When Dany Heatley arrived he was a blossoming star in the NHL with ample emotional baggage as a result of an off-ice incident resulting in the death of his friend and teammate.
We greeted him with open arms and were willing to give him a fresh start despite the horrific incident which pales in comparison to a small ruffling of feathers between a coach and player.
How is Filatov's arrival any different than Dany's?
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I got a back up plan to the back up plan to back up my back up plan. ~ Big Boi
I'm not going to lie - when Don Brennan casually brought up the possibility that the Senators could consider bringing Patrick Lalime back into the fold as Craig Anderson's understudy next season, I died a little bit on the inside. That's not to disrespect anything that Lalime did in the five years that he played for the organization. Blessed by a strong Senators squad and by playing in the the pre-lockout era that turned a blind eye to obstruction, Lalime's numbers were pretty exceptional.
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MIN | W | L | T | OTL | EGA | GA | GAA | SA | SV | SV% | SO | |
| 1999-00 | OTT | 38 | 32 | 2038 | 19 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 2.33 | 834 | 755 | .905 | 3 | |
| 2000-01 | OTT | 60 | 60 | 3607 | 36 | 19 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 141 | 2.35 | 1640 | 1499 | .914 | 7 | |
| 2001-02 | OTT | 61 | 59 | 3583 | 27 | 24 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 148 | 2.48 | 1521 | 1373 | .903 | 7 | |
| 2002-03 | OTT | 67 | 65 | 3943 | 39 | 20 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 142 | 2.16 | 1591 | 1449 | .911 | 8 | |
| 2003-04 | OTT | 57 | 55 | 3324 | 25 | 23 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 127 | 2.29 | 1334 | 1207 | .905 | 5 |
Of course if he were to return, it wouldn't bode well that every time an opposing player would streak down the left side near the top of the faceoff circle, fans would grimmace, squeal and/or wrench their bodies away from the action... but that's beside the point.
Thanks to the influence that Jonah Keri's The Extra 2% has had on me, my biggest contention with signing a Lalime or a veteran retread like him, is strictly because I would prefer to see a rebuilding Senators team roll the dice and invest in a player who could potentially step into a starter's role if injury happens to beset Craig Anderson (this is me, knocking on wood) and afford Robin Lehner the opportunity to play the lion's share of games with Binghamton.
In examining the unrestricted free agents who are out there, I was looking for goaltenders who exhibit some blend of these characteristics:
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Now I'm not one to play FJM, and lord knows Tim and Nichols are more skilled in this method. But I can't help but speak my two cents on this (now archived) Erin Nicks piece from Tuesday night on the subject of Filatov and fan expectations.
Specifically this paragraph:
"But all it took was a simple mention of "top-six", and some Sens fans seemed ready to, yet again, put all their eggs in one basket. A quick tweet by yours truly suggesting that we not pencil in Filatov for 40 goals alongside Spezza, lead to a "Chill the f*ck out! They've got this!" retort from an Ottawa honk. (Aside: We were talking about trades or getting our buddies in and out of the Beer Store with a case while using fake ID? "They've got this"? Seriously?)"
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Since John Muckler was fired from the Senators organization in the summer of 2007, it's taken some time before we could finally say as fans that Bryan Murray had finally put his stamp on the team.
As easy as it's been to dump on Johnny Mucks for drafting poorly – going against convention to draft a high proportion of Russian players in light of the possibility and emergence of the KHL - and frivolously mortgaging the future with reckless abandon, I'll give credit where it's due. For all of the praise that's been bestowed to the current regime’s drafting and for the failures of prospects like Nikulin and Zubov, we’ve actually witnessed somewhat of a Muckler draft pick renaissance over the past two seasons. Albeit, the impacts of players like Regin, Greening, Elliott, Wick and Condra has been modest but at least it looks like each, with the exception of Elliott, will be contributors at the NHL-level.
Now that the 2011 NHL Entry Draft experience is behind us, Tim and I had the opportunity to evaluate and discuss the weekend's occurrences with Neate Sager from Yahoo! Sports'Buzzing the Net - a blog on junior hockey. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend bookmarking Neate's blog or adding it to your RSS feed. I also encourage you to add Neate to Twitter as well (@neatebuzzthenet) .
As always, you can subscribe/download/stream the episode or entire catalogue of episodes from Itunes. Or you can download the file by right-clicking and saving this file. Or you can simply stream the episode below. We hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments about the podcast, please leave us some feedback in the comment thread below. Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoy the show.
Tracklist for the podcast: I Only Date Models Tunnels; and The Clash I'm So Bored With the USA.no comments
The National Post continues to turn out poorly analyzed and in this case, contradictory articles faster than my stomach can churn at the thought of reading another one of their amateur and compost worthy articles. This time the article comes from Michael Traikos with analysis from Mark Seidel who is the director of scouting for North American Central Scouting. The article begins with a rehash of the likelihood of few of these players ever playing in the NHL and some more empty words about things we already know. Now Michael hands it off to Seidel who "took a stab at reviewing how each of the seven Canadian teams did on the draft floor." A stab in the dark may have been more appropriate. I can see how this conversation unfolded.
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Much like an ill advised Glen Sather free agent signing or the arrival of Canada Day on July 1st, the “Ottawa should acquire Zenon Kenopka” recommendation from the Ottawa Sun has come around like summer clockwork.
Below is an article written in its entirety by Tim Baines and as is the norm, my comments are in bold...
Before Bryan Murray decides to go on a Canada Day spending spree, he’d better pull out a shortlist of recent Senators free-agent signings and wash down a couple of Tylenols with water.
Before Tim Baines decides to write an editorial piece criticizing the Ottawa Senators free agent signings, he’d better pull out a philosophy book and recognize that the organization has moved from its cut-and-paste ideology predicated on the signing of past-their-prime free agents to augment a complacent core. A core, that management felt was owed an opportunity to return to prominence based on the team’s 2007 Stanley Cup Finals appearance. Obviously that didn’t happen and we’re now in the midst of a rebuilding phase that management acknowledged will not culminate in the signing of UFAs from FA classes that make Sean Couturier’s max rep bench press result look strong by comparison.
At this juncture of the article, I’m already torn: on one hand, I already know where this is leading; on the other, I know if I stop now, I won’t be able to poke fun at the rest of it. Shall we continue?
For those troubled by Zibanejad's 9 points (5G,4A) through his first 26 games in the Swedish Elite League take the time to consider the Man Factor. In his 27 games in Sweden's SuperElit (J20) League in 2010-11 he scored 21 points (12G, 9A) in 27 games. This is what happens when you're a 18 year old kid playing against men. It's a natural learning curve. To judge a prospect based on his first 20 some odd games in one of the most skilled professional leagues in the world is not only unfair to him, but a poor assessment of his projectability as a front line NHLer. In fact, playing against men at 18 years of age and being able to produce such a modest amount already puts him ahead of many other peers of similar age. No kid coming from CHL can say they've elevated their game at such a young age against older and more developed competition. If we held all prospects to the same scrutiny we would have written off Steven Stamkos' first 26 games in the NHL with 11 points (2G, 9A).
Sometimes it just takes a bit to get your feet wet and adjust to a heightened level of play. Just because your stats may tail off a bit as a result does not mean that your skills have dropped off as well. Scouts project based on abilities not stats. Are any of us really fooled into thinking Mark Stone is on the same level as Nugent-Hopkins because of their point similarities this past year in the WHL? We've had a good enough look at Corey Locke to see that OHL producers don't always equate to NHL stardom. Relax on the stats and stop the Mike Fisher comparisons. Mike is a good player but was never considered a top 10 talent in his draft and for good reason.
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Heading into the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, we knew a few things: a) Ottawa had 12 picks and 6 amongst the first 66 selections. b) the organization had acknowledged that it was willing to pay the price to move up in the draft c) if the opportunity presented itself, the team would be willing to move a draft pick for an NHL-ready player.
Had you told me that the organization would leave Minnesota with three first rounders and another recent lottery pick who bears a striking resemblance to Arya from HBO's Game of Thrones without giving up much of anything, I would have been thrilled. Now toss in the fact that the organization also added a prospect from each of city's respective junior clubs and not even Don Brennan can complain about what the team has done.
Sure, like in any other draft, there are going to be cynics who will look at Nikita Filatov or a Stefan Noeson and lazily throw out words like "bust", "enigma" or "reach" but you can't appease those insufferable know-it-all assholes.
As Gus Katsaros from McKeen's Hockey pointed out on Twitter, "Love all the Filatov is a bust talk without referencing Columbus inability to develop homegrown players" and a "change of scenery to Ottawa - club devoted to developing some talent from within - could be the biggest difference. Just temper expectations."
Bingo. And lest we forget Ken Hitchcock's rapport with young players or his philosophy that young, offensive talent whose defensive aptitude has developed slowly should be resigned to play on the third or fourth line with a bunch of muckers so that they can learn the subtleties of the game from there. To fit into Hitchcock's system, you need one of three things: heart, grit or empty calories.
That's not to say that there isn't any inherent risk in bringing in a player like Filatov. Work ethic and an exodus to the KHL are cause for concern but he was acquired for a third round pick (66th overall). Are either of these concerns more risk-filled than gambling on a prospective third rounder's development? Hells no but as Tim pointed out in a conversation that I had with him, "(Filatov) will be a rock star in Ottawa. Do you think he was rocking in Columbus? No way - it'd be like Eddie Van Halen trying to party in Salt Lake City. Playing in a Canadian market with some attention on him is what this kid wants, he'll excel here but at the same time, the NAC should definitely be wary of any donations."
It's the perfect example of what Jonah Keri stressed in The Extra 2% - buying low on an unbelievably talented player who's only 21 and has 44 career NHL games under his belt. Whether Filatov's game improves to the point that the Senators retain him or flip him for more/better assets than what they originally gave up, it's a win-win situation. And as Hockey Prospectus' Corey Pronman pointed out, "That 66th pick might have an average value over the pre-UFA years of 1 million. Filatov has a first line ceiling. Do the math on the risk."
But getting back to Noeson, I can understand why people would question the Senators for taking him at 21 when he was projected as a second round guy. For me personally, it indicates that they feared Noeson wouldn't slide and to the organization's credit, I love the fact that they were so aggressive in going after 'their' guys and snatching up forwards who have a blend of size and skill. In some ways, this reminds me of the Karlsson pick that Murray traded up for in the 2008 draft. No one had heard much of him at the time either and now we're making fun of that infamous Don Brennan article because of it.
As we had an opportunity to see in the latter stages of the season and with Binghamton's Calder Cup win, the Senators have an overwhelming abundance of quality defencemen and forwards who project as bottom six guys. It's clear from the first few rounds of the draft that the Senators addressed an organizational need for forwards blessed with offensive upside.
I suppose the one thing that we will have to pay attention to moving forward is the comparisons that will inevitably be drawn between Zibanejad and the passed over Sean Couturier. Judging by Winnipeg's selection of Mark Scheifele, Ottawa wasn't alone in acknowledging some red flags attached to Couturier's game.
More importantly, one can only hope that the Senators don't feel the need to accelerate the process and rush any of these prospects - especially Zibanejad. I realize that "Control+C, Control+V" has an out in his SEL contract that allows him to play this season in the NHL out of camp, but this shouldn't be a race. If the Senators have another poor season, trade off some more veteran assets and take advantage of the draft, then so be it. As the past few two days have shown, it can be worth it.
Draft Grade: A
Here's a look at Ottawa's draft board:
| Rnd | Pick | Overall | Player | Pos | Country | Ht | Wt | Amateur League | Amateur Team |
| 1 | 6 | 6 | MIKA ZIBANEJAD | C | SE | 6' 2" | 195 | SWEDEN | DJURGARDEN |
| 1 | 21 | 21 | STEFAN NOESEN | RW | US | 6' 0" | 187 | OHL | PLYMOUTH |
| 1 | 24 | 24 | MATT PUEMPEL | LW | CA | 6' 0" | 198 | OHL | PETERBOROUGH |
| 2 | 31 | 61 | SHANE PRINCE | C | US | 5' 10" | 181 | OHL | OTTAWA |
| 4 | 5 | 96 | JEAN-GABRIEL PAGEAU | C | CA | 5' 9" | 163 | QMJHL | GATINEAU |
| 5 | 5 | 126 | FREDRIK CLAESSON | D | SE | 6' 0" | 198 | SWEDEN | DJURGARDEN |
| 6 | 5 | 156 | DARREN KRAMER | C | CA | 6' 1" | 202 | WHL | SPOKANE |
| 6 | 20 | 171 | MAX MCCORMICK | LW | US | 5' 11" | 174 | USHL | SIOUX CITY |
| 7 | 5 | 186 | JORDAN FRANSOO | D | CA | 6' 2" | 178 | WHL | BRANDON |
| 7 | 23 | 204 | RYAN DZINGEL | C | US | 6' 0" | 185 | USHL | LINCOLN |
What Others Are Saying...
"I love Zibanejad and it’s really hard to go wrong with a player of his stature. He’ll play on a first line and score at a normal pace there while working his tail off every shift and provide top-end two-way production. Now the Noesen pick I didn’t like just because it was way too safe a pick for a tough, hard-working forward who has ok offensive skills but likely won’t be a top six in the league. Puempel is great goal-scorer and one of the best in the class but his possession skills might barely be average. Overall I like the accumulation that Ottawa got here and they didn’t horribly botch it, but if you told me a team would have three first round picks I would have thought they’d leave day one with just a notch higher talent level in the basket. This is a very safe draft class." ~ Corey Pronman, Hockey Prospectus
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While most Senators fans are anxiously waiting to see whether the organization will be trading up in the draft to land the coveted prospect that they like, I'll be doing a lot of handwringing this afternoon trying to determine the best way to break the news to my girlfriend, who has spent the past two weeks in Italy, that I want to spend tonight watching the draft instead of belatedly celebrating our anniversary. Keep in mind that I don't have much time to work with either - her plane lands sometime at around 5:30pm-6:00pm tonight - so wish me luck. If you have any suggestions, put them in the comment thread. If I like it, use it and it works - I'll be sure to send some swag your way.
Yes, today's the day for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, it's a pretty big deal. While I may not use hyperbole to describe it as a draft that some are calling the biggest in the history of the Ottawa Senators franchise (it's not), you cannot help but get caught up in the player activity and anticipation that accompanies the it. Well, unless you're a Flyers fan - in that case, I wouldn't blame you from spending the day in hockey purgatory trying to shake off the numbness that comes from being blindsided by yesterday's trades.
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