Music: {allcanada} Capital gains and losses in Ottawa

Thursday, September 30, 2010

{allcanada} Capital gains and losses in Ottawa

In the past few seasons, the Ottawa Senators have lost Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Dany Heatley and now Anton Volchenkov from their roster.

The Senators either shipped these players out or they allowed to walk via free agency because of a combination of salary demands and salary cap concerns. Nevertheless, waving goodbye to these players annoyed the fan base at the time.

It also frustrated veteran defenceman Chris Phillips. He grew up in the organization with his buddy Redden. He played alongside Chara, then with Volchenkov the pair became one of the league's top shutdown pairing.

Now, the dependable Phillips shows up for his 13th season in Ottawa in the final year of his contract -- the two sides have begun negotiations on a new contract -- and with a new defence partner, likely youngster Erik Karlsson.

"It's a little bit of a change," Phillips said. "Before Volchenkov, I played the better part of four years with Zdeno Chara. It's a bit of a learning curve playing with a new guy who is more offensive. Erik has tremendous skill and I'm looking forward to it."

Phillips stated that although there is a degree of frustration seeing talented buddies move on, he believes Senators general manager Bryan Murray has done well to replace them with key players like Sergei Gonchar.

"It's the reality of the cap system," Phillips said. "You can't keep everybody. It's their own fault for drafting some pretty good players and making trades for some pretty good players. Look what happened with the Chicago Blackhawks after winning the Stanley Cup.

"Management has done a good job bringing in new guys and keeping some of us together and building us into a winner."

Management also avoided moving another talent in Jason Spezza this past summer. After the season was over Spezza met with Murray and remarked that fans displeasure and media criticism was getting to him. Spezza didn't request a trade, but stated that he would be open to being moved.

Murray talked to a couple of teams about Spezza. There was some interest shown by the Edmonton Oilers, but they had little to offer. Spezza also has a difficult contract to move because he has five years remaining at $5 million US a season.

After the speculation died down, Murray met with Spezza, his father, agent and Senators coach Cory Clouston for a four-hour meeting at an Ottawa restaurant. Murray told the Ottawa Sun earlier this month that he and Spezza have worked out their differences.

The Senators simply want Spezza to be more consistent from game to game and perform better in his own end. If Spezza can get on track in these areas, the Senators will be pleased to keep him for years to come.

Off-season development -- In signing with Ottawa, Gonchar remarked he wanted to experience playing for a Canadian team. So he signed a three-year, $16.5-million contract last summer and will play for the Senators in his 16th NHL season. He will be under more scrutiny in Ottawa, but if he can put up the sort of stats he did last year -- 11 goals and 50 points in an injury-shortened 62-game season -- he should be able to win over the Nation's Capital.

Key player -- The Senators traded a talented two-way forward in Antoine Vermette to get goalie Pascal Leclaire in March 2009. Leclaire enters the final year of his contract that will pay him $4.8-million and he should be determined to prove that he is a No. 1 goalie once and for all. His first season with the Senators was full of injuries and the results on the ice were poor with a 12-14-2 record, .887 save percentage and 3.20 goals against average.

Telling stat -- The Senators were stingy in their own end last season. They were fourth in the league in shots allowed per game at 28.5. Only the Stanley Cup-champion Chicago Blackhawks (25.1), New Jersey Devils (27.0) and Los Angeles Kings (27.6) were better in this category.

Prognosis -- Ottawa is an interesting team because it not only has depth and a veteran presence with Daniel Alfredsson, Phillips, Spezza, Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly, Alexei Kovalev, Jarkko Ruutu and Gonchar, but some youth too with Karlsson, Jared Cowen, Nick Folgino, Milan Michalek, Bobby Butler, Zack Smith and Peter Regin. If they receive consistent and solid goaltending the Senators will challenge for the Northeast Division title.