-Ottawa signed defenseman Tyler Eckford to a two-way deal.  Eckford was a 7th round pick by the Devils in 2004 and spent last year with the Portland Pirates (75-10-15-25).  The 26-year old left-hand shot has spent the last four years in the AHL, earning 7 NHL games through that time, although there’s virtually no chance he’ll suit up for the Sens.

–Scott Cullen looks at Ottawa’s free agent signings:
Mike Lundin “A player that flies under the radar, [he] was out of the lineup for much of last season due to a back injury then, later in the year, a sports hernia, but he’s been quietly effective when he does play. Lundin played only 17 games for the Wild last season and was asked to play tough minutes. He’s played more than 20 minutes per game in each of the last three seasons so, presuming he’s healthy, Lundin should step into a regular role on the Ottawa blueline.”
There’s nothing new here, but it confirms what has already been said about Lundin.
Guillaume Latendresse “is a big forward with soft hands who has flashed offensive ability in his career, but has spent most of the last two seasons on the sidelines battling a groin injury then a concussion that limited him to a total of 27 games over the last two seasons. When he wasn’t hurt last season, Latendresse played a career-high 15:11 per game and scored five goals in 16 games. If he can manage to stay healthy, Latendresse could provide secondary offence for the Senators, offsetting at least some of what the Senators lost when they traded Nick Foligno to Columbus. Considering how much time Latendresse has missed over the last two seasons, it’s optimistic to assume that he won’t run into any injury problems, but it’s a low-risk contract for the Senators. If Latendresse is a 20-goal scorer, then he’ll be a bargain. If not, it’s the cost of a make-good contract.”
I agree with Cullen that it’s a reasonable gamble that may or may not pay off.  Latendresse is essentially a place-holder while the Sens forward prospects develop.

–Amelia L looks at the investment by NHL teams into scouting post-lockout, although she admits “Admittedly, this is not an exhaustive study, more of a cursory first look at scouting in the NHL. The scouting numbers for each team are based on current website information and this information is not always complete or readily available.”  This lack of information isn’t as bad as it used to be (I know from trying to do something similar several years ago), but she’s forced to leave out Tampa Bay and Edmonton because of it.  It also means that (unfortunately) the information that is available cannot be assumed to be definitive, only indicative.  She finds that NHL clubs employ an average of 15 scouts (14.8 to be precise), with the following from highest to lowest:
Toronto 23
New Jersey 20
Vancouver 20
Winnipeg 18
St. Louis 18
Dallas 18
Chicago 17
Philadelphia 17
Washington 17
New York Rangers 16
Los Angeles 16
Buffalo 16
Anaheim 15
Pittsburgh 14
Phoenix 14
Montreal 14
Minnesota 14
Detroit 14
Boston 13
Ottawa 13
San Jose 12
Nashville 12
Florida 12
Colorado 12
Calgary 11
Columbus 10
Carolina 9
New York Islanders 9
Edmonton n/a
Tampa Bay n/a

Detroit and Toronto have the most European scouts of any team (5), with Nashville next (4); Anaheim, Buffalo, Calgary, Carolina, Colorado, Columbus, Dallas, New Jersey, the Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose, St. Louis, and Vancouver have no European scouts listed (14 teams), although it’s clear from the large “miscellaneous” category of scouts that both Calgary (8) and Anaheim (13) must have some in Europe.  There’s no direct relationship that can be drawn from this snapshot wherein the number of scouts equals the quality of a team’s prospect pool, but that being said, having a gutted scouting department can’t help.

-Here’s my profile of Andre Benoit.

–Peter Raaymakers compares the opposition to the new Phoenix Coyote deal to the opposition to the redevelopment of Lansdown Park here in Ottawa.  I don’t see anything other than the most superficial similarities–in both cases tax payers are carrying the freight for private enterprise (like the Skydome in Toronto).  Fundamentally, Ottawa has to do something to Lansdowne because the structures are old and dangerous, so it wasn’t a question of revamping it or not, but rather how.  Phoenix has a financial white elephant in the Coyotes and unlike Raaymakers I don’t think it’s a done deal that they will stay (for the sake of Phoenix tax payers I hope they don’t).

July 10, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

Andre Benoit (DL, 5’11, DOB 1984, undrafted, capgeek: 650k/300k)
2009-10 AHL Hamilton 78-6-30-36 +18 63pim (ppg 0.46)
2010-11 AHL Binghamton 73-11-44-55 +2 53pim (ppg 0.75)
2010-11 NHL Ottawa 8-0-1-1 -1 6pim (ppg 0.12)
2011-12 KHL Spartak Moscow 53-5-12-17 -1 34pim (ppg 0.32)

The undersized undrafted star for the Kitchener Rangers enjoyed a career year two seasons ago while winning a Calder Cup with Binghamton (the second Cup of his career).  Last year he decided to earn big money in the KHL and signed with Spartak Moscow and finished third in scoring among Spartak’s blueliners and was eighth overall.  His team was one of the worst in the KHL (19th out of 23), and while he enjoyed the experience he wanted to return to North America so that his daughter could attend an English school.  The Sens did not want to lose him last year and are ecstatic to have him back.  Benoit is one of those “local products” the Murray’s love so much (hailing from St. Albert), but it’s not merely a feel-good story because he will make a big impact on Binghamton’s punchless blueline.  As a long-time pro there’s not much assessment needed for what he’ll bring to Binghamton and if he stays healthy for an entire season he’ll add a lot of offence to the team.  Here’s Benoit talking about his first NHL game (as a Senator in 2011).

July 10, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

–Corey Pronman of Hockey Prospectus provides his organisational rankings for NHL prospects.  You’ll recall his unorthodox theories regarding the lesser value of defensemen and goaltenders (here; his methodology was not reflected in this year’s draft).  He also tells us about his cut-off point for a prospect, “The Calder Trophy uses a 25-games-played cutoff to determine eligibility and that’s partly what I’ve chosen to use. However, to make sure prospects who played a good number of NHL games in previous seasons and were sent down in the next season were not disqualified, I am using 25 GP in the 2011-12 season. I also think the Calder Trophy’s cutoff of six games in any two seasons was too strict, so I’ve decided to use 50 games. Also for dealing with Russian transfers, I’ve decided if a player is signed in the KHL past their age-22 season they become ineligible for the purpose of these rankings as a prospect until they sign in North America. I use 22 as it’s the age most prospects drafted out of the CHL have their entry level contracts end. Also per the Calder requirements, an age cutoff of 26 or younger as of September 15th is used so a player like Roman Cervenka is eligible. The second change has been to my ranking philosophy. Last year, I predominantly favored whichever team had the most “top prospects”. While am I still valuing that very heavily, I put more emphasis than last year on teams who have systems that have significant talent throughout. That doesn’t mean the teams that have a lot of bottom-six type prospects, but just talented players who may not be top-tier prospects.”  The list:
1. Florida
2. New York Islanders
3. Detroit
4. Minnesota
5. Ottawa
6. Chicago
7. Tampa Bay
8. Anaheim
9. Edmonton
10. Montreal
11. New York Rangers
12. Pittsburgh
13. Dallas
14. Washington
15. Toronto
16. Boston
17. Columbus
18. Buffalo
19. St. Louis
20. Calgary
21. Los Angeles
22. Nashville
23. Winnipeg
24. Vancouver
25. Carolina
26. Colorado
27. New Jersey
28. Phoenix
29. San Jose
30. Philadelphia

His specific comments about the Sens: “Ottawa has a ton of good players throughout its ranks and its depth can rival the Panthers and Islanders. They lack the top-end prospects outside of Mika Zibanejad to get into that same tier with the four systems I have ranked in front of them, but they have quite a few very good ones.”

-A good illustration of why size in the NHL is not indicative of anything is made by Jonathan Willis who lists team’s by size and where they finished (for example, Edmonton had the league’s biggest blueline; the Cup winners were middle of the path at 13th, while Ottawa was 16th).

–Brad Kurtzberg posted his list of the 25-worst free agent signings.  Alexei Kovalev is the only Sen to make the list (#16).  Glen Sather is the GM with the most members on this list with five (including three in the top-ten).

-I’ve always been fascinated by European leagues and how they compare to the NHL, so I took a look at the success of post-lockout players signed out of Europe (either as free agents or older prospects), with a particular emphasis on their production.

July 9, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-Things are getting desperate for Don Brennan as he tries to perform a Jedi mind trick on his limited readership to convince them that he wants the Sens to try and sign Alexander Semin (Varada, via the link below, likes the idea).  Brennan doesn’t like Russian players and there’s no basis for the speculation (all that’s happening is that Semin‘s agent is trying to drum up limited interest by listing Semin‘s demands to play more).  Brennan also throws out the exploded chestnut that the Sens need to hit the cap floor and therefore must spend (I don’t know how many times I and others have to explain that this is wrong, although in fairness to Brennan the idea came to him via blogger speculation, so it’s only indirect ineptitude).

–Varada says a number of things in his sign-off to free agency, but the part I enjoyed most was “Ottawa looked at their forward depth (and for our purposes here, I’m using “depth” to mean a very good number one center, a goal scorer with bionic knees, a 40 year old who might not come back, a reclamation project, and a bunch of rookies), and then at their back end, and decided to switch one out for the other.”  He’s referring to the Foligno–Methot trade, but it’s his description of the Sens’ forwards that amuses me.

–Jared Crozier is still worried that the Sens aren’t tough enough and that their divisional rivals might take their lunch money now that Carkner et al have departed.  He writes “Toronto added size in James Van Riemsdyk, Montreal brought in the leagues leader in fights Brandon Prust as well as Colby Armstrong, Buffalo toughened up through trade acquiring Steve Ott and Free Agency with John Scott and the Boston Bruins are well, the Boston Bruins, who hit the ice every game with beating their opponents up in mind.”  Let’s deconstruct this: if size is what Crozier is concerned with, Marc Methot is also big (so was Filip Kuba for that matter and so am I–maybe I should make a few phone calls), so what’s his point with Van Riemsdyk?  The addition of Prust means the Habs have gone from one fighter to two (Armstrong isn’t much of a fighter), which makes them marginally tougher (but could they have been less physical?).  John Scott played 35 games last year and was only in five fights (all against other regular pugilists), so I guess he’ll get to fight Carkner on the Island along with the usual suspects (when he’s in the lineup), to which I say so what?  Steve Ott is a significant addition, but the Sabres remain a very small team upfront (they traded Paul Gaustad remember).  I just don’t see the big swing in physicality that he does through these personnel changes.

Additionally, Crozier makes the claim that “While Bryan Murray and the Senators decided on going down a different path then the fist fuelled season which led them to the playoffs.”  The suggestion here is that fighting is what propelled the Sens into the playoffs.  That assertion isn’t justified (nor could it be), but just limiting the idea to the players who left (Konopka and Carkner), how does that work when both players combined for a season’s worth of games played?  And what does that say about Crozier’s opinion of the current Sens players who fight?  Chris Neil, Zack Smith, Jared Cowen, Colin Greening, Marc Methot, Mark Borowiecki (if he’s on the team), and a number of guys in the minors.  I just don’t see the point he’s trying to make.  The Sens aren’t going to be run out of a rink because Konopka isn’t parked in the pressbox.

–Adrian Dater answers some questions from readers and makes a couple of comments worth repeating: he reminds us that Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold was complaining about not making money three months before signing Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to their big, long term contracts; he also talks about GM hypocrisy when it comes to players exercising their rights, “GM David Poile went into an extended pout with the media after Suter picked  Minnesota, divulging what were supposed to remain private details of their negotiations. (Isn’t it delicious how NHL GMs can cut players loose any time they want (see: Richards, Mike, in Philadelphia last year), but when a player chooses to employ some hardball on them, well…..that’s just an outrage isn’t it?”

-This is very off-topic, but Andrey Osadchenko has an excellent interview with Nail Yakupov.

July 7, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 2 Comments

–Kaspars Daugavins has filed for arbitration and Peter Raaymakers and Nichols have already weighed in.  Both explore the CBA guidelines to the process and it’s clear that Daugavins will not be awarded so much that the Sens can walk away.  They will have to accept his contract one way or another, so the question is will they retain him if he’s given a one-way deal?  My expectation is that they will not.  Daugavins is an undersized fourth-liner who clearly isn’t part of the big picture in Ottawa, so he’ll likely be dealt if the Sens can find any takers (perhaps Bruce Garrioch will attach him to his Bobby Ryan rumours, but see below).  One thing I want to comment on from Raaymakers blog is that he says Zenon Konopka pushed Daugavins from the playoff lineup–I’d also add Mark Stone and Jacob Silfverberg.  No one moved down the lineup faster than Daugavins.

-With the death of the Rick Nash rumours Bruce Garrioch has moved on to Bobby Ryan rumours.  With no word (unofficial or otherwise) of the club talking to Anaheim about making a trade, he says sources claim they would be one of a number of teams interested.  Garrioch suggests the Ducks would want a second-line center as part of the return for Ryan (which Mark Parisi points out comes from Darren Dreger) which he believes could be Mika Zibanejad.  That idea is so absurd I can’t think of a clever way of describing how ridiculous it is.  He also suggests Robin Lehner as part of the deal (he feels the need to include Lehner in every trade rumour), even though the Ducks have no need for a goaltender; he also says the Ducks are looking for a young blueliner to replace Justin Schultz (which may or may not be true).  Finally he throws in that the Sens are below the cap floor (which isn’t a real concern, as I explained Wednesday and now Allen Panzeri has made the same point), but the Ducks are even further from the floor than Ottawa and losing Ryan for prospects would make their situation worse.  So what does this amount too?  Absolutely nothing.  Ryan won’t be a Senator.

-Nick Foligno signed with Columbus (3.05 for three years), earning far more than I would have been comfortable paying him.

July 6, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 3 Comments

–Nichols serves up a transcript of Tim Murray’s appearance on The Team 1200 and he had a lot to say, so I’ll break it down by topic:

–Marc Methot, “We’re really happy with the deal. Marc’s been around a long time; played in the OHL. Lots of history with him – not personally … just lots of viewings. You would assume that he would be very happy. No disrespect to where he came from but extremely happy to leave there and come to us for a multitude of reasons, including the one that it is his hometown. (It’s) kind of the same way as Parise went back to (Minnesota). I think it’s a plus. We gave up a good, young player to get him and we were quite willing to do that with our needs and with what we looked at going forward – with what’s in the organization and what’s not in the organization. These trades are made for today but they’re also made for years down the road. He’s excited and we’re excited and everybody hopes it works out obviously. He’s a big body. He skates well. He’s better defensively than he his offensively and obviously with Erik, we want him jumping all of the time. We want him going all the time. We want him taking chances most of the time. Maybe not all the time…but most of the time. We want him to just play his game that just won him the Norris Trophy. If you get a big body like that that can skate and recover and really, and hopefully it’s not often, but has to back Erik up… I like guys that can skate and can defend with their feet and long stick and reach and I think that’s what he is. I’m sure he’s going to get the chance to show that he can play with Erik and then it’s up to him. You can probably say the same thing about Jared Cowen; it’s just that he’s a younger player that’s all and maybe he’s not quite ready for that. Or maybe he is. Training camp will show a lot obviously.”  So there’s no guarantee he’ll play with Karlsson regularly, which is no surprise.  I think in an ideal world Methot is in the 3-4 hole on the blueline, not a 2 (just due to his lack of offensive production), but on the Sens blueline he’ll play elevated minutes.  Murray also makes it clear the Sens had no hesitation in trading Foligno, which indicates their evaluation of his contributions is much lower than some of the fan base’s.

–Guillaume Latendresse, “With the concussions, we talk about concussions all the time like we’re all experts and we don’t really know (anything). I personally don’t know everything that Minnesota did with him when he was concussed. You bring him in and you get your doctors to look at him. We have got one of the best in Mark Aubry (sp?) when it comes to concussion problems. Guillaume comes in and he’s excited to come to us and he gets cleared by (the doctors). The contract is a good contract. He’s not the perfect player and we know that. We got him at $1.2 (million) or whatever it is with a $2.0 million cap hit, so there is some incentive there for him to make more money by scoring goals. He’s not far off from scoring 24 or 25 goals a couple of years ago. He has missed a lot of time, you’re right… but that could be a blessing if the head is completely healed. The wear and tear on the body over the last couple of years where the guys are going 100 mph and killing each other (on the ice), he’s kind of missed that a little bit – which is not what he wanted. We hope he’s healthy and we think he’s healthy and we’ve been told he’s healthy but you can never tell what the next hit will do obviously. We think it was a good bet by us to try and get some talent into the lineup that wasn’t part of the silly season. It was the same time of year but wasn’t quite the same kind of contract. We think he’s [Latendresse] a top-six forward. He’s a big body. He’s going to go to the net. He’s going to score goals and get points in different ways than Nick Foligno does. It’s going to be more of a north-south game. It’s going to be take the puck to the net. It’s going to be finishing checks. Now how often he’s going to do that and how consistent he is, we’ll find out. But that’s the type of player he was in Montreal. He played well against Ottawa. In my time here, we did need some size. He’s a little bit different and I have to say because Paul (MacLean)’s been preaching skating and you have to skate, so the one thing that we said to him was, ‘Get working out and being in shape and ready to skate.’ Because he’s not the prettiest skater and he’s not the greatest skater, so we’re going to try to make it fit. He’s a little different kind of player than guys that we’ve been trying to bring into the system. But you’re always going to have players just for different reasons – Mark Stone, who we like a ton, is not a great skater but we think he fits. We can talk about wanting to skate 200’ and skating being very important to the way that Paul coaches the game, but you’re still, I believe, other players, different types of players, can thrive within that system.”  The take away here is how carefully Murray is setting up expectations for him.  The Sens know he’s not a perfect player and are hoping he’ll work hard and produce.  The backhanded comment about Foligno is an interesting one and clearly the Sens wanted Nick to play a more north-south game.

-Losing Matt Carkner, “Well, I think at the end of the day, we might have went two years. We didn’t offer that until he started talking to other teams obviously. Hey, we all like Matt and just to get it out of the way, I don’t begrudge Matt whatsoever. He has worked extremely hard (and spent) a lot of years in the minors. … His chances of winning there are probably are a little less than if he had chosen to go a different route. And that’s fine. He has worked hard. He finally got a pretty big paycheck here and he’s looked after his family here for the foreseeable future for sure… if he’s smart with his money – which I know Matt is. There’s never going to be a bad word said about him. Now do we wish that he stayed with us for a little less money and a little less term? Of course. We’re selfish. We like guys like that but certainly, there are different reasons that scared us off from that.”  I think Nichols is exactly right in that the final comment is about Carkner‘s knees.  I’m thankful the Sens didn’t offer two years and that the Islanders threw crazy money and term at him.  A great guy, but I don’t think there’s much gas left in the tank.

-In regards to media hysteria about team toughness, “I like our team’s toughness and you just named them all (Neil, Borowiecki, Greening, Smith) and I like the different aspects of toughness that those guys bring. Is there a Matt Carkner in that group? No, he’s the nuclear deterrent and that’s what he is. We don’t have that now, so it’s going to have to be more of a team-toughness type of scenario. Maybe Zack is going to have to do a little bit more. Maybe Colin is going to have to do a little bit more. We know that if Borowiecki is on the team, he’s going to be ultra-competitive and really, really hard to play against. And that’s what team toughness comes down to: being hard to play against. If John Scott takes a run at Erik and Matt (Carkner)’s not in the lineup that night or if he’s only playing half the games for us or whatever, I’m not sure that there’s much that you can do about it. In those scenarios, I think you have to let the league take care of that type of thing but I think, just so far as being hard to play against and team toughness, those five or so guys that you named, and I think other guys can step up just a little bit – not fighting fifteen times or whatever but just being hard to play against, it will make us a tougher team.”  The need for a top heavyweight remains one of the most overrated aspects in hockey.  For all the ink spilled about the Ranger series this year people seem to forget that Brian Boyle isn’t a heavyweight–he’s simply big and agitating.  Guys like John Scott and Steve MacIntyre can’t play the game, so any time they dress they are hurting their team on the ice if they aren’t attacking someone.  Incidentally, it’s interesting Eric Gryba wasn’t included in the toughness comments since he can fight, but rarely dropped the gloves this past season in Binghamton (I wonder if that’s part of the reason Borowiecki moved ahead of him on the depth chart).

-On who impressed him at the development camp, “For sure and I’m going to forget names or not mention somebody and they’re going to get an excerpt of this and they’re going to get real mad or whatever. I’m used to that now because I do like to bring up names… but I mean, Borowiecki winning the ‘hardest worker’ again. It’s almost automatic with him. He will never be the most popular guy when he’s a NHL player for us but even on some practice days, he’s not going to be very popular with his own teammates because that’s how he practices. When you go and do a one-on-one drill with him, he is going to put you on your ass; whether you like it or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re the star of the team or not. He’s going to bring that aspect of just never stopping; never taking his foot off that pedal. We know what he is from a skill standpoint but his intangibles, his heart and his courage are off the chart, so we’re looking forward to him obviously. Robin (Lehner) came in (to camp) in a lot better shape with a lot better attitude. He spoke about it. It was very good. It’s easy to talk about (it) so we’ll see how it keeps going here… but real good signs. Some of the younger guys like (Michael) Sdao and Ben Blood and guys like that, they’re big bodies. You’re never quite sure when the mask is on in college versus when the mask comes off. Again, it’s not fighting, when you drill somebody in college, you’re just skating away and looking for the next guy to drill. Well, at our level and in the AHL level, they’re not skating away; they’re coming back for you, so there has to be a little courage there that we’ll find out about. But they’re big guys and they’re strong guys, so we’re excited about some of the bigger guys for sure. And the smaller guys obviously, there is high skill levels with some of these guys. They are top end junior kids, Noesen for one guy, showed a huge maturity in just in his outlook on how to be a pro and how to work out. I mean, I could go on and on but there were a lot of positives from guys that don’t have big expectations but there were a lot of improvements and positives from guys that have been talked about a lot.”  The thing that strikes me is his reference to Sdao, whom fans attending this year’s camp have criticised, but clearly they aren’t seeing what the organisation is.  Sdao was the most feared fighter in the USHL when he was drafted and that intimidation will be expected in Binghamton after he graduates.  He seems to have more offensive upside than Blood who is purely a physically punishing defensive defenseman.

–Bruce Garrioch leaps into the Don Brennan sky-is-falling boat as he bemoans the loss of pressbox regulars Matt Carkner and Zenon Konopka.  Of the players The Ottawa Sun loves seemingly only Chris Phillips remains, but fortunately they can drown their sorrows with some of the Big Rig’s brew.  I don’t share the same level of dislike for Garrioch that most Sens bloggers do, but Bruce should be professional enough to separate his emotional ties to players and look at the big picture.  Konopka‘s loss has no impact on the team whatsoever–almost all his fights were staged and his faceoff approach has just been made illegal.  Carkner did stand up for his teammates, but whatever advantage that’s supposed to make had no discernible impact the year before and the deal he signed with the Islanders wasn’t one anyone should have matched.

–Jesse Winchester and his 11 goals in 233 games await an offer from an NHL team.  I expect him to sign late with either an AHL deal or in Europe.  I think he’d look good in Binghamton, but there’s probably no room for him there given how many forwards are signed.

–Tom Urtz Jr. offers his list of the top-50 prospects following the draft.  On the Sens sides of things he has Mark Stone at #49, Robin Lehner is #19, and Mika Zibanejad is #6.  Urtz doesn’t explain how he created his list, so take it with a grain of salt.

July 5, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 3 Comments

–Darren Kramer writes about his development camp experience and his article is worth reading in full.  It includes an explanation to Robbie Baillargeon‘s mysterious Tweet about rescuing Daniel Alfredsson (“We were very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go to [the RCMP] training site to learn some of the ins and outs of rescuing a hostage in addition to acting out some scenarios. We were split up into four groups – three groups that would enter the house and one group of three snipers that camped out in the forest overlooking the house. All the players put the gear on (coveralls, bulletproof vest, mask etc.) and were given guns that shot small paint pellets. Each group had a leader and we were shown pictures of the house and had to come up with a plan to get the hostage out of the house safely. The suspects were some of the RCMP officers helping out; we had no idea how many ‘suspects’ were inside of the house. Let me tell you, we all knew this was not a real scenario but my heart was sure racing the house not knowing what to expect! Our rescue plot ended up working out and we were able to save the hostage, which was a 160-pound dummy that we had to haul out of the three-story house. After that experience I truly gained that much more respect for our officers that risk their lives everyday to save ours!“).  Kramer also talks about the team’s Canada Day scavenger hunt, “All of the prospects went downtown where we were split up into smaller groups and were sent on a scavenger hunt. We couldn’t believe nobody was lost at the end of the day! We were given a list of places and people to find, and that task was hard enough as it was… now include hundreds of thousands of people into the mix. Thankfully, my group ended up winning, maybe it’s because we had Ottawa native Corey Cowick with us who really knows the city.”  Kramer mentioned that he roomed with future Binghamton teammate Chris Wideman.

–DaveYoung worries about the Sens reaching the cap floor (echoed by Varada) and wonders if they will sign players to reach it.  I don’t see it, largely because they aren’t as far away from the floor as Dave indicates (he says 5 million, but that’s not based on a full roster).  When the roster is rounded out with Jakob Silfverberg, Mark Borowiecki, and a re-signed Jim O’Brien the Sens payroll is over 52 million.  In addition, the Sens aren’t required to be cap compliant until the season starts and that won’t happen without a new CBA, so the threshold in essence doesn’t exist.

–Shane Prince‘s unofficial contract numbers have been posted on Capgeek (0.876).

–Hugh Jessiman‘s contract details are also posted (0.600).

-Here’s my profile of Hugh Jessiman.

-I wonder how much of Ryan Suter‘s new salary with the Wild gets kicked back to Shea Weber?

July 4, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

The Senators have signed a veteran AHL-forward for Binghamton in the form of Hugh Jessiman.

Hugh Jessiman (RW, 6’6, DOB 1984, 1-12/03 NYR)
2009-10 AHL Milwaukee 78-20-22-42 +9 111pim FM 7 (ppg.0.53 )
2010-11 AHL Rockford/Rochester 50-8-5-13 -8 74pim FM 4 (ppg 0.26)
2010-11 NHL Florida 2-0-0-0 -1 5pim FM 1 (ppg 0.00)
2011-12 AHL Lake Erie/Abbotsford 67-27-17-44 +6 108pim FM 5 (ppg 0.65)

The 2002-03 NCAA Rookie of the Year is a 2003 first-round draft bust by the New York Rangers (apparently the Rangers believed he was the fourth best player in the draft).  With his size it remains surprising he’s only played 2 NHL games, which to me indicates he has other issues that prevent him from being an NHLer (Elite Prospects says he lacks hockey sense).  He’s played over 400 games in the AHL and has bounced around the last four years (09-10 was the only season of the last four where he wasn’t traded).  He doesn’t fight as much as he used too, but he does drop the gloves.  Given how small Binghamton’s forward group is going to be his size is a welcome addition.  Hockey Futures (top link) provided this talent analysis, “His skating is good for a big man and he has good hands. Additionally, over the past year [08-09], he has improved his work ethic and strength on the puck. But he still needs to polish his defensive zone coverage and on-ice decisions; additionally, he is lacking good balance, which has not improved over the last three seasons.”  There’s no question that Jessiman has been signed to help Binghamton, so there’s no need to worry about his possible impact on Ottawa.  I like the signing for the size reasons mentioned earlier (there could be 5-7 undersized forwards in the AHL lineup).  Unlike Peter Raaymakers I don’t expect many more moves to bolster Binghamton (other than a third goalie).  Peter points out, incidentally, that “One thing you’ve got to give Jessiman credit for is his perseverance. He wasn’t signed to a contract at all last season, so he started the season on a professional try-out deal with the Lake Erie.”

July 3, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

–Scott hooked up with Columbus blogger Matt Wagner to learn more about Marc Methot.  Wagner says “Meth is a good guy in the room and very personable when dealing with the community off the ice. On ice, he’s a great stay at home d-man who knows how to use his body with great on ice vision. I think he’s a bit underrated as a pure defender. He’s not a good offensive player. At times he almost seems afraid to pinch in or join the rush beause he doesn’t want to get caught. His shot is powerful when he does use it, but his accuracy isn’t good. I’d say his penalty killing ability and his mental game [have improved most]. Early on, he took some bad penalties now and then, and he had some major issues with patience (he came to the attention of a lot of fans as a prospect when he went into training camp one year and said he wanted to make the team or get traded before opening day.) He thinks more before he speaks now, and that applies to how he handles his in game responsibilities as well. His injuries were a major factor this year, and most of them were of the 100% bad luck variety. I think it’s possible. I believe he will flourish with a more offensively minded partner, and I can see Meth filling in nicely in the role Kuba had played with Karlsson over the last few seasons.”  This confirms what little I’d seen written about Methot before.

-Scott also included a McKeen’s report from 2010-11 about Guillaume Latendresse “a smooth, versatile giant with an understated skillset .. good playmaker – boasts a hard, probing shot as well as some slick puckhandling abilities .. nimble for his size and possessing deceiving lateral agility, yet misses an explosive first-step burst as well as elite quickness .. effective when using his superior size and strength to lay out big hits and drive for the net .. still an erratic physical presence who doesn’t always bring the required belligerance or intensity .. oscillates between the extremes sometimes on the same shift .. provided a needed big-body presence in the top six here – created possession down low and making hard plays in the crease .. struggles to sustain his confidence when the goals dry up however.”  I don’t think Latendresse is much of an unknown, given that many fans saw him play for Montreal.  Consistency is going to be the issue with him (that and conditioning).

–DarrenM considers the Sens roster set and looks at their hypothetical lineup: Silfverberg-Spezza-Michalek, Latendresse-Turris-Alfredsson, Regin-Smith-Neil, Condra-O’Brien-Greening, Butler; Methot-Karlsson, Cowen-Gonchar, Phillips-Lundin, Borowiecki; Anderson, Bishop.  He thinks the Sens have one of the better bottom six forwards in the league, have improved their defence, and should take less penalties: “For a team that averaged the second-most PIMs per game (14.0), the  Senators shed three regulars who were amongst the team’s worst offenders  in penalties taken per 60 minutes of ice-time (note: Konopka led team with 2.7 penalties per 60. Carkner led the  defencemen with 1.3 penalties per 60 and Foligno was third amongst  forwards with 1.5.)“.  He doesn’t think Ottawa has replaced Kuba‘s offensive contributions, but believes Latendresse and Silfverberg can make up for the loss of Foligno.  “All things considered, Ottawa’s 2012-2013 roster really isn’t all that different from it’s 2011-2012 roster. The young players will be more experienced and a little better, while the losses of Foligno and Kuba appear to be offset by the additions made yesterday and the probable emergence of rookie talent. Ultimately, Ottawa’s roster next season probably puts them in a position to compete again for a playoff spot, but I certainly don’t see them in the mix for home-ice advantage in the postseason. A lot of things went right for Ottawa last season, and many of them are unlikely to be repeated — 78 points for Karlsson, 35 goals for Michalek, and fourth in the league in scoring being three that instantly come to mind. The most intriguing thing about the lineup, really, will be what happens at training camp. As it stands, there appears to be little room for players in Ottawa’s deep prospect pool to find a spot on the team, although you can be sure that Bryan Murray wouldn’t hesitate to make room if any of them turn heads in September.”  I could quibble with the lines, but I agree about the players who will be on the roster on opening night (although Bobby Butler may be gone and replaced by one of the prospects).  I also agree with Darren about the primary loss for the Sens, which is the offensive production from the blueline.  Other than Cowen there’s no real potential for growth among any of the players added to the lineup.

–Randy Lee states the obvious, “The more you do here, the less you have to do on July 1. And on July 1 you’ve got to overpay to fill a hole. That’s just the nature of the business. And if we can get our own assets, develop them and make sure they’re good people, sign the right guys, it can put you in a good position.”

–Don Brennan, who lost a daily column with Zenon Konopka‘s departure along with two of his favourites (Carkner and Foligno), expresses his anger at the organisation by demonstrating his inability to observe that Tie Domi has attended every Sens development camp for the last few years.  Don also appears to be one of the only people who thought Rick Nash would come to Ottawa.  He writes that the Sens lost a known quantity in Foligno who could be counted on to produce 40 points a season (he’s done it once in four years).  He does include a tiny bit of reporting in the article, “Murray and director of player personnel Pierre Dorion raved about the play of Zibanejad and Hoffman on the final day of development camp.”  It’s easy to pick on Brennan, who isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but like most people I wonder when (if) the clock is going to run out on him.

–Aaron Portzline indirectly illustrates the point of Columbus talking to Ottawa about Rick Nash–to jack up the price for his preferred destinations.  Unfortunately for Scott Howson and Blue Jacket fans, that doesn’t work when the player is holding all the cards (just ask Dany Heatley and Edmonton).

-Here’s my look at the Sens success in the draft (2005-07).

-And here’s a look at the last three days of the Sens development camp.

July 3, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment