Northern Exposure: The Ottawa Senators Off-Season

Welcome back to Northern Exposure, your weekly NHL Canadian tour.  Join me as I make a stop in each of the six (soon to be seven?) Canadian NHL cities, discussing stories of interest in each.

As I continue my look across Canada at the off-season requirements, I go from Montreal last week, west to Ottawa this week.

The Ottawa Senators had a disastrous 2010-11 season.  They missed the playoffs for the second time in three years, and finished 26th overall.  They are scheduled to draft higher with their own pick than they have since they drafted Chris Phillips 1st overall in 1996 (they drafted Jason Spezza 2nd overall in 2001, but that was the Islanders pick.)  The Senators and GM Bryan Murray cleaned house in February, ridding the team of some talented but perhaps overpaid players such as Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly and Alex Kovalev, among others.  This signified the team was about to embark on a complete rebuild from the ground up for the first time in recent memory.  The players that came in to replace the departed were primarily home-grown talent cultivated from college free agent acquisitions and draft picks.

The biggest addition was perhaps the acquisition of goaltender Craig Anderson, who backstopped the club to a reasonable finish and was rewarded with a 4 year deal to be the Senators goalie of the present.

KEY FREE AGENTS TO BE:  UFA – Marek Svatos, Ryan Shannon, Francis Lessard, David Hale, Pascal Leclaire, Curtis McElhinney  RFA -Bobby Butler, Roman Wick, Erik Condra, Ryan Potulny

WHERE THEY ARE SET:  There are questions about whether Craig Anderson can carry the weight of the entire season, but Bryan Murray seemed to see enough in his audition to give him the chance.  Jason Spezza returned following a shoulder injury and showed leadership on and off the ice and was one of the best players in the league over the last month.  This needs to continue in 2011-12 for the Senators to have any shot at returning to the post-season.

NEEDS:  The Senators have many questions entering the off-season.  How will the rookies that came in and performed so admirably late last season react to a full NHL season?  They will get the chance, as recent signings of Colin Greening and Zack Smith to one way contracts attest to Murray’s dedication to building from within.  Can Daniel Alfredsson return to form, or have age and injuries finally caught up with him?  Who will do the scoring, if he doesn’t?  Bobby Butler showed signs of being a goal scorer but he will have to show it over the course of an entire season to give a legitimacy to calling him a top end sniper.  What will the make-up of the blue line be?  Last, but certainly not least, is who will coach this team?  There are a number of candidates, but there are drawbacks to each one.  Murray needs to find the right one this time, so you can rest assured he will take his time and exhaust all possibilities before naming his man.

TOP 5 OFF-SEASON PRIORITIES:

1) Coach – Bryan Murray has fired 3 coaches (4 including himself) since he became the team’s General Manager.  He needs to find the right combination of personality, teaching and bench management that the team hasn’t had since…well, Bryan Murray in 2007.  Whether it is a minor league coach, assistant NHL coach or former NHL head coach, this team is a ship without a captain and until that changes, any other changes will be moot.

2)  Scoring Help – After Jason Spezza, the pure offensive talent is not very apparent.  Even if Alfredsson comes back at full strength, his 80 to 100 point seasons are behind him.  The free agent pool is pretty shallow this summer, but Murray has a stated the goal of getting one impact top 6 forward.  Brad Richards looks to be the gem of the market, and a 1-2 punch of Spezza and Richards down the middle is tantalizing, but perhaps not realistic.  Someone in the vein of Simon Gagne, or perhaps a trade from a cap-ravaged team (ie Jeff Carter) might be more realistic.

3)  Solving the Defense – There is not a lack of talent on the blue line, but the amount of dollars committed might be too much.  With an expected influx of 2 rookie defensemen (Runblad & Cowen), players such as Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba must play up to expectations after failing miserably to live up to them last season.  Kuba is a candidate for a buyout with a $3.7 cap hit and one year left on his contract.

4)  Finding the right combination – The Senators will have a plethora of options on the forward ranks.  As many as 16 forwards could be competing for the 12 or 13 jobs.  Outside of Spezza, Alfredsson, Michalek, Foligno, Neil & perhaps Zack Smith, nobody’s job is assured.  There are a number of one-way contracts, but they are not so prohibitive to be sent to the minors if they aren’t getting the job done in camp.

5)  Drafting the Right Players – With 5 picks in the top 66, there will be an excellent opportunity to move up from current spots.  Sitting with the 6th pick right now, they should get a player who can step in next season.

CONCLUSION:  The disappointment felt in Ottawa by the Senators and their fans was echoed by ownership.  Eugene Melnyk is committed to rebuilding the club and returning it to prominence.  It might take a couple of years, and perhaps the end of the season flourish has colored the overall tint of what the Senators system possesses a shade of rose.  However, an AHL finals appearance (and potential championship) lends credence to the fact that they are on the right track.

Now a quick tour to the other cities:

The Vancouver Canucks have not been without their stumbles, but at the time of this writing, are within one game of a return to the Stanly Cup final for the first time since 1994.  Their current 3-1 series lead over the Sharks has been highlighted by efforts both expected and unexpected.  Sami Salo‘s 3 point effort in the second period of game 4 demonstrates exactly what a team needs to win championships – clutch performances at clutch times by unsung heroes.  Yes, the Sedin Twins and Ryan Kesler need to be good, but other players need to chip in now and again to be successful at this time of the year.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans have to be bittersweet watching the Boston Bruins‘ playoff run.  On the plus side, the disappointing play of Tomas Kaberle shows that Brian Burke got a gold mine for him.  If Joe Colborne turns into any type of player, then the trade was a win even before the 1st rd draft pick they acquired from Boston is used.  The down side is the remnants of the Phil Kessel deal, and seeing Tyler Seguin‘s breakout game 2 (2 goals and 2 assists) against Tampa and knowing the Bruins will be picking in the top 10 again thanks to the Leafs might make some regret the Kessel deal, despite Burke saying he would do it again given the chance.

The Calgary Flames began their off-season by removing the “interim” tag from GM Jay Feaster‘s title and giving him the job full-time.  His first act as GM was the signing of Curtis Glencross to a 4 year contract extension, that included a no-trade clause.  Also in Flames news was the retirement of short-time Flame Fredrik Modin, who was acquired in a trade-deadline deal but was not a factor after joining the Flames, playing in only 4 games.

The biggest item on the agenda for the Edmonton Oilers in the off-season is the attempt to get a new downtown arena for the Oilers to play in.  Owner Daryl Katz and Edmonton City Council came to an agreement on the funding and the location, but the Goverment of Alberta threw a potential wrench into the deal when they balked at adding their anticipated $100 million share to the plan.  The new arena is considered a necessity by Katz if the team is to remain in Edmonton in the future.

The Montreal Canadiens started the task of finding some low-budget players to add to the organization as they signed a couple of young defensemen this week in Russian Alexei Emelin and Swiss free agent Rafael Diaz.  The signing of Emelin gave some the indication that the club will make their best effort to re-sign Andrei Markov and use him as a mentor to Emelin, as both are represented by the same agent.  As noted in this space last week, the Canadiens are in cap trouble and will have to let some expensive FA defensemen walk on July 1.

That is all for this slow week’s edition of Northern Exposure.  Next week I will continue to look at the plans of the Canadian clubs as they start to tinker with, or in some cases overhaul, their rosters for the new season.

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Jared Crozier is also a contributing writer for SenShot on the Fansided Network.  He can be reached on twitter @alfieisgod or by email at senshot.jared@gmail.com.