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The newest edition of the Thursday Think Tank after taking last week off:
Jack Capuano as an assistant?
UPDATE: Just hours after posting this, the Capuano news became official:
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DJ Smith will have to assemble his coaching staff over the next little while, and the first name we have heard is former New York Islanders bench boss Jack Capuano:
Capuano spent parts of seven seasons on Long Island, and in that time, they made the playoffs three times with just one playoff series victory. He has been an assistant coach in Florida over the past two seasons, so he has a bevy of experience in the NHL. Considering Smith’s lack of head coaching experience in the NHL, it might not be the worst idea to have someone like Capuano on the staff. I never got the sense that he was one of the best coaches during his time in New York but it probably won’t matter too much if he is just an assistant in Ottawa.
Pierre Dorion said that he expects most of the staff to be assembled by the draft, so a Capuano hiring could come shortly, followed by other hirings afterwards.
Erik Karlsson’s worth
To nobody’s surprise, it was announced that Erik Karlsson underwent successful groin surgery on May 31st but will be available to begin the season:
Everybody knew that he was hurt, and he has now had his fair share of significant injuries throughout his career. He has been able to play through many of them and Karlsson at 80% is still an extremely talented player, but it certainly changes the conversation about him and his upcoming contract. Will he even get the maximum seven years in free agency now? I feel like lots of teams will be scared away by his injury history, especially with something such as a groin.
I would have been more than comfortable giving him $10.5M back in September, but now it seems like fewer and fewer people would be willing to even give him $9M. I still think he will be a star player moving forward, although it’s fair to be a bit worried about his ability to play to his full potential. I would obviously take him back if he was willing to sign in Ottawa, although the narrative surrounding him looks much different than it did a year ago.
What will he be able to get on the open market then? It’s so difficult to say, because perhaps no teams are willing to give him a high cap hit for more than four or five years. Despite their cap troubles, I could still somehow see Tampa Bay scooping him up because of their lack of taxes. It’s anybody’s guess as to how other teams around the league will evaluate him though.
Cost Per Pointcast Draft Series
With me being away for the first few weeks of June, my Cost Per Pointcast co-host Colin Cudmore is doing a fantastic job taking over for the podcast and is running an interesting mini-series called Draft Debaters:
There will be four episodes in this mini-series, with part 1 out already. Each episode, Colin will bring on two writers/scouts to debate various prospects from the upcoming draft, and the first conversation between Colin, Steve Kournianos, and Larry Fisher was very informative. There are some amazing guests lined up for the next three episodes, so keep an eye out for those if you are interested in some draft content.
You can take a sneak peek at the latest episode right here!
Nick Ebert rumour
Murray Pam reported yesterday that Ottawa could be signing former LA Kings 2012 7th round pick Nick Ebert:
Ebert was a projected top-10 pick going into his draft year but his stock fell so far that he wasn’t picked until dead last (211th) by the Kings. He played three seasons in the AHL and has spent the past two seasons in the SHL and KHL. He posted a solid 33 points in 49 games for Orebro HK this year and had 19 points in 44 games for Bratislava Slovan in the KHL in 2017-18. Since he is right-handed, he will instantly be quite high on the Senators depth chart because of their dearth of options.
This signing has not been confirmed yet, nor are there any details regarding if this is a two-way contract or not. I would assume that this is a deal for AHL depth and not an NHL signing, but he may very well get a chance in the NHL for the first time in his career. His previous high in points in the AHL came in 2016-17 for the Texas Stars where he scored 25 points in 68 games. As with most of these signings, there is no downside in at least giving him an opportunity.
Jason Spezza to Ottawa is a real possibility
Jason Spezza has already brought up the possibility about coming back to Ottawa, and Elliotte Friedman added fuel to the fire recently:
Friedman is very connected in the business, so this could very well happen. We know that the Senators want to sign at least one veteran free agent this off-season, and Spezza won’t be very expensive considering his production over the past two seasons. It’s not as if I was doubting the chances that Spezza would come back to Ottawa before Friedman said this, but it certainly makes it look very likely that it will happen now.
I’m excited for giggles to come home.
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