What looked like it was going to be a long week off before the Global Series was made a bit shorter with the blockbuster trade that brought Matt Duchene to Ottawa, as the thoughts and breakdowns continue to roll in and more light gets shed on the larger aspects of the trade.
First off, the departure of Kyle Turris and his immediate signing of a 6 year, $36M deal with Nashville. The number is about right, but the first thought was why didn't Ottawa sign that? Basically, the answer to that is that neither side brought up 6 years. Turris wanted 7 or 8, while the Senators countered with 5. I can't remember who tweeted it, but it was true that when the two sides are that close and can't settle on (or even consider going to) 6 then did either side really want the deal done?
Secondly, I am surprised how lukewarm the reception of the trade has been even among Senators fans, because for the last year all you would hear about was Matt Duchene, Matt Duchene, pull the trigger on Matt Duchene. Now that deal is done, and you can debate about what they gave up but none of the blue chips in the system were touched and I would have expected ticker tape and dancing in the streets.
Finally, it is good to see how excited Duchene appears to be to be out of the mess he was in and coming to his home province. He looked like a kid in a candy store at practice and had a smile on his face for the most part.
Ottawa is now in Sweden and practiced this morning. Nick Paul and Marcus Hogberg were called up and got a free trip to Sweden, while Bobby Ryan and Mark Borowiecki didn't travel with the team and instead head to Belleville to skate with the B-Sens while the big guys are overseas.
It looks like at least to start that Duchene will line up with Mike Hoffman and Zach Smith, while Ryan Dzingel will skate with Derick Brassard and Mark Stone. It will be interesting to see where Ryan fits in, and whether he displaces Dzingel or Smith from the top 6, or if Hoffman gets moved to make it a balanced top 9 as Guy Boucher has been known to do.
But that is speculation for another day, and for now we can continue the merits of Duchene in the short and long term, and wait for Friday afternoon and Duchene's opportunity to face his former mates in back to back outings.