According to Darren Dreger's Twitter, Andy Sutton has just been dealt to the Ottawa Senators.

UPDATE (1:43 PM): Bruce Garrioch has confirmed that Sutton has been dealt for a second round pick.Ottawa no longer has a second round pick in this year's draft.

Here are Sutton's numbers and details:

• He is an impending unrestricted free agent who carries a cap hit of $2.938M
  
• He's 6'6", 245lbs and as a big bodied blueliner, he wasn't brought in to fix the power play.
  
• 54 GP, 4 goals, 8 assists, 12 points, -3, 123 blocked shots,
  
• Advanced statistics from Behindthenet.ca: 1.7 GVT, his quality of competition (0.101) led the Islanders. In other words, he was their shutdown guy. His +/- relative to the rest of the team was actually quite reasonable for a shutdown guy on an average team (0.18)

It's tough to judge this at the moment based on the fact that the rest of the trade deadline has to play itself out. Right now, his acquisition looks like a John Muckler'esque trade. Giving up a second round asset for an unrestricted free agent who doesn't immediately solve all of the problems on the back end or the power play.

Until tomorrow's events play out, I'm not going to be able to properly gauge how prudent it was to trade a second rounder to upgrade Carkner or put Chris Campoli in the pressbox.

If you've been wondering where the Senators organization stands in contract negotiations with Anton Volchenkov, Bryan Murray was on this afternoon's Healthy Scratches program on Team 1200 and here is a transcript of his conversation with co-host Steve Lloyd (Ed. note: Murray's dialogue is in bold. Here is the Facebook link to listen to the full conversation.):

"Where are you with Anton Volchenkov?"

"Nowhere."

"Okay..."

(Murray interjects...) "No, not really. I've tried really hard. We've talked to him. I did talk to the agent again today. But...uh...the response that I'm getting is not what I like, really. So I don't know what we can do there at this point in time."

"Is there any way that you would consider moving him if you can't make a deal?"

"You have to consider everything. I don't think that there's any question that...uh...I'm bringing in a couple of unrestricted guys...so I'm paying a price to do that to give our team our best chance at a playoff run. It's not what I want to do but we'll see what the market comes to bear in the next couple of days."

I don't want to read too much into it, but I can't help but notice the tone and candor of Bryan Murray. Listen to it. He sounds defeated. Like Volchenkov's camp is asking for too much. It's quite the unenviable predicament for Bryan Murray: How does he balance potential playoff fortune against losing Volchenkov to unrestricted free agency?

I'm not entirely convinced that they can. And I don't think that he's convinced himself that he can either. From the tone of his voice, he sounded frustrated and disappointed. Like the Volchenkov camp was asking for too much. As a General Manager who inherited the problems left by his predecessor's ability to let defencemen  leave the organization without netting any assets in return, Bryan Murray has first hand experience of how debilitating it can be for an organization to hold onto assets and lose them for nothing. Are the Ottawa Senators a good enough team to take such a calculated risk?

I'm not convinced. This isn't like the Toronto Raptors decision not to trade Chris Bosh and assuredly lose him to free agency. Unlike the NBA's Eastern Conference, the NHL's version is filled with inherently flawed teams. Picking a winner out of this group is like picking your favorite member of the Osmond family. Regardless of who you select, you know you're getting damaged goods.

Although, Murray could adopt the approach that Randy Sexton and the Florida Panthers used when they decided against moving Jay Bouwmeester at last year's deadline and instead trade Anton's rights before the July 1st unrestricted free agent deadline. However, the underlying problem with this situation is not unlike what the Toronto Blue Jays encountered with Roy Halladay last year. If you deal the asset at the conclusion of the playoffs, the net return will inevitably be smaller.

Personally, if it's up to me and he IS asking for too much, I would trade him if the right package was offered in return.

What would you do?

As everyone knows, Wednesday is the big day -- The NHL's Trade Deadline. After last season's overwhelming success live blogging the event, Tim and I have decided to do it again. We'll be using the Cover It Live application to bring you readers the latest discussion, rumo(u)rs, and Tweets.

Like last year, our coverage will feature some special guests.

*** Also, since it's the start of the work week, I wanted to remind readers that I erred with the last podcast's download link. To download Episode 13 of The 6th Sens Podcast featuring the former Senators GM and current GM of the Florida, Randy Sexton , right-click and save this link.

Besides Canada going for gold this afternoon against a Brian Burke team that's without cap constraints and didn't have to give up anything to get Phil Kessel, there are other hockey related happenings that occurred this weekend and merit discussion. Without further ado...

Ruutu Wins Bronze

Thanks to last night's third period rally, Jarkko Ruutu will be the only member of the Ottawa Senators who will bring an Olympic medal (bronze) back with him from Vancouver. If you're wondering how Ruutu celebrated the victory, he had had his Finnish teammates autograph his jersey. Would anyone be surprised if Ruutu signed his own jersey? It definitely sounds like something that he would do.

** Hat tip to Puck Daddy's Greg Wyshynski for the picture

Murray Hewitt Likely to Get the Job!

According to the Ottawa Citizen's Allen Panzeri, the Senators netminders have responded to the tutelage of John Stevenson.

"It's not easy coming in in his situation, but I think he's done a real good job."

"Both goaltenders have worked hard for him. I like the drills that he does, I think he has good communication skills with the goaltenders, and I think they appreciate what he's done in a short period of time."

"We like both our goaltenders and we think he's going to help them both out." ~ Cory Clouston

A decision on Stevenson's future with the organization will not be cast until the summer, but if he lands the full-time job, I'm just hoping that he'll manage the goaltenders better than he's managed the Flight of the Conchords.

Shean Donovan Offered Opportunity to Leave?

“My first choice is to stay here and to play,” said Donovan, 34, following Friday’s skate at the Bell Sensplex. “You know how it works in this game, you never know. Situations can change, you can have injuries or other things can happen, and you’re right back in the lineup.

“I totally realize how lucky I am to be here, and I also know that we’ve got a good team here. You want to be ready to play. I know from being with other teams on different playoff runs that you need to have older guys around and ready to contribute. I’ve talked it over with my wife. I’m aware of the situation. I’d rather just be here.” ~ The Ottawa Sun

It doesn't take a neurosurgeon to realize that when Nick Foligno returns from his injury, Ottawa will have fourteen bodies up front. I may be reading into Donovan's comments a little but I am left with the impression that the organization probably approached him around the time of the Matt Cullen acquisition and asked whether or not he would like to be moved so that he has an opportunity to play every day. If this is true, it's a classy move by Donovan to bide his time and support his teammates.

Bryan Murray Interested in Hejda?

Thanks to the handful of readers who emailed this morning and let me know that Bruce Garrioch has indicated that Murray should have interest in Columbus Blue Jackets defenceman Jan Hejda. While you readers may have read this somewhere before, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that two people can think up a completely rational, yet similar, opinion. And besides, even if he did read it here, it's not like he ever names his sources. Hi-yo!

UPDATE: I HAVE FIXED THE DOWNLOAD LINK BELOW. INSTEAD OF DL'ing THE 12th EPISODE, THE LATEST ONE IS AVAILABLE. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

On this week's edition of The 6th Sens Podcast, Tim and I rejoice the fact that the Ottawa Senators are on the ice practicing and that Brain (SIC) Lee has been called back up. Sort of. We also discuss non-news worthy items like Alex Auld being waived, Mike Comrie's engagement to Hilary Duff and we also debate a question that was posed to us in an email.

We were also fortunate enough to have been joined on the podcast by former Senators GM and current GM of the Florida Panthers, Randy Sexton. It's a must-listen interview because Mr. Sexton addressed a number of things: the formative years for the Senators; the alleged 1993 Entry Draft trade that involved Alexandre Daigle and the Quebec Nordiques; rumo(u)rs; Bill Huard; and how the Florida Panthers are preparing themselves for the March 3rd Trade Deadline.

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.

Tracklisting: TV on the Radio Crying; Pixies Where Is My Mind?; Social Distortion When She Begins; and The Dismemberment Plan That's When the Party Started.

Leclaire's not alone as a player who has to step up his play following the Olympic break. Despite having the third best quality of teammates rating on the Senators, Shannon's offensive production hasn't exactly warranted the kind of linemates that he has played with. Interestingly, the quality of competition that Shannon has played against isn't as highly regarded as some of the Senators other top six forwards. In other words, he's not producing while not playing against inferior opposition lines and defencemen.(Ed. note: Using the points per 60 minutes threshold is almost like examining a baseball pitcher's ERA.)

For me, the signing signifies one of three things now that he is under team control for another year:

• Bryan Murray fully expects Shannon's production to rebound to a level that he demonstrated in the second half of the 2008-09 season.
• Shannon's trade value jumps exponentially and makes him a bigger commodity on the trade market. I wonder if a sign and trade possibility exists.
  
• It could signify that another roster forward could now be moved to bring in a defenceman.

As Daniel Alfredsson draws closer to his 1000th career NHL game, it's easy to sit back and examine Alfie's career and think about how spoiled Ottawa has been that Alfredsson has spent his entire career with this organization. Whether he was deferring his salary to accommodate the organization during the bankruptcy years or scoring the game winning goal in the 2007 Conference Finals against Buffalo, Alfie has been nails for the Senators organization. A true ambassador.

Now with all that being said, it's so unbelievably refreshing to find out that Alfie may have flown off of the handle a bit after Sweden's quarter-final loss to the Slovakian team. (Ed. note: Thanks Geoff T. for the email and link.) Below is a newspaper report from Sweden that featured some post-game reaction from the Swedish dressing room...

Alfredsson till tv-reporter: "Idiot"

Det blev uttåg för Tre Kronor i kvartsfinalen i OS.
När den assisterande lagkaptenen Daniel Alfredsson fick frågan om det var ett fiasko brast det:
- Vilken jävla fråga. Idiot, sa han i TV4 och lämnade den mixade zonen.

Regerande mästarna fick lämna OS efter en kvartsfinalförlust mot Slovakien med 4-3.
Det var inte bara publiken och tv-tittarna som kände att det blev ett snöpligt slut på OS. Även spelarna var besvikna.
Och det kanske lyste igenom allra mest hos assisterande Tre Kronor-kaptenen och Ottawas Daniel Alfredsson, 37.

Här brister det

När en TV4-reporter frågar ”Ut i en kvart, känns det som ett fiasko?” brister det för Daniel Alfredsson.
Först svarar han bara:
– Absolut inte.
Sedan lämnar han intervjun och utbrister:
– Vilken jävla fråga. Idiot.

"Gav bort 1-0 och 2-0"

Daniel Alfredsson gav tidigare i intervjun sin version på vad som gick fel i matchen.
– Starten. Vi gav bort 1-0 och 2-0 och lät dem spela den hockey som passar dem. De hade inte många chanser men gjorde det mesta av chanserna som dök upp, säger Alfredsson i TV4.

Yes. It is in Swedish. Don't get all bent out of shape. Here's the literal translation...

Alfredsson to TV reporter: "Idiot"

It was chosen for Tre Kronor in the quarterfinals in the Olympics.

As the assistant team captain Daniel Alfredsson was asked if it was a fiasco broke it:

- What a fucking question. Idiot, "he said in TV4 and left the mixed zone.

Defending champions had to leave the Olympics after a quarter-final defeat to Slovakia by 4-3.

It was not just the audience and TV viewers who felt that it was an ignominious end to the OS. Although the players were disappointed.

And perhaps it shone through most of the assistant Tre Kronor, and Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson, 37.

This failure is

When a TV4 reporter asks, "Out in the quarter, it feels like a failure?" The shortcomings of Daniel Alfredsson.

First, he answers simply:

- Absolutely not.

After leaving the interview and he exclaims:

- What a fucking question. Idiot.

"Gave away 1-0 and 2-0"

Daniel Alfredsson returned earlier in the interview, his version of what went wrong in the match.

- The start. We gave away 1-0 and 2-0 and let them play hockey that suits them. They had not many chances but made the most of chances that came up, "said Alfredsson in TV4.

On December 11th, 2009, I posted a list of my 11 favorite Daniel Alfredsson moments in his career in homage to the captain's 37th birthday. From his Eastern Conference Final game winning goal against Buffalo, to the Scandanavian pillaging of Doug Gilmour's soul, the list had it all...

...Or so I thought.

Recently I was emailed by a former guest on The 6th Sens Podcast, Mr. Glen Gower who informed me that the Ottawa Senators were planning something special in celebration of Daniel Alfredsson's 1000th NHL Game. Which barring injury, I believe will take place on April 10th versus the Buffalo Sabres. Now as part of the planning, the Senators organization is trying to determine the greatest Alfredsson moments and needs your input.

Over at Sens Central, the organization has posted this bulletin:

Hi folks. As you probably know, Daniel Alfedsson is scheduled to play his 1000th career game later this season.  He'll join an elite group of fewer than 50 NHL players who have played 1,000 with the same franchise.  We're working on a number of projects to celebrate Alfie's career on April 10th -- our last game of the season and first home game after he reaches #1000.

One project we're working on is compiling a list of the greatest moments in Alfie's career.  Here's a list we've started, compiled from stat books, web sites (particularly this list at SilverSevenSens.com), message boards, etc.  There are over 20 dates list here -- but I'm sure some of you have other memorable games / goals / moments.  If you have any to add to this list, please reply to this message.

Thanks for your help!

Daniel Alfredsson - Top Career Moments

1. June 29, 1994. NHL Entry Draft, Hartford Civic Center
Drafted 133^rd overall by the Ottawa Senators (6^th round)

2. October 5, 1995 vs. Buffalo. First career game & point.
In his first game in the NHL, Daniel Alfredsson earns an assist.

3. October 13, 1995 vs. Florida. First career goal.
Scores his first career goal against Mark Fitzpatrick of the Florida Panthers. It was his second career game.

4. January 20, 1996. First NHL All-Star game.
Daniel Alfredsson appears in his first All-Star game. He’s the only rookie invited to the game.

5. June 1996. Calder Trophy
Daniel Alfredsson wins the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. He led all rookies in points and assists, and finished second in goals. He was the only rookie to lead his team in scoring. That season he led the Sens in goals, assists and game-winning goals.

6. April 17, 1997 vs. Buffalo. First playoff goal in modern franchise history.
In the first playoff game in modern franchise history, Daniel Alfredsson scores the Sens first (and only) goal.

7. April 28, 1998 vs. New Jersey. First playoff hat trick.
Game 4 in the series, and Daniel Alfredsson scores a hat trick. It’s his first career playoff hat trick, and also the first for the Senators in the modern era. The Sens would go on to win the series 4-2. (He also scored a hat trick in the next round vs. Washington.)

8. October 2, 1999. Appointed Captain of the Senators.
Head Coach Jacques Martin makes Alfredsson the Captain of the Senators, taking over from Alexei Yashin. Alfredsson is currently the longest-serving captain in the NHL. His first game as Captain was a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

9. November 13, 2001 vs. Washington. Team goal scoring record.
The Senators set a franchise record by scoring 11 goals against the Washington Capitals. Alfredsson scores four points – including a hat trick and the game-winning goal.

10. May 10, 2002 vs. Toronto. The Tucker hit.
In the playoffs, the score is tied 2-2. Alfredsson checks Darcy Tucker into the boards, then skates in to score the game-winning goal.

11. January 8, 2004 vs. Toronto. The broken stick.
Alfredsson pokes fun a Matt Sundin by pretending to throw a broken stick. Ottawa went on to win the game 7-1.

12. October 5, 2005 vs. Toronto. NHL’s first shoot-out goal
The Senators open the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Alfredsson scores two goals in regulation, but the game goes to overtime, and then to a shoot-out – the first ever in the post-lock-out NHL. Alfredsson takes the first shot and scores what would turn out to be the shoot-out winner.

13. November 2, 2005 vs. Buffalo. First career four-goal game.
Records his first career four-goal game (and fifth career hat trick), plus adds 2 assists in a victory over the Sabres.

14. February ?, 2006. Wins Gold at the Winter Olympics.
As altnerate captain with Team Sweden, Daniel Alfredsson wins a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. It was his third time at the Olympics. (He would also play with Sweden at the 2010 games.)

15. January 9-16, 2007. Scores GWG’s in 4 consecutive games.
Alfredsson scores the game winning goal in four consecutive games between January 9 & 16. He becomes just the second NHLer to reach the feat since Montreal’s Newsy Lalonde scored five straight in 1921.

16. June 2, 2007 vs. Anaheim. Scores in the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, in Ottawa. Alfredsson scores and the Senators go on to record their first victory in the series.

17. May 19, 2007 vs. Buffalo. Overtime goal to win the Eastern Conference Finals.
Daniel Alfredsson scores in overtime, winning the Eastern Conference Finals and advancing to the Stanley Cup Final.

18. January 24, 2008 vs. Tampa Bay. Franchise record 7 points.
Daniel Alfredsson scores three goals (even strength, power play, short-handed) and four assists to set a franchise record for most points in a single game.

19. April 14, 2008 vs. Pittsburgh. 100^th playoff game
Daniel Alfredsson plays in his 100^th career playoff game. Alfredsson has played in 101 of the 103 playoff games that the Senators have appeared in.

20. October 4 & 5, 2008 vs. Pittsburgh. Return to Sweden
The Senators and Penguins open the 2008-2009 season in Stockholm, Sweden. Alfredsson receives a hero’s welcome.

21. February 21, 2009 vs. Montreal. Early return from injury.
After breaking his jaw on February 17 vs. Colorado, Alfredsson makes a surprise return to the line-up wearing a full face shield.

22. January 18, 2010 vs. Boston. Natural hat trick.
Playing in just his second game after missing 11 games with a shoulder injury, Alfresson scores a natural hat trick in a 5-1 victory.

If you have something to add to the list below, please respond to Glen's message over at Sens Central, leave a message in the comment thread below, or you can fire me an email and I'll be sure to pass it along.