Sens Writer: Senators Defeat Habs; Major Trade Still Coming?

The PHI trade is poor. Laughton is a lateral at best move with a better cap hit than Norris, but adding in a liability like Ristolainen is disastrous. The only "stability" Risto provides is the stability in overpaying someone to have his team outscored.

Dubois is not a good two way forward at all. Physicality + Size =/= defensively sound. See Ovechkin for another prime example of that. Dubois is mostly a defensively liability and is probably not worth his cap hit.

ARI trade is fine if you're just trying to move Norris, not sure why a rental like Dumba would be involved.

CHI isn't competing any time soon and why is a rental like Beauvillier involved?

Excellent write up.
I'm on the "no move is a good move" side of things.

But please. Enough with the PLD talk. The guy hasn't just been a disaster in LA he's been an over rated disaster everywhere. He's barely a 60 point soft player making--in cash--10 million. Keep Chabbot. He actually cares. This guy hates playing hockey. You can see it in his body language.

Same with Laughton. A 30 year old 20-30 point guy who's a career minus player. Pass.

I wonder if the Stars would consider moving Haakanpas.....and maybe Matt Duchene too.

Pinto signed at a 1 x $775 deal.

I still think people might be a little hard on Norris. He just came back from missing a full season and major surgery. We could see something similar to what happened to Joseph this year. I would not trade him as it would likely be pennies on the dollar, or worse.

And Friedman said a long term deal in the works

I wonder if the Stars would consider moving Haakanpas.....and maybe Matt Duchene too.
- Octavarium

Name the last time a contender traded away their good cheap 2C rental in season. This makes absolutely zero sense.

Would rather do no deal than a bad deal.

I think that was Dorion's problem...always made a deal to justify his job.

Unless we get our doors blown off by a deal, stay the course then use the extra cap space to address RD and veteran depth.

The reactions to trade ideas are always entertaining... especially when you get direct contradictions from different naysayers. Regardless, Staios doesn't have the luxury of time or operating from a position of strength, so there's no chance of them making off with some kind of perfect solution for the roster deficiencies. Their best chance for good trade value is to identify players with the critical skill set they're needing, and take advantage of potential situations where they may be under-performing on their current team. This includes thinking outside the box about players who are on expiring contracts, because they may be willing to sign extensions if they feel they're moving to a better opportunity.

The reactions to trade ideas are always entertaining... especially when you get direct contradictions from different naysayers. Regardless, Staios doesn't have the luxury of time or operating from a position of strength, so there's no chance of them making off with some kind of perfect solution for the roster deficiencies. Their best chance for good trade value is to identify players with the critical skill set they're needing, and take advantage of potential situations where they may be under-performing on their current team. This includes thinking outside the box about players who are on expiring contracts, because they may be willing to sign extensions if they feel they're moving to a better opportunity.
- khawk

Outside of moving Kubalik and Tarasenko, there are no urgent matters requiring trades before the end of the season. Moving Brannstrom, Hamonic, Chycrun or Chabot, potentially Norris are all moves that can be made after the season is completed. Additions of a veteran forward, stabilizing right hand Dman and other moves are best made when the right player/deal is available. Ideally things are completed by start of next season but available trade / FA opportunities should be the key deciding factor on timing.

With respect to Chycrun, trading him prior to the trade deadline allows him to play 2 playoffs on a cheap contract but waiting till the off-season allows any team trading for him to have the flexibility to negotiate an extension. As for Chabot, his 10 team NTC does not remove all flexibility.

LA is playing Dubois as their 3rd line centre and getting 3rd line numbers from him. LA starts strong but is now in full collapse mode. They are desperate to reverse the growing disaster.

Dubois' defensive numbers have fallen off. So we need to have some concern that he no longer plays the strong physical defensive game he showed when he was younger.

Having said that, I would take the risk and deal for him. Florida went a long time before folks fully understood what it meant to have a Barkov in the line up. Hockey insiders look at DuBois and believe a similar game is possible. So far he has not delivered.

I would do Chychrun + Tarasenko for Dubois + a salary add.

LA is playing Dubois as their 3rd line centre and getting 3rd line numbers from him. LA starts strong but is now in full collapse mode. They are desperate to reverse the growing disaster.

Dubois' defensive numbers have fallen off. So we need to have some concern that he no longer plays the strong physical defensive game he showed when he was younger.

Having said that, I would take the risk and deal for him. Florida went a long time before folks fully understood what it meant to have a Barkov in the line up. Hockey insiders look at DuBois and believe a similar game is possible. So far he has not delivered.

I would do Chychrun + Tarasenko for Dubois + a salary add.
- spatso

Dubois - unhappy in Columbus, unhappy in Winnipeg, unhappy in LA, not playing well, on an expensive 8 year contract but wanted to play in Montreal. What could go wrong?

Not fussy about any of the suggested trades.

I would look at trying to structure a more complex deal with Nashville.

Goalie Saros from Nashville for Chabot and Norris. Obviously needs a bit more work in the details (something else back to Ottawa ...... other draft picks involved ... send Korpisalo or even Sogard .... but we would need to re-sign Saros so this is probably an offseason trade). But overall, a trade with more parts then I listed.

To me, Dubois is a big no-fly zone. I would stay away from that poison. I wish teams would stop thinking that they are the right team to discover a player's potential. Dubois is something we don't need in the dressing room. He is not a defensive style player .... he is not a veteran who works well with younger guys .... he is not a motivator ..... he is not a good example of a strong working veteran. Just walk away from this disaster.

I like the thought behind the trade proposals. I wouldn’t mind any deal, but I think Chabot and Norris might be a little overvalued at this point in time.

I was mulling the idea of a Chabot trade to Montreal last night. They lack a puck moving guy and Chabot would slide seamlessly into the French community. Perhaps something around Chabot for Anderson and Allen. The Sens would have to do something about Forsberg/Korpisalo (trade buyout), but Allen would bring more stability in goal and Anderson would be the ugly contract to come back, but you get rid of the Chabot cap hit on the blue line. Major issue is movement clauses for both Habs players.

I know folks will hate the idea with Anderson and his contract, but the club might have to take a bad contract to get rid of a bigger contract. Adding Allen with Anderson, creates a bigger cap hit than Chabot alone, but assuming you can get Forsberg/Korpisalo out of here someway, the price for the goaltending could be worth it.

I like the thought behind the trade proposals. I wouldn’t mind any deal, but I think Chabot and Norris might be a little overvalued at this point in time.

I was mulling the idea of a Chabot trade to Montreal last night. They lack a puck moving guy and Chabot would slide seamlessly into the French community. Perhaps something around Chabot for Anderson and Allen. The Sens would have to do something about Forsberg/Korpisalo (trade buyout), but Allen would bring more stability in goal and Anderson would be the ugly contract to come back, but you get rid of the Chabot cap hit on the blue line. Major issue is movement clauses for both Habs players.

I know folks will hate the idea with Anderson and his contract, but the club might have to take a bad contract to get rid of a bigger contract. Adding Allen with Anderson, creates a bigger cap hit than Chabot alone, but assuming you can get Forsberg/Korpisalo out of here someway, the price for the goaltending could be worth it.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

Question to ask .... will Allen be any different then Korpisalo/Forsberg behind this Ottawa defensive structure.
Second ... I think you are way undervaluing Chabot in all of this. Basically you are trading Chabot just to get rid of the contract and we are taking garbage back in return.

Even if Giroux has a NMC, it would be stupid NOT to entertain offers for him. They should try to convince him to waive it at this point.

It really sucks but this team isn’t turning it around…and if the team falters next season and Giroux doesn’t have the same impact because his age starts to take a toll..it’ll be a missed opportunity.

Tarasenko has been great, considering the amount of line juggling he’s had to deal with. Another wasted opportunity. He should get the opportunity to play for a contender once more.

I’m willing to wait for the off-season on a bigger deal with our bigger cap players like chabot and Norris. I’m not convinced on trading either..but I’m open to it.

Kubalik for sure needs to go…even if you get a 4th (an asset’s an asset).

Joseph you entertain.

MacEwen you get rid of or just dump in the minors.

And we need to figure out our goalie situation. We can’t do anything about Forsberg, but if the Sens feel like there’s a big concern with Korp and this is how he projects to be…maybe doing what the Kings did with Peterson (sending him through waivers) is the best thing for this team long term.

You bite the bullet, face the ridicule and move on.

This team on paper, has the pieces to compete…time is king and we shouldn’t squander season(s) based on roster mistakes. We’ve got a pretty good cap on our core players and we need to turn this around by next season. We have no choice.

The Hawks are not taking Chabot and that cap hit, they are loaded with LH defensive prospects. Within three years they’ll have one of the best defensive units in the league. They do need help upfront, and I like Norris, but I could see the Hawks hesitating on bringing Norris in due to his injury history, the guy can’t stay healthy.

Not fussy about any of the suggested trades.

I would look at trying to structure a more complex deal with Nashville.

Goalie Saros from Nashville for Chabot and Norris. Obviously needs a bit more work in the details (something else back to Ottawa ...... other draft picks involved ... send Korpisalo or even Sogard .... but we would need to re-sign Saros so this is probably an offseason trade). But overall, a trade with more parts then I listed.

To me, Dubois is a big no-fly zone. I would stay away from that poison. I wish teams would stop thinking that they are the right team to discover a player's potential. Dubois is something we don't need in the dressing room. He is not a defensive style player .... he is not a veteran who works well with younger guys .... he is not a motivator ..... he is not a good example of a strong working veteran. Just walk away from this disaster.
- OttawaB

Agreed on Dubois he is selfish and highly overrated.
I would do whatever it takes to sign Saros, he would improve your team immensely.

Question to ask .... will Allen be any different then Korpisalo/Forsberg behind this Ottawa defensive structure.
Second ... I think you are way undervaluing Chabot in all of this. Basically you are trading Chabot just to get rid of the contract and we are taking garbage back in return.
- OttawaB

I would tend to agree about the goaltending... the evidence is starting to become pretty clear that the team's GA problem isn't really about who's in net. Talbot alone showed that in a 3-year span you could go from being an NHL all-star in MIN, to being allowed to walk as a UFA in OTT, to being an NHL all-star again with the LAK. Korpisalo had far better numbers with CBJ last year than he has so far with OTT, let alone what he did with the LAK. Even Murray had a better year with TOR before he got hurt than either of his years in OTT.

Meanwhile, Forsberg's numbers have also notably regressed in each of the last 2 seasons since he took over for Murray in 2021/22. Some of that may be injuries, but it really feels like this team has learned somewhere along the line to cheat for scoring opportunities, or at least force the issue when they need to be more attentive to the momentum swing coming the other way. There are definitely nights where Korpisalo and Forsberg are 100% keeping them in games... and then you get those periods where they give up multiple goals, and the team just keeps giving up chance after chance.

For me, getting a natural top-4 RHD is the absolute top priority... even if it's a veteran RHD that some people are sour on (e.g. Dumba). He's not there to change the world, just give some structure and defensive awareness to the D-pairing, and make sure the puck gets out of the G-D zone when the chance arises. Keeping Chychrun/Chabot on their LHD side in the defensive zone would go a long way to helping that happen more often at critical times. That pairing has been a catastrophe since Chabot returned from injury, most notably for Chychrun having to shift to the RHD side where he is just clearly ineffective (2pts/-9 in the past 9GP).

I have always loved the plus/minus number as a first gauge of defensive play. Ottawa +/- numbers tell us a lot.

Sanderson +5
Zub +5
Bernard Docker +5
Brannstrom +4
Chabot -3
Hamonic -3
Chychrun -11

I don't know the exact match up or starting zone data but my eyes tell me that both Zub and Sanderson take on their fair share of the tough defensive alignments.

Given the clear emergence of Sanderson as Ottawa's #1 D of the future...maybe Ottawa hits a home run and trades both Chychrun and Chabot and does it on the same day. There are multiple teams looking to add some offensive punch to their defensive group.

Sometimes I need to remember that I spent my early years as a hockey fan cheering for the Leafs. It profoundly impaired my judgement. And, even though I have crossed over to love the Sens, I need to remember that I can still be sidetracked by blue and white koolaid and its intense capacity for inducing magical thinking.

Yesterday was classic. I was listening to NHL Serius 91 radio and they were waxing poetic about Matthews scoring a hat trick giving him a total of 37 and the likely lead in MVP balloting.

The host went on to reason that Matthews has now scored 336 goals and is on pace to score at least another 558 and should pass both Gretzky and Ovechken to become the greatest scorer of all time. And, since he is on pace to be the greatest scorer of all time we should be more than open in recognizing him as a leader to win the MVP this year.

The fact that he is more than 10% behind the pace set by Mike Bossy or Mario Lemieux was apparently irrelevant to the discussion.

Matthews is far from a MVP.

Sign either Dumba or Myers as UFA’s

Sens can't make significant trades until they see what they have in the minors especially at defense. They must find a way to call up at least Guenette and Kleven and give them 12-15 games before making any moves on D. The evaluation will not be complete until everyone in the system gets a look, so I don't see anything of significance happening until November or December of next season.

I've said it 100x, Josh Norris is made of glass - TRADE HIM!

Just saw a stat Sens are 1-18 when trailing heading into the third... Hopefully this is win #2! Tied it up though! Let's go!