It isn’t hard to find impatient fans on social media, using bon mots or memes to ask when the Ottawa Senators will finally do something. Anything.
Fair enough. As Dave Poulin, the Senators’ senior vice-president, admitted to fans during a season-ticket holder event last week, the hockey club has only made one significant player transaction over the past several months, flipping veteran winger Vladimir Tarasenko to the Florida Panthers for two draft picks — a conditional fourth-round selection in 2024 and a third. But don’t confuse the lack of activity on the trade front for inertia.
If you listen to the sports media who monitor these things on an hourly basis, the Senators could be about to pop with transactions in the weeks to come, through the June 28 draft and July 1 start of free agency.
Even while fans hungry for news try to get by on reports of two-way deals for AHL Belleville players and a two-year extension for B-Sens head coach David Bell, Senators management is busy working the phones.
Think of the raft of ducks you saw on Dow’s Lake. Calm, quiet on the surface — but paddling their feet furiously underneath. Beyond view.
“We had lots of opportunities at the trade deadline to make moves for the short-term that might have looked good,” Poulin told fans at the ‘Spring Summit’ event at the CTC. “But we’re going to do what’s in the best interest of the Senators in the long-term. We’re really excited about this next stage that we’re moving into.”
Reading the tea leaves from what general manager Steve Staios and Poulin have said publicly, the Senators will be making moves to change and improve the hockey team in all three areas — at the forward position, on defence and in goal. They are taking lots of calls about their seventh-overall pick in next week’s draft, but it would take something pretty special to keep them from making that selection. There are great options among the top 10 players in this draft.
Staios is expected to meet with Ottawa media next week, prior to the draft.
A hard look at goalie situation
Poulin had a good line in describing the goaltending tandem of Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg.
“We’re not happy with the goaltending tandem, but I don’t think the goaltending tandem was happy with the goaltending tandem,” Poulin said.
Poulin went on to give Korpisalo a string of mulligans in his first time playing this Ottawa course. New team, new baby in the household. Didn’t get the kind of defensive support he had in Los Angeles, where he played so well after joining the Kings from Columbus at the March, 2023 deadline.
Poulin went on to say “we have to improve our goaltending situation. Can that come from the two goaltenders we have? It can, but that is still to be determined.”
The man has to say that just in case every swing at a goalie this summer turns into a miss.
We’re guessing, though, that if Poulin the ex-TV analyst were doing one of his regular hits on Ottawa sports radio, he wouldn’t be as diplomatic discussing Ottawa’s goaltending last season and the Korpisalo/Forsberg matching .890 save percentages.
“There’s NO WAY the Senators can return with that same tandem next season,” Poulin the analyst might have said. “They have to make a change there.”
I agree with that hypothetical statement, the one Poulin the impartial analyst might have offered. And I believe the Senators will make every effort to bring in an established NHL goaltender to take one of the two goalie spots.
It was former GM Pierre Dorion who signed Korpisalo to a five-year, $20-million contract on July 1, 2023. Trading Korpisalo involves moving those four years left (AAV $4M) while the goalie has a 10-team no-trade list.
It would be easier to get out from Forsberg’s deal with just one year remaining at $2.75M.
But if you are spending big dollars on a new goalie, Korpisalo becomes an expensive sidekick.
So, lots to contemplate there.
Speaking of expensive tandems, will Boston move on from Linus Ullmark, breaking up that tremendous tandem with Jeremy Swayman? Ullmark has just one year left at $5M and a 15-team no trade list for 2024-25 (it was a 16-team list last year).
Would he consider a move to Ottawa? The Senators and Ottawa are among the most Swede-friendly of teams and cities in the NHL. Perhaps a conversation with franchise icon and renewed assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson would have an impact.
If Jacob Markstrom of Calgary is looking for a change of scenery, he has a full no movement clause and two years left at a $6M AAV. He is 24, so brings a risk coming off a couple of challenging seasons with Calgary. Staios certainly saw lots of Markstrom while the Ottawa GM was with Edmonton.
Flames GM Craig Conroy told Sportsnet’s Eric Francis this week that Markstrom has never said he wants to be traded. But Markstrom sounded extremely frustrated at the end of the season, so something could happen on that front.
If the Nashville Predators can’t sign Juuse Saros this summer (he has one year left on a $5M AAV), he could be moved and will be sought after.
Competition for the bigger name goalies will be fierce, so does Ottawa look at something off the radar? Would Carolina think of moving on from Frederik Andersen, who has a reasonable cap hit of $3.4 million on the lone year left on his deal? Andersen is 34 and has a history of not staying healthy, but could be a useful backup. When healthy, he is very capable.
Let’s just say the Senators will have eyes and ears open on all things goaltender this summer.
But it won’t end there. They have not hidden their interest in defenceman Chris Tanev, a pending unrestricted free agent who was traded by the Flames to Dallas for their playoff run.
Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman heard a source suggest that Ottawa could bring in Tanev’s brother, Brandon, a forward, to entice Chris to sign with the Sens.
A Tanev tandem … wouldn’t that be something.
Put it this way. Things are happening behind the scenes.
When the dam breaks, there could be a flood of deals involving the Senators around the time of the draft and into free agency.
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