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The Senators were able to win their second straight game this afternoon for just the sixth time this season, as they handily beat the Jets 5-2. But actually, the real score was UFAs 4, Jets 2, Senators 1. It’s comical how much the Senators UFAs are carrying the team right now, and there are only a few more weeks before any or all of Mark Stone, Matt Duchene, and Ryan Dzingel could be gone.
Out of the five goals scored, Stone had two, and Duchene and Dzingel each had one as well. Furthermore, although he is nowhere near the same caliber of player, Anders Nilsson stopped 44/46 shots, and he is also a UFA in the summer. Nilsson’s SV% with the Senators is now up to .937% in 10 games and has a decent chance to be re-signed. He is obviously not a player to worry about leaving, but it’s funny how not a single important player for the future is locked up long-term.
It begs the question, how on earth did Ottawa get here?
If all three of their UFA forwards get moved, the team will be even more unrecognizable than it already was.
With them, the Senators are dead last, and
without them, they could look like an AHL team. Out of the past nine goals they have scored, seven of them have come from that trio, and out of the team’s 172 goals scored on the season, they account for 71 of them (41.28%). If they get moved, those goals aren’t going to completely disappear because others will play in their spots, but I think you can safely assume at least a 20-25% drop in goals scored. The Senators sit tied for 12th in goals for, so it’s not as if they have struggled scoring too much, but when you combine that with being tied for last in goals against, things can get ugly.
I don’t expect all three of them to get traded, but even with just one of them being moved, it makes the team much worse. In the worst case scenario where they are all gone, the leading scorer amongst forwards is...Chris Tierney with 36 points. The leading goal scorers would be Bobby Ryan and Brady Tkachuk with 12. With the way that Stone, Duchene, and Dzingel have been playing out of their minds, Ottawa’s individual point totals don’t look out of place at all, but they could very soon.
Nilsson is an interesting case because he was essentially brought in to be a serviceable backup and also audition for a job next season, and he has done everything he can do to get the Senators confidence. I’m still not sure if I would give him a contract (certainly nothing more than one year), but he is giving them great performances that give them a chance to win. The fact that he has six wins in ten games with the Senators is pretty impressive considering how horrendous this team is. It would be high-level comedy if Nilsson ends up playing
too good for the Senators and demands more than they can offer for a next contract. This season is just filled with troublesome expiring contracts…
And another one that Pierre Dorion will have to deal with is Cody Ceci, who is an RFA. He certainly isn’t a player that has been giving the team wins recently, but it looks like there’s a chance he will get traded before the deadline if Dorion ever has time to deal with that. It’s asinine how much work he will have to do in the next two weeks, as dealing with Stone and Duchene would be enough of a nightmare, but there’s also Dzingel, Ceci, and perhaps others (Magnus Paajarvi?).
Ottawa might have beat Winnipeg 5-2 today, but we all know who carried them (and who has been carrying them all year long): players who probably won’t even be here next season. But don’t you worry, this is just an opportunity in the context of a rebuild:
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