This is the twelfth in a series of profiles on each player for the Ottawa Senators.
Milan Michalek, LW, Contract: 4.333,333/14 (UFA)
T 2009 (Murray), 6’2, Shoots L, YOB 1984, Jindrichuv, Cze
2008-09 77-23-34-57 +11 52pim TOI 18:27 Hits 92 TkA 32
2009-10 66-22-12-34 -12 18pim TOI 18:15 Hits 77 TkA 36
2010-11 66-18-15-33 -12 49pim (1 fight) TOI 18:03 Hits 49 TkA 40
Milan Michalek is the last remaining piece of the Dany Heatley trade. The big power forward (not one who throws a lot of hits, granted) had just completed the first year of his new deal with San Jose when he was packaged with Jonathan Cheechoo and San Jose’s 2nd round pick in the 2010 draft (subsequently moved to Carolina as part of the Matt Cullen deal). Michalek was the centerpiece of the trade, as Cheechoo‘s declining production and injuries made him at best a project.
Michalek‘s first year with Ottawa was injury-plagued. He was expected to match or improve on his totals in San Jose the year before (look along the panels on the right hand side of http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/preview2009/team?page=nhlpre09/ott), but despite getting off to a hot start he slumped when Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson were out of the lineup before suffering a a series of injuries which culminated in being knocked out of Ottawa’s playoff series against Pittsburgh (tearing his ACL). Overall it was a disappointing season for Michalek, with his lowest point total of his NHL career (he also carried the second worst plus/minus on the team behind Cheechoo).
In the off-season he recovered from surgery and started the season with the team. Expectations were that he would improve on last year’s totals (http://sports.yahoo.com/ nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/NHL-2010-11-Season-Preview-Wrestling-with-Ottaw?urn=nhl-271127), but just like the previous season, he missed 16 games of the season and put up mediocre numbers.
Michalek came to the team as a strong, two-way player with upside. He’s gone through two injury-plagued seasons with subpar numbers and is a combined -24. He doesn’t make the players around him better and has struggled to mesh with linemates or produce on the powerplay (he only put up 4 points with the man-advantage last year). I’m not saying Michalek isn’t a good player, because he is, but he simply hasn’t been able to provide what the Senators need from him. He will play in the top-six again this year and put up his usual numbers (35 points with 15 goals is reasonable), but I also expect him to get hurt and miss some time.
Player profile from the 2009-10 season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMy4mSAJ4nU
A Michalek hat-trick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEiDeYEZK1k
Next up is Sergei Gonchar.
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eyeonthesens 
Michalek doesn’t fit into this lineup. I’m not sure which lineup he would fit into cause he doesn’t seem to gel with his linemates well. Although i’ve heard he is a great guy and locker room presence.
I’d like to see him traded as soon as a good return presents itself. He won’t be needed once the young guys are ready in 2-3 years anyway. If Murray can get something decent for him i’ll feel better about the heatley trade too.