LET THE SENATORS’ REBUILD BEGIN
Ottawa isn’t making playoffs, and team has work to do to become competitive again
The most passionate sports fans are a loyal breed. In the worst of times, they can cling to the smallest shred of hope, believing that somehow, impossibly, their struggling team can be the exception to the rule and find its way back to the top.
Sorry to shatter those dreams, Ottawa Senators fans. The Stanley Cup Playoffs aren’t happening this spring.
As much as Wednesday’s win over the Toronto Maple Leafs was a bright light heading into an eight-day break, the big picture remains bleak.
The Senators’ Ontario cousins have a two-touchdown lead for the third and final Atlantic Division playoff spot. Seven teams and eight points stand between the Senators and the final wildcard position in the East.
A team can’t survive by winning just one road game in six weeks or by yielding an average of 40 shots per game, as has been the case since Jan. 1. Besides, Senators faithful have already enjoyed their once-in-a-lifetime Hamburglar magic.
Accordingly, general manager Pierre Dorion’s tough decisions about how to set the franchise on a course toward a more promising future are at hand.
For now, we’ll leave uncertainty about Eugene Melnyk’s ownership of the Senators alone — he has been silent since his outburst about poor fan support in mid-December — to focus on the existing roster.
It’s not, to bring back another not-so-fond Melnyk memory, necessary to blow up this team.
Be prepared, though, for the possibility that the team that returns to Canadian Tire Centre Jan. 18 against the St. Louis Blues will be different from the team that skated off the ice in Toronto.
Speculation about a trade involving winger Mike Hoffman won’t go away. If Dorion can secure a young defenceman who can play among the Senators’ top four — there’s a long line of NHL general managers in that same line — he must seriously consider making the move.
Finances are another major factor, and the Senators must still try to re-sign their two most important players: Erik Karlsson and Mark Stone.
Hoffman carries a US$5.65million salary for the remainder of this season and the next two.
If, somehow, the Senators can find a taker for the three years and US$18.5 million remaining on Dion Phaneuf ’s contract — perhaps as part of the type of larger trade package that brought him to Ottawa — that option must be explored. Under terms of his deal, Phaneuf must submit a list of 12 teams to which he’s willing to be traded.
With more than 20 NHL scouts in attendance Wednesday night, it was easy to wonder if there was some showcasing going on for other potential deals.
And tied into all of the above, Dorion needs to bring back some draft picks.
The Senators are without firstand second-round picks in the 2018 draft. At this rate, though, the Senators will finish among the NHL’s bottom-10 teams, meaning the first-round pick they gave Colorado in the Matt Duchene trade will be pushed back to 2019.
We haven’t had excitement about a top-10 pick in Ottawa since Mika Zibanejad in 2011. If the Senators are part of the draft lottery, fans can at least dream about Rasmus Dahlin, who may become the next generation’s Karlsson. If not Dahlin, perhaps Brady Tkachuk or Filip Zadina.
If and when the Senators start trading veterans, there will be noticeable holes in the lineup. Losses could pile up.
Looked at through the lens of next season, however, that could present a bigger opportunity for 20-year-old forwards Filip Chlapik and Colin White to get experience. On defence, Thomas Chabot hasn’t been officially told he’s staying with the Senators for the rest of the season, but he gets closer with each game he plays alongside Karlsson.
Thinking more about downthe-road prospects than the here and now requires a change in perspective. But let’s not forget, NHL history has shown, for teams to become really good for an extended stretch, they’ve often had to be very bad first.
The new wave of hope in Toronto is centred around Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, acquired with first- and fourthoverall draft picks the Maple Leafs had because they were so uncompetitive.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins won the ultimate lottery by securing Sidney Crosby in 2005, but they also needed to be horrible so they could draft Evgeni Malkin second overall a year earlier.
Then there are the Chicago Blackhawks, who should be fresh in the minds of Senators fans after Patrick Kane recorded five points in Tuesday’s 8-2 victory.
A decade ago, the Blackhawks were just beginning their retool after years and years of misery. Poor results and declining attendance during the final stages of owner “Dollar” Bill Wirtz and his nasty battles with Chicago’s fans base had those same fans wondering when the good times would roll again.
The rest is history. Since Jonathan Toews was chosen third overall in 2006 and Kane arrived as the first pick in 2007, the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup three times.
Those stories should provide some “short-term pain, longterm gain” hope for Senators diehards should this season slip further away. Remember, too, that the Senators enjoyed a decade-long run as a playoff team largely because they reaped the benefits of being so bad in their earliest days.