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Senators Need Blueline Insurance, Not Necessarily Upgrade, Next Season |
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For a couple of posts earlier this week I took a look at the forwards, and where improvement might come from. The internal cupboard is pretty bare in terms of top end potential top 6 forwards, unless Colin White comes out of college and makes an immediate impact (which I am not sure the Senators should rush). There will be options available from outside through trade and/or free agency, but is the price to be paid in terms of money and/or other assets worth it?
Today I will look at the much (over?) maligned defensive unit. This is a group that finished with a much different look than how the season started.
It went from:
Karlsson-Methot
Ceci-Cowen
Borowiecki-Wiercioch
Wideman-*Phillips
at the start of the season to:
Karlsson-Methot
Ceci-Phaneuf
Wideman-Borowiecki
Claesson-Harpur-Wiercioch-Kostka
when the season wrapped up.
They didn't get that final alignment on the ice very much due to injuries to Ceci, Methot and Borowiecki over the last month or so, but that gave Claesson and Harpur a chance to get in the lineup.
So Cowen is gone, Phillips looks like he is going to be put to pasture and Wiercioch doesn't look like he is going to be too far behind, at least with this organization.
The Ottawa defense as a whole has taken a lot of criticism for the number of shots it allows, and rightly so. Like I said on Wednesday, it was kind of a downward spiral in terms of the relationship with the goalies and the blueliners, as neither group was able to pick the other up often enough. Good goaltending can make a bad defense look passable, and that didn't happen. And the defense continued to allow shots at an alarming rate even after the big trade that brought in Phaneuf, and the goalies continued to allow goals at an equally alarming rate.
Thomas Chabot is having a pretty good playoff run (CHL player of the week with 10 assists in 4 games last week with Saint John), but like White, it is probably better that the Senators don't rush him. So assuming he gets a year of seasoning in the minors and doesn't fast-track like Cody Ceci, there are questions to be asked.
Will the top 4 be good enough next season, assuming all are healthy? Does the bottom 2 or 3 really need that much of an upgrade or will the group including Borowiecki, Claesson and Wideman be enough to play a solid 12-15 minutes every night?
Like the forwards, the defense really can't withstand an injury to the top 4. Claesson was put up alongside Erik Karlsson a fair amount and I am not sure he fits in the top 4 for an extended period of time. And he is probably the best option right now.
It is popular opinion that Ottawa needs to be better in the 5 and 6 slots. In reality, the Senators could use a bit of an upgrade but since they are already overpaying Phaneuf, can they afford to put more resources toward a 5/6 defenseman, and will that player be enough of an upgrade AND be able to fill in should the need arise in the top 4?
I think they need a shorter term solution on the blue line than the might up front. With Chabot, Andreas Englund and Harpur coming soon, things aren't as dire looking forward. A patch might just work in this case, with a mid-level veteran who can steady the ship and kill some penalties.
Grant Clitsome, Kyle Quincey, Jay Harrison, Jamie McBain are some players that are coming off of contracts of varying value that could be a decent fit. Others, like Luke Schenn, Jason Demers and Kris Russel are going to be more expensive, and are going to be looking to be a little higher on the depth chart.
Then finally, you have the Keith Yandles and Alex Goligoskis, players who are in their prime around 30 years old and who could easily be in the Senators' top 4, pushing someone else down the depth chart but will command high salaries and longer term. While that would be nice, probably not in the cards due to the cost and the obligations in the current pecking order.
Honestly, I have no problem with the third pairing of Boro and Wideman. For less than $2M combined you know what you are going to get. And your third pair isn't going to be the determining factor of whether you win or lose games on most nights. A coach who knows what he is doing can deploy them properly and put them in situations where they will be successful, as well as developing the proper system and making them play it.
The problem is that the club needs to have insurance against the recently oft-injured Methot (or someone else) going down again, and Claesson isn't the guy to fill that spot. Very similar to Clarke MacArthur insurance.
It is a tightrope the Senators are walking and they need to get deeper, if not more talented in almost all situations. This equals spending more money and there, as they say, is the rub.
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Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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