The geniuses responsible for Ottawa’s roster decisions reached into their magic bag of tricks and pulled out…Nate Thompson! Yes, the same Thompson who…there was that time that he…no wait, is he related to Garrett Thompson? No? There’s literally no way to dress this up as anything other than a terrible deal (two years!). Nichols breaks down the painful numbers to illustrate that yet again, Pierre Dorion doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. The only credit I can give the org is that I had no idea Thompson was still in the league, so points for obscurity.
As a side note: I absolutely agree with Nichols that the league interest in Dion Phaneuf was limited (to non-existent), which is likely why the Sens backed away from trading him.
I’ve long been calling for Randy Lee to be fired (eg), even though I understand that’s not going to happen. True to form he managed to find yet another useless body to shove into the team’s AHL lineup. The BSens signed 26-year old winger Tyler Randell (59-1-9-10) to a one-year deal. If you’re asking yourself, who the hell is that? I don’t blame you. The Boston pick (6-176/09) took his unremarkable OHL career of punching people into the AHL, where he unremarkably punched people. In 231 AHL games he has a total of 18 goals and 25 assists (0.19 points-per-game). On a Belleville roster starved for talent he provides absolutely nothing–he’s just an expensive fourth-liner. My guess is that mid-season Kleinendorst benches him and, like Stortini last year, forces Lee to trade him. What a waste of time–but I’m sure he’s “good in the room/corners”.
Not long after this signing a slew of expensive detritus was added to the AHL roster in what looks like an attempt to prop it up for its first year. 31-year old goaltender Danny Taylor (7-221/04) is the only one with some sort of pedigree (as in results), having spent the last four years in Europe with solid numbers (.940 in the KHL this past season). His addition looks like the writing on the wall for Chris Driedger, which strikes me as an odd decision given that they qualified him.
Along with the veteran ‘tender they signed Ben Sexton (7-206/09), yes, the son of former Sen exec Randy, who hasn’t shown much in the AHL after leaving Clarkson (54-19-12-31). He finished sixth in scoring on a fairly punchless Albany roster and it was the first season (of three) where he’d put up any numbers at all. He slots in as a top-nine forward.
Also signed was former Calgary draft pick Max Reinhart (3-64/10), who had one good AHL season (out of four) before bombing out in the DEL (52-6-17-23; a league where a good AHL player should dominate). Its apparent in his one good season (13-14) he benefited from teammates Markus Granlund and Ben Street. He slots in as yet another top-nine forward.
Finally, a righthand defenseman was added in the form of undrafted 28-year old Erik Burgoerfer, who had an unremarkable NCAA career which has translated into unremarkable ECHL and AHL numbers (52-1-16-17). I’m at a loss as to what he brings to the team–veteran savvy? He’s probably a better option than Macoy Erkamps and Cody Donaghey, but what does that say really?
That’s five players signed (two of which, Taylor and Reinhart, qualify as veteran signings), none come close to replacing the lost offense of Phil Varone and Jason Akeson (combined, if you include Reinhart‘s last AHL season, the four skaters scored 44 goals; Varone and Akeson tallied 35 last year). The BSens still need a good puck-moving defenseman (I’m assuming Chabot will see little to no time in the AHL) and a good AHL-scorer. This is a collection of middling to poor forwards, a 4-5 blueliner, and a good goalie. That’s it. I can understand why they’re paying Taylor as much as they are (250k with a 300k guarantee), but 200k for Randell? 150k/165k for the rest is also high but a bit more tolerable.
The Development Camp scrimmage is available to watch for those who didn’t attend (my advice is to mute the play-by-play unless you want 20 minutes of how much Christian Jaros is like Mark Borowiecki). Briefly:
First Half (virtually unwatchable–about 4 scoring chances)
-team white goal: Topping shot from above the circle through a crowd beats Hogberg
Second Half (much more entertaining)
-team white goal: Donaghey turns it over between the circles and Paul is left wide open in the slot and buries it behind Hollett
-team white penalty shot (no goal): Donaghey pulled down Perrson to avoid a breakaway, but he misses high
-team red penalty shot (goal): puck over the glass and White scores five-hole on Lavigne
-team white goal: Topping passes from behind the net to a wide open Paul who beats Hollett
3-on-3 OT
-team white goal: Jaros goes for the big hit giving Batherson a breakaway and he scores with a nice deke
Team red ran around looking to be physical and they paid the price by giving up the majority of scoring chances. What conclusions can you draw from this? None really, but in terms of players you’d expect to do well who were invisible, they are: Andreas Englund, Filip Chlapik, Gabriel Gagne, and Francis Perron. Again, this means basically nothing.
I was ready to pat myself on the back for predicting that Stephane Da Costa is looking to return to the NHL (not with Ottawa, naturally, as their rights to him have expired), but apparently I didn’t write it down anywhere. I have no idea if Da Costa can thrive in the league, but I don’t think the Sens ever gave him a real shot (as I’ve said before).
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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eyeonthesens 
Taylor played for the hockey club “Siberia” from my native city of Novosibirsk. I saw his game live. All the fans literally prayed for him. It’s unlikely that the club would simply let him go, but in the KHL limit for goalkeepers – no more than one legionnaire (foreigner). Well, let’s see how Danny will play for the Senate.
By the way, in Russia I saw a live game of many goalkeepers who played for Ottawa: Mike Fountain, Dominik Hasek, Jeff Glass, Martin Gerber, Ray Emery, Chris Holt 🙂
Thanks for the information! He seems like a good fit for the AHL
Yes a lot of former Sens have wound up in the KHL–goaltenders among them!
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