Chris Phillips will be making an announcement this afternoon, and to nobody's surprise it is widely acknowledged that he will be confirming his retirement 20 years after being the Senators 1st overall pick in the 1996 NHL draft.
Phillips will retire as the Senators' all-time leader in games played (1179, 1 more than Daniel Alfredsson), despite missing the entire 2015-16 season with a wonky back. I think this was inevitable dating back to last summer but the club agreed to leave him on IR for the season in order to collect on the final year of his contract. Despite early season suggestions that he wanted to get back, he never got close to a return.
As far as first overall picks go, his career wasn't the greatest by any means, but looking at the weakness of his draft year (one of the 2 or 3 worst of all time) and there probably wasn't another option. The best offensive talent in the draft was Daniel Briere, and the best defenseman in the class was Zdeno Chara, who certainly wasn't that heading into the draft and only came into his own after being acquired by the Senators, and ironically, forming a long-lasting partnership with Phillips.
For those of you who have forgotten, or may be too young to remember, Phillips was a force in the early 2000's and was part of the great Senators teams that were dominant in the regular season but couldn't get over the hump in the playoffs. Phillips was also one of the few players who really stepped his game up when the post-season began, and you could never fault his effort or desire in the playoffs when a lot of questions were flying about that exact thing at the time.
He was never flashy, wasn't overly physical which was maybe the one thing that was lacking for a guy his size, wasn't the most mobile but still could get around the ice in his prime. There wasn't really much he was great at, but he was simply a solid, steady defenseman who you knew what you were going to get from on a nightly basis.
Injuries slowed him down in his last couple of seasons and his effectiveness tailed off dramatically, but remember he was forced into the unenviable situation of playing more than 20 minutes a night with Erik Karlsson when he was probably capable of delivering a solid 12-15 minutes, something that was unfair to the player but he never complained or made excuses.
He won't be a Hall Of Fame player, but given that he is the first true Senators lifer, gave his heart and soul to the organization for almost 20 years (17 seasons), his dedication to the community and being a fixture in the city, his #4 should eventually follow Daniel Alfredsson's #11 to the rafters of Canadian Tire Centre, or whatever the "House That Eugene Built" will end up being called.
While he had many rocky moments, including some memorable "own goals" in his time with the Senators, he will go down as a true warrior for the club and I will leave you with probably the best moment in his tenure, the Game 6 OT winner that forced a Game 7 (which, of course they would go on to lose in true early 2000's Senators fashion) in the 2003 Eastern Conference Final
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»