Analysis, Cuts, Pre-Season, Trade Talk, and Much More!

Hey folks, this is probably the first post without the name of You Know Who in a month, so calm down, breath in and out, and get ready for more Heatley talk! Yeah!

What I think of the trade is so-so. I thought Murray could have done better. The Oilers deal beats this by kilometers but this deal beats the Kings/Sharks deal by miles. I love the acquisition of Milan Michalek. He’s a great second line two-way player who will imediately benefit the team. I see him playing beside Alfredsson or either Fisher, Regin, or another centre. Johnny Cheechoo was a spare part thrown in. I bet Murray didn’t want him but needed to ship Heatley out of town desperately so he took the deal. Cheechoo will likely play LW with Spezza and Kovalev. He’s a gridner who can get low and get the dirty goals. Both play o nthe PP and PK which should immesnly help this team. The second round pick is ok, because Murray’s an amazing drafter, but couldn’t he have gotten a first round pick? San Jose shouldn’t have been that keen on keeping it since they’ll probably be in the bottom 5 of the Draft. This is what I think the lineup will look against the Rangers on October 3rd.

Cheechoo – Spezza – Kovalev
Michalek – Fisher – Alfredsson
Foligno – Regin – Shannon
Neil – Winchester – Ruutu

Kuba – Volchenkov
Phillips – Lee
Picard – Campoli

LeClaire
Elliott

Speaking of roster, the Sens made 9 cuts today. 4 defenseman (Paul Baier, Matt Robinson, Kyle Wharton, and Craig Schira) and 5 forwards (Keegan Dansereau, Brandon Svendsen, Jason Bailey, Matt Lowry, Kaspars Daugavins) were the “victims”. All of them were suspected except I’m a bit suprised by Schira’s cut. He had two great seasons with the Giants and Murray signed him out of there. He looked promising but maybe he was just a depth move. This also may single the end of Kaspars Daugavins, a guy that used to be the Sens top prospects. He never really panned out in Binghamton and will likely be heading back to Europe. Likely cuts to be made next will be forwards Casey Lee and Brett Parnham along with defenseman Drew Bannister and goaltender Chris Holt.

The pre-season starts tomorrow for the Sens in Halifax! Against the Panthers, YAY! The Sens announced the lineup for tomorrow’s game and here’s how it looks like…

Condra – Regin – Shannon
Donovan – Kelly – St.Pierre
Neil – Hennessy – Ruutu
Hamel – Bass – Carkner

Karlsson – Campoli
Picard – Schubert
Bannister – Lee

LeClaire (1st and 2nd period)
Lehner (3rd period)

Finally, before tomorrow’s game, Murray has is talking trade to Panthers GM Randy Sexton. What I’m hearing is just a dump of spare parts between the two teams. As far as I know, I could go down as this…

To FLA: Chris Kelly, Ilya Zubov, Cody Bass
To OTT: Kamil Kreps, Gregory Campbell

Also expect Shean Donovan to be put on waivers after tomorrow’ game unless he scores 20 goals.