written all over it. Cowen gets a couple years (maybe 3) to prove that he’s the top four defenceman the team thinks he can be and the cash-strapped Senators get Cowen at a lower number for the next couple season. If they go short term, the number would almost certainly come in at less than $3 mil a season.
It’s the last item on Bryan Murray’s To Do list this summer and it sounds like the two sides are making progress with training camp about a month away.
- I’m ready to move on from the Daniel Alfredsson thing and I get the sense most of you are as well. The one thing left that bugs me is the fans that have turned on the former Captain and made him out to be something he isn’t. There are bigger issues at play in all this but Alfredsson’s character is not one of them. He was a ridiculously loyal player, teammate and citizen of this city. When he returns on December 1, every damn one of you better stand up and applaud what he did for this franchise over 17 seasons.
- While I’m ready to move on from AlfieGate, I’m not quite ready to let go on the story that is the financial health of this franchise. I can guarantee you this is a situation that will continue to unfold over the coming months and seems will end with one of three scenarios; 1) Melnyk finds co-investors (unlikely because he’s been looking for months), 2) Melnyk gets his casino or 3) Melnyk sells the team. I’ll continue to pass on information on this as it becomes available and I can assure you Travis Yost and other blogs will as well. The Sens Blogosphere pushed this story into the mainstream media and will continue to do so until it's no longer a story.
