No shortage of suitors
Teams looking to be buyers at the trade deadline will have the Senators on speed dial
The Ottawa Senators will have no shortage of suitors if they decide to put their players to market before next month’s NHL trade deadline.
While the Senators haven’t been shopping anybody with the deadline set for Feb. 26th at 3 p.m. EST, general manager Pierre Dorion has been plenty of phone calls from teams that are looking to make moves for a long playoff run.
The Senators are willing to be patient because they know the prices are going to rise in the days before the trading period ends.
The talk in league circles is that no less than 10 teams are looking for help up front before the deadline and in case you haven’t noticed the Senators have no shortage of depth in that area if Dorion decides he wants to make a move.
The talk among league insiders is the San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, Winnipeg Jets, Pittsburgh Penguins, New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks may all be in the market for a forward at the deadline.
You have to think everybody in that group has been in touch with the Senators at some point to see exactly what Dorion is looking for in return if he does make a move.
Yes, there have been calls for defenceman Cody Ceci, but most of the teams that have taken the time to call the Senators have genuine interest in the likes of forwards Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith, JeanGabriel Pageau, Ryan Dzingel and Derick Brassard.
The talk is the Senators have indicated captain Erik Karlsson and winger Mark Stone aren’t available. It’s believed the club is listening on Pageau. Dzingel and Brassard, but it’d be surprising if any of that trio was actually dealt.
A team to keep an eye on when push comes to shove in all of this could be the Devils.
The club is heading into Tuesday’s game against the Islanders on a six-game losing skid with an 0-3-3 record in that stretch and general manager Ray Shero may be ready to shake things up because the Devils have only a three-point lead on the New York Rangers for the third-place spot in the Metropolitan Division.
There is a belief Shero will try to add scoring before the deadline. At this point, only the Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres and Senators are open for business on the trade market. Of course, Buffalo winger Evander Kane will be on the Devils radar screen, but the Senators have lots of assets New Jersey can look at as well.
Shero, who took over the general manager’s job with the Devils in 2015, has never been afraid to make changes and there’s no question he’s pushed the right buttons in New Jersey — including the acquisition of forward Taylor Hall from the Edmonton Oilers for defenceman Adam Larsson in June, 2016.
With the Devils suddenly in a push for a playoff spot a lot quicker than many in the league expected when they took Nico Hischier with the No. 1 pick last June, New Jersey has played well this year and the club has put itself in the mix.
Hoffman might make sense for the Devils but he does have a 10-team “no trade” and nobody is sure if New Jersey is on it.
The Devils have the assets to make a deal — including a first round pick in this spring’s NHL draft — but they’ll have to put a top prospect into any deal. You’d have to think teams looking at the Devils are going to be asking for young players in return and the name of 20-year-old forward Pavel Zacha, a 2015 first-round pick, would be brought up.
Many doubt New Jersey would be willing to go that route.
Of course, the Devils won’t be alone in their pursuit and that’s what makes this all quite interesting to watch as the Senators close in on the deadline and Dorion determines what the next step is going to be for the organization.
Yes, the Senators won three of four before the break, but the club is 10 points out of the final wildcard spot while sitting idle and a check with sportsclubstats.com Monday indicated Ottawa has a 1.8 per cent chance of making the playoffs.
To get to 95 points, the Senators would have to go 25-10-5 in the final 40 games of the season. No, that doesn’t sound impossible, but the Senators have shown no signs of any consistency and they weren’t playing well defensively before the break.
Dorion returned to Ottawa Monday after spending the week in scouting meetings in Florida and it was there the club charted the map for the route it will take in the coming weeks as the tire kicking by rival general manager ends with trade talks becoming far more serious.
The best bet for Dorion is to keep his cellphone battery charged because there’ll be no shortage of interest between now and the deadline.