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The Ottawa Senators front office pulled few punches with respect to discussion about Filip Kuba's future as an unrestricted free agent. Although they lauded his play this season in a bounce-back year, the club balked at the thought of bringing him back on a similar price-tag -- one the front office believes he'll get in the open market.
Via
Ottawa Citizen's James Gordon, a collection of the eyebrow-raising quote:
“He’s going to get his money. I think he’s going to get similar money to what he was earning with us. And I’m not going to go there, I don’t think.
Truthfully, it shouldn't be that surprising. One season ago, Filip Kuba's career looked to be in borderline-jeopardy. The rearguard was woefully slow in his own end post-injury, and with an already-struggling Ottawa Senators team, his struggles were drawn front-and-center.
However, along with a number of veteran players on the roster, 2011-2012 turned into quite the bounce-back year; enough to at least warrant slight consideration of his return to the team on a reduced deal. While Filip Kuba logged extensive minutes with Erik Karlsson, he did have a very productive season in seventy-three games: Six goals, twenty-six assists, and the stabilizing defensive presence for the flashy Erik Karlsson to go to work on each shift.
The ultimate paradox for this team heading into the summer concerns the legitimacy of output by Filip Kuba. It's clear that the team is heading away from the thirty-five year old Czech-native, so we know where the suits in Ottawa stand. With such a strong take and not even the mention of Kuba's potential return on a reduced-deal, one must assume that the team believed his numbers -- whether you're looking at raw output or his advanced metrics -- were insulated // influated by the twenty-one year old Swede.
It's an understandable angle, especially considering just how dominant Erik Karlsson was. Kuba did play some of the more defensive-focused (and subsequently, safer) minutes of the pairing, allowing Karlsson to operate as a pseudo one-man army. The hope is that Ottawa can replace Kuba with a better and non-depreciating commodity through free agency, all at a comparable dollar to the monies paid for Kuba's services in 2011-2012.
As Graeme Nichols of
The 6th Sens pointed out, selling future quality UFA D on the prospects of playing alongside Erik Karlsson on the top-pairing may give them a leg-up in free agency. After all, look what it did to the likes of Filip Kuba in the final year of his deal(
h/t Rob Vollman):
Perhaps this speaks more to the paradox I mentioned previously: It's fair to assume that Erik Karlsson assisted -- and, subsequently, inflated -- Filip Kuba's value as his usual pairing this season, but just how much of an effect did it have? And, further to the point: As a player, what kind of positive effect -- if any -- did Kuba have on Karlsson? Kuba logged the toughest minutes of anyone on the Ottawa Senators roster and still managed to score thirty-two points in his #2 role. Not exactly on the low-end of the production curve.
Now, the focus of the front office must shift to finding a quality replacement following the (expected) loss of Filip Kuba. Ottawa's rationale is that most available top-four defensemen, especially of the two-way variety(attn: Jason Garrison), will be able to slot in and have comparable or stronger seasons than the recently departed Czech.
Yet, therein lies the difficulty: Outside of Ryan Suter and Jason Garrison, PMD/TWD aren't exactly readily available. The team could pursue a number of trade targets in the off-season, but again, the odds of locking up a big-name aren't fantastic.
Due to a relatively undesirable supply/demand curve, I've recently suspected that, combined with comments made by GM Bryan Murray, the team's going to look for a defender of the more shutdown variety.
Enter Bryan Allen of the Carolina Hurricanes.
While hardly the puck-moving dynamo that Paul MacLean would prefer in his possession-based team, Allen does offer a big, hulking, physical presence on the blue line, one that could help reduce a dreaded twenty-fourth ranked GAA (2.9) Ottawa maintained last season.
Thankfully, Allen's physical // defensive-based play is quantifiable, so the rhetoric and hyperbole can be shelved. Allen was seventh on the Carolina Hurricanes in hits with 111, but it was his blocked shots total -- 188 in eighty-two games -- that's probably his biggest sell. Not only did he finish with the team lead, but ranked fourth-overall in the NHL -- trailing just Josh Gorges, Brett Clark, and Francois Beauchemin.
On Carolina, Allen was primarily used at even-strength and the penalty kill, logging 16:30 TOI evened-up, and 2:30 of kill time per game.
Regarding his advanced metrics, Allen did tow one of the team's best Corsi Relative QualComp's at +1.014, suggesting he did play relatively well against elite competition. For those curious, here's a few benchmarks from around the league:
Ryan Suter(+1.2)
Jason Garrison(+1.0)
Erik Karlsson(+0.65)
Matt Carle(+0.58)
Barret Jackman(+0.46)
Dennis Wideman(+0.1)
Shane O'Brien(-0.1)
Jaroslav Spacek(-0.9)
With Bryan Murray sold on improving this team in the
defensive aspect, I'd estimate that Bryan Allen's one of the three or four real targets for this club in the summer.
Hey --
he's not my target. The thought of Jason Garrison and Erik Karlsson working the blue line together still seems far more desirable, and certainly jives with what Paul MacLean's trying to accomplish in Ottawa come Y2.
But that's just one man's opinion.
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