The Ottawa Senators have spoken candidly all summer about hauling in a top-four defenseman in preparation for next season. The departure of two former blue liners -- Filip Kuba and Matt Carkner -- certainly pushed the acquisition of said blue liner into a priority of sorts for Bryan Murray, and on day one of unrestricted free agency, he pulled the trigger on a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ottawa's coveting of defenseman Marc Methot has run back to almost the beginning of Bryan Murray's tenure, and on multiple occasions, he's been a trade target of interest for this organization. The steady, physical blue liner can certainly pick up some serious TOI, but the price of his acqusition -- fringe top-six forward Nick Foligno -- certainly rose a few eyebrows.

See, Nick Foligno was treated as a trade piece of sorts for a bigger acquisition; namely, the L1 forward or first-line pairing type that can come in and have an immediate impact. No knock on Marc Methot -- he's a pretty solid defender, especially in his own end -- but he's not exactly the answer to the search for Erik Karlsson's pairing complement, and he's certainly not a L1 forward.

Foligno was an expendable commodity, a combination of talent and frustration that saw him wave back and forth in and out of the top-six. On some nights, Foligno was a talented, dynamic skater. On other nights, he was invisible, or making an innumerable amount of mistakes -- enough to nauseat head coach Paul MacLean.

Still, Foligno had quite a solid year with respect to point production, and it remains to be seen if there's any growth still there. With Methot -- well, it's tough to project how he's going to pan out, but I'm a bit interested in seeing if Paul MacLean really thinks he's first-line pairing quality. My early guess is no, and if that's the case, Ottawa really doesn't have their answer internally or externally for the man that should draw in alongside Erik Karlsson.

If not Methot, Ottawa could turn to a player like Chris Phillips or Jared Cowen on Erik Karlsson's hip, but I don't think either are prepared for that; one's seen his best days already, the other may still be a year or two away from such a serious role.

I'd love to give a more thorough breakdown of this move, but intenet's a bit spotty here and the computer runs about ten steps below Windows 95. For now, my brief thoughts on the deal will have to do.

Methot's a pricy acquisition with respect to player value, but if the organization truly wanted to move on from NIck Foligno and thinks Marc Methot is capable of an expanded role, it'll be intriguing to see how it all shakes out.

Thanks for reading!

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