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Senators Trade Chychrun, Sign Perron/Amadio |
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By Ken Hawkins (a.k.a. khawk)
It’s certainly been an interesting start to the off-season for GM Steve Staios. After gathering much praise for the Linus Ullmark trade, reviews were considerably more mixed for the team’s selections at the NHL Entry Draft. But there’s little question that they added a missing element of size and physicality to the prospect pool, and some of those players will hopefully bolster the roster with effective depth in a few years’ time. What was always more important was the upcoming off-season, with several major roster issues needing to be resolved. So what did the Senators do on Day 1 of Free Agency? Here is a brief summary.
LD Chychrun Traded to WSH for RD Jensen/3rd Round Pick
OUT: Jakob Chychrun (CAN) @ 4.6M x 1Yr
IN: Nick Jensen (USA) @ $4.1M x 2Yrs, 3rd Round Pick in 2026
Glass Half-Full - the team adds a more defensively-responsible 2nd-pairing veteran RHD without taking on any excessive long-term contracts, and gets closure on the Chychrun situation.
Glass Half-Empty - the team gets back questionable value for their most significant trade asset, and risks an awful lot of their team’s success on the play of a 33 year-old D-man who is already showing signs of decline.
Overall Grade - C - it’s hard to believe a better offer wasn’t on the table, but if nothing else the team now has two established RHD to bolster the defensive reliability of the top-4D
W David Perron Signed
IN: David Perron (CAN) @ $4.0M x 2Yrs, M-NTC
Glass Half-Full - Perron is an established veteran depth scorer, who plays with a high-degree of competitive edge, and brings Cup-experience to the roster.
Glass Half-Empty - adding a 36 year-old player comes with many risks, and Perron isn’t exactly known for his two-way game (-19 in the past 2 seasons with DET).
Overall Grade - B - it’s a decent UFA signing, but the question remains whether this was the part of the roster in most need of a high-$$$ upgrade
W Michael Amadio Signed
IN: Michael Amadio (CAN) @ $2.6M x 3Yrs
Glass Half-Full - Amadio developed into a reliable two-way bottom-6 forward in VGK, has Stanley Cup experience, and is capable of 15G-15A production
Glass Half-Empty - OTT is a very different team than VGK, and there’s a certain irritation to the reality that Amadio was released by the Senators just 3 years ago
Overall Grade - C - they may have needed a two-way forward, but $2.6M is a lot of money for a relatively unproven player that doesn’t hit, block shots, take faceoffs, or play PK
W Noah Gregor Signed
IN: Noah Gregor (CAN) @ $0.8M x 1Yr, RFA Rights
Glass Half-Full - Gregor is a fast-skating depth forward with Team Canada WC experience, who can chip in on the PK and can provide a solid physical forecheck.
Glass Half-Empty - this is Gregor’s 3rd team in less than 2 years, and he’s never had a positive +/- season in his career.
Overall Grade - A - there will always be uncertainty with signing depth forwards, but Gregor offers a lot of upside at a relatively low AAV, plus they retain his RFA rights
At the end of the day, it’s hard to be overly enthusiastic about some of these moves. Staios definitely added a different veteran presence to the team, but it’s not clear that these players will be able to perform at the level needed to help the team contend for a playoff position. However, it should be noted that many of the UFA contracts being handed out today across the NHL have far too much $$$/term attached. That, combined with Ottawa not being a historically popular destination for UFA talent, means that it was always going to be a day of second/third choices. What is now priority #1 for Staios is to get RFA Shane Pinto under contract, and hope they can entice Linus Ullmark to sign an extension.
What did you think of the Senators’ July 1st transactions? In the spirit of Jim Carr, please try to keep your comments within the boundaries of good taste, and as always thanks for reading!
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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