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To trade or not to trade.... |
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With the trade freeze just over 24 hours away ahead of the protected lists being due at 5:00 pm Saturday, the Senators and defensemen are in the crosshairs.
Dion Phaneuf is being considered for trade bait to one of the 12 teams that he has approved a trade for, as per his no-trade clause, but reports are that unless the Senators eat a portion of Phaneuf's salary, or take back a bad contract in exchange, a deal will be tough to make.
Also, Eklund posted recently that there may be some discussion involving a Cody Ceci - Gabriel Landeskog deal with the Avalanche.
The problem with making a trade right now, is that you risk losing not one but two pieces of your blue line.
Say the Senators trade Phaneuf or Ceci for a forward (lets say Jordan Eberle or Landeskog for hypothetical craps and giggles.
That allows you to protect Erik Karlsson, Marc Methot and the remainder of the Ceci/Phaneuf pair.
Then say Vegas picks Freddie Claesson and your blue line suddenly looks like:
Karlsson - Methot
Ceci/Phaneuf - Wideman
Borowiecki - Harpur
Or, you rush Thomas Chabot into a prime role that I am not sure he is really ready for, especially in a structured system like the one Guy Boucher runs, but that is another debate for another day.
On the flip side, you could make the trade and still protect 4 defensemen to keep Claesson, who improved a lot over the season to become a serviceable piece to play as a 4-5-6. That means you can only protect 4 forwards, which would be Kyle Turris, Mike Hoffman, Mark Stone and probably whatever forward you get in deal, whether Landeskog or Eberle in my hypothetical situation. That exposes Bobby Ryan, Zack Smith, Derick Brassard, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Clarke MacArthur among many others.
The bottom line is, you are going to lose a player, and the Senators must decide how much of a price they are willing to pay to entice Vegas to steer clear of certain assets. Losing Methot for nothing, as it appears likely as of right now, would hurt, but would it really hurt any less to have to give Phaneuf away while eating some salary and/or not getting much, or worse an equally bad contract back, and then still losing another piece to Vegas?
I still think the best option, to keep the core together, is to stand pat and simply negotiate with the Golden Knights to take the player that they want to give up, whether it by Ryan, Claesson, or someone else, and pay the price that way. That is probably the easiest, and maybe even the cheapest, way of getting through the expansion draft as unscathed as possible.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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