As some of you may already know, last night I was lucky enough to attend a season ticket holder event put on by the Ottawa Senators.
It was a rare chance for Sens GM Bryan Murray to speak directly to season ticket holders and give the paying customers a sense for where this team is headed beyond this season.
Here is summary of some of the topics covered.
I think perhaps the most significant thing to take away from the session is that Bryan Murray is quite clearly staying on beyond this season. He seemed fairly confident that he will be back, for at least one more season anyway.
Murray spoke briefly about signing a number one goalie. He even went as far as to mention that he “just got off the phone” with the agent for a particular #1 goalie and that he hoped they would have something to announce in the near future.That certainly meshes with the Craig Anderson speculation I have mentioned here before.
On defensive prospects, it’s pretty obvious that both David Rundblad and Jared Cowen will be in the line up next year. I know some people have doubts about Cowen but listening to Murray speak, it sounds like they have him penciled in for next season.
Murray also suggested that Gryba will get a game down the stretch, perhaps as early as next week.He spoke very highly of Swedish prospect Jakob Silfverberg and reiterated what we have already heard in that the club hopes to get him in the line up at some point next year.
On the upcoming draft, they previewed four players specifically; Adam Larsson, Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sean Couturier although Murray was quick to point out that these weren’t necessarily the only guys they were watching.
There was a question about free agents and Murray emphasized that they’d like to sign one goal scoring forward. He actually made an off hand reference to Zach Parise that raised a few eyebrows in the room but he was extremely careful with his wording.
Also on the subject of free agents, the Sens GM mentioned that they had their eyes on one NCAA free agent in particular and that it was a player they hoped to have in the line up as a regular next season.
This really was a fascinating event and kudos to the Sens organization for reaching out to their fan base in a unique way.
After last night’s win, the Senators have passed the Avalanche and now sit 28th in the NHL, four points back of the 27th place Islanders.
Ottawa has played one more game than Colorado.
