Now, lord knows I've spent far too much time beating back this Chris Stewart Power Forward tripe that's risen up in Ottawa over the last couple of months. For whatever reason, the Senators were enamored with him at the trade deadline. I wrote about him at depth
here. The long and short of it is if he's the physical, tough player to play against that some seem to believe, it never shows up in the numbers.
This, I thought, was a fire that had been put out. Until yesterday, anyway.
Bruce Garrioch wrote a few words on Ales Hemsky and Chris Stewart. As is always the case, it's tough to know in Garrioch columns whether it's coming straight from the horse's mouth, or if it's just his opinion. If it feels like the former, I worry. If it feels like
Malkin to the Kingzzzz, I don't concern myself.
I'll address some of the Hemsky quotes first, which really are amazing. The money graphs:
The Senators weren't in the picture when the deal was made but the club was hopeful when it got Hemsky he'd provide the spark needed to get over the hump and into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Senators made it clear Hemsky was a rental at the time. If Murray along with assistants Pierre Dorion, Randy Lee and the rest of the staff liked what they saw, the organization may try to keep him.
This is a mind-blowing exchange. I don't doubt that Ales Hemsky was acquired with a bit of reluctance -- the team wanted to see what kind of player the Czech winger was after spending years toiling in hockey purgatory. To the surprise of no one in this space, he came over and dominated on a line with Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek.
I'll give Ottawa the benefit of the doubt and assume Ales Hemsky's first offer to the team was one that set the anchor -- an ask where the term and dollar were ideal, rather than realistic. How did Ottawa respond?
The Senators didn't even bother to make a counter-offer because they weren't willing to go there. They'll look in other directions to see if they can find the right player for the team and budget.
OK. So, uh, Hemsky
really was a pure rental, because the team's not even bothering negotiating with him. Which, if you paid attention to the math following around Ottawa all year, is sort of concerning. At the time of the trade deadline, Ottawa basically had a 10% of reaching the post-season. And to acquire a guy for twenty games to chase down nothing more than a pipedream, they had to give up multiple assets, including Cory Conacher to waivers.
As you probably expected, the railroading in the column gets going towards the middle of the page. Ales Hemsky, soft player he is, not the right fit for Ottawa. Who is the right fit? Maybe Chris Stewart Power Forward.
Hemsky's decision to take his act elsewhere provides the opportunity for the Senators to look elsewhere to see what they can get. He's a soft player and this team needs more jam.
The Senators could try to acquire another winger by making a deal. They had interest in winger Chris Stewart before he was dealt by St. Louis to Buffalo as part of the Ryan Miller deal in March.
Buffalo GM Tim Murray is open for business. The Senators talked to the Sabres about Stewart, but the asking price was one of the club's top prospects -- including 2013 No. 1 pick Curtis Lazar.
This is a terrifying exchange. Just terrifying. Let me remind you that Soft Player Ales Hemsky is better on his worst day at the sport of hockey than Chris Stewart Power Forward on ten cycles of winstrol. The real question is who thinks this: Bruce Garrioch, or someone in the Ottawa organization?
Just for fun here:
This is comically disparate. Thankfully, at least
one guy in the media thinks the Stewart ship has sailed.
Garrioch closes with this:
The other option for the Senators is to go the free agency route. As TSN 1200's Steve Lloyd suggested on his In the Box show Wednesday, a nice fit might be Tampa Bay's Ryan Callahan.
I'm just going to pull random players in Callahan's scoring range over the years at even-strength and let you make the decision on whether or not Ottawa should entertain the option of going 6Y/$6MM+:
Look at the crowd of players he's in here. There's nothing separating him from this group. Someone's going to pay Ryan Callahan an unfathomable amount of money, for a reason I haven't really figured out yet. He doesn't score a ton, his grit-heart-soul game only lets him break even in the on-ice goal department, and he doesn't compensate for any of this by shooting in volume.
Speaking of shots: What if I told you a player on one of the worst contracts in recent NHL history, coming from a franchise notorious for deflating shot totals at both ends of the rink, posts better career individual averages than Ryan Callahan?
Like I said: if it's Bruce Garrioch just ruminating, fine. If this is the way Ottawa's thinking or starting to think, giving Chris Phillips a multi-year extension is only the beginning.
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