With the season over it’s time to look at Ottawa’s roster decisions this off-season. I believe most of the decisions are straightforward, but I’ll list the full contract roster and go through all the RFA’s and UFA’s and then speculate on possible trade bait (next year’s rookies are marked in italics; players I expect to be re-signed are in green and those let go/may be traded are in red):
NHL
Forwards (15)
Daniel Alfredsson (UFA)
Peter Regin (UFA)
Guillaume Latendresse (UFA)
Erik Condra (RFA)
Jason Spezza
Milan Michalek
Kyle Turris
Chris Neil
Zack Smith
Mika Zibanejad
Cory Conacher
Jakob Silfverberg
Colin Greening
Jim O’Brien
Matt Kassian
Defensemen (9)
Sergei Gonchar (UFA)
Andre Benoit (UFA)
Mike Lundin (UFA)
Patrick Wiercioch (RFA)
Erik Karlsson
Chris Phillips
Marc Methot
Jared Cowen
Eric Gryba
Goaltenders (2)
Craig Anderson
Robin Lehner
AHL/ECHL
Forwards (18)
Hugh Jessiman (UFA)
Mike Hoffman (RFA)
Stephane Da Costa (RFA)
Corey Cowick (RFA)
David Dziurzynski (RFA)
Louie Caporusso (RFA)
Buddy Robinson
Stefan Noesen
Matt Puempel
Cole Schneider
Wacey Hamilton
Shane Prince
Mark Stone
Andre Petersson
Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Jakub Culek
Derek Grant
Darren Kramer
Defensemen (8)
Mark Borowiecki (RFA)
Cody Ceci
Ben Blood
Troy Rutkowski
Fredrik Claesson
Michael Sdao
Tyler Eckford
Chris Wideman
Goaltenders (2)
Nathan Lawson (UFA)
Andrew Hammond
The easy decisions are letting Regin, Latendresse (the decision has already been made), Lundin, Jessiman, and Caporusso walk (Capgeek has the latter with another year on his deal, but that does not fit their prior listing for him–I don’t know if they were wrong before or are wrong now, but I think it’s the latter). I don’t expect Lawson to stay–not that the Sens wouldn’t want a solid minor league goalie, but veteran goaltenders in the AHL rarely stay in one place–always looking for a better deal/opportunity. Benoit might be let go if he insists on a one-way deal. Da Costa may have run out of rope with the organisation, although he’s young enough that they may be able to trade him. I believe Gonchar will depart for wherever he can land a two-year deal (I don’t think the Sens will offer him one). The other UFA’s and RFA’s I expect to stay.
Of the signed players, there’s no need to keep Kassian, but it seems as though the organisation likes him so he may stay. O’Brien appears to be on the way out the door and if he’s traded I’d expect a draft pick in return. Hamilton hasn’t impressed in his first two seasons with Binghamton, but doesn’t have any trade value so he may stick around. There’s going to be a big inject of talent in Binghamton with the arrival of three first round picks (Noesen, Pumpel, and Ceci), but they should easily slip into top positions abandoned by the Sens Swedes once the current NHL season commenced. I haven’t listed Pageau as part of the NHL roster because I don’t think he’s guaranteed a spot–he’ll have to earn it in training camp.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 