The days of Colin Greening in an Ottawa Senators jersey (or at least the practice one) are numbered. Bryan Murray confirmed today that Greening's agent has been given the green light to search for a trade, or after the All-Star break he will likely be put on waivers.
Greening was a victim of his own success, when for 1 season out of necessity Greening skated alongside Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek and put up 17 goals and 20 assists in that role. In the basically 2 full seasons since then (parts of 3 seasons), he hasn't totalled that amount and with very limited action he has just 1 goal this season, and that one he didn't even put into the net.
Greening parlayed that good season into a 3 year contract worth close to $8M, of which this is the first season. If Greening's agent can't get a deal done (and that is pretty unlikely at this point), Greening will likely be ticketed for a long stay in Binghamton as a well-paid minor leaguer. After this season Greening will still have 2 years and just under $6M left in the contract that pays him "just" $2M this year.
The Senators management has had a few deals that they would likely want back over the past few year, but I would bet that this one is top of the list. While some might argue that Kovalev was much worse, at least he was acknowledged as having huge upside if not consistency. Greening was a beneficiary of his circumstances and I, (and I know I am not alone) thought is was a mistake from the start.
I still believe that if Greening was making Condra-like money ($1.1M per), that he would have found a more consistent spot on the fourth line, but in reality he couldn't live up to the salary he was making.
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If you follow me on twitter, Follow @JCrozier_Sens I broke the news yesterday that Todd Bertuzzi had hurt his knee in a game for Binghamton on the weekend (I was told it actually happened on Friday night). He tried to play through it on Saturday, but sat out Sunday as a reported "healthy scratch", even after I had put out there that it was injury related. As the night went on I began to question the validity of my source, but it was indeed confirmed today that he is getting his knee looked at in Detroit. The tryout is essentially over, as is Bertuzzi's comeback attempt. My source said Bertuzzi was happy and grateful for the opportunity the Senators offered him to try and resume his career, but was at peace with the way it turned out.