The NHL season is only two games old, and the Ottawa Senators already feel the need for a shake up.
Tonight, the organization announced that they have acquired centre Vladimir Namestnikov from the New York Rangers. Nick Ebert and a 4th round pick in 2021 are headed the other way.
Namestnikov is a 26 year old former first round draft pick that scored 20 goals in 62 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning just two years ago.
He is in the final year of a deal that will pay him $4,000,000 this season with a cap hit of $3.25 mil. The Rangers are retaining $750k of his salary.
The isn’t a team traditionally in the business of adding salary so perhaps this gives them some flexibility to move a centre out at some point later this season.
Apparently, this is a move the Senators have been looking at for awhile now and based on comments by Namestnikov’s agent, the trade doesn’t come as a huge surprise.
Will be interesting to see where he fits in the Ottawa line up and how Pierre Dorion explains the thought process behind the move.
