I always love Nichols‘ trade speculation posts, because he always comes across deals that would be great for the Sens, but that current management would never make happen. To sum up:
If the Senators have the opportunity to trade Cody Ceci for Jonathan Drouin, they have to do it. Irrespective of what how weak Ottawa’s blue line is in the short-term, they should aggressively get it done
Amen. Can’t trade a good local kid though Nichols–someone told me he was pretty good in the corners too.
Hockey Graphs has a post up that concludes Shane Prince is a better option than Milan Michalek on the Sens powerplay. I’m glad they back that up with stats, but it is one of those realities that seems almost too obvious to need them.
One of the great things about the hockey media in Ottawa is that they don’t disguise how clueless they are. While Don Brennan is the Rubicon upon which all stupidity crashes, he’s not an isolated figure. For whatever reason The Silver Seven interviewed Bruce Garrioch who had no problem admitting his friendships with management (conflict of interest maybe? In spirit at least), his avid ignorance of analytics, along with his completely uncritical approach to the management (Murray knows hockey much better than him, so who is he to question the guy?). None of this is a surprise, but it goes to show why so many fans avoid the traditional media in Ottawa.
I knew that when Chris Driedger was recalled to Ottawa that the BSens would find a terrible goaltender to serve as Scott Greenham‘s backup (ala Peter Mannino from last year), but the question was which terrible goaltender. They settled on Frank Palazzese who has been playing for the Wheeling Nailers. Is he among the top goaltenders in the ECHL? No. Is he the best goaltender on his own team? No. He’s forty-second in league save percentage among goaltenders who have played at least ten games (Christoffer Bengtsberg, playing for the BSens affiliate in Evansville, is 26th in that category). Collectively BSens fans can cross their fingers that Palazzese remains on the bench until Driedger returns or O’Connor gets healthy.
It has been awhile since my last prospect update, so here we go.
QMJHL
Francis Perron (Rouyn-Noranda) 39-28-38-66
Remains third in scoring in the league (fourth in points-per-game)
Filip Chlapik (Charlottetown) 26-6-17-23
Hasn’t played since returning from the WJC (5-0-0-0)
Tomas Chabot (Saint John) 24-7-14-21
Acquitted himself well in the WJC (5-0-3-3)
Gabriel Gagne (Shawinigan) 15-8-6-14
Has done well since being traded; his lack of games played is due to injury
USHL
Joel Daccord (Muskegon) 11-9-1 2.92 .902
He’s 19th in league save percentage (there are 17 teams in the league)
NCAA
Colin White (Boston College) 18-11-16-27
Was excellent for the USA in the WJC (7-3-4-7)
Quentin Shore (U Denver) 20-4-5-9
In the midst of his least productive season
Christian Wolanin (U North Dakota) 18-3-6-9
Has cooled off considerably after a hot start
Robert Baillargeon (Boston U) 19-4-5-9
Still nowhere near to recapturing his success as a NCAA rookie
Kelly Summers (Clarkson) 20-0-8-8
Solid numbers from the blueline
Shane Eiserman (U New Hampshire) 17-0-7-7
Roughly on par with his production last year
Miles Gendron (U Connecticut) 16-2-4-6
After a fast start he’s regressed to what’s expected
Chris Leblanc (Merrimack) 17-2-1-3
A complete failure of a season
Sweden
Marcus Hogberg (Linkoping) 8-5-3 2.56 .899
He’s 14th (out of 17) in save percentage in the league, although that’s no cause for alarm at his age playing in the top league
Andreas Englund (Djurgardens) 26-2-2-4
Caught fire in the men’s league after returning from the WJC (7-0-2-2), and by “caught fire” I mean his non-existent production went from zero to not-zero
Filip Ahl (HV71) 17-0-0-0; (junior) 18-18-13-31
Produces at a monstrous pace in junior, but has had no success either in the SHL or Allsvenskan
Christian Jaros (Lulea) 5-0-0-0, (Allsvenskan) 22-2-3-5
Was okay at the WJC (5-1-1-2) while being unremarkable in tier-2 Sweden
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 