Fun with CapGeek: Ottawa Senators Style

UPDATE: The Ottawa Senators have officially signed Francis Lessard and David Hale, both to one-year, two-way contracts. Lessard last played with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL, while Hale actually played 39 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning last season. Bingo bound.

It’s August 4th, which means the fourth day of the most boring 31 days in the hockey world. Teams are fighting for scraps on the free agent market, and general managers are starting to evaluate their players for the upcoming season. The general fan is likely hanging on the fence, reading the Ottawa Sun for everything new on the Senators. The crazy fan like myself is refreshing tsn.ca every second, hoping Ottawa signs Paul Kariya or trades for Andrew Cogliano. Something like that.

Click “Continue Reading” to find out how the Ottawa Senators should stand next season according to Cap Geek.

To cure your off-season sickness, Cap Geek is an amazing tool at your disposal to calculate and see how your team is building up for the next season. One advantage is that you’re available to move players around, and choose prospects from the minors who you think should be able to make the team out of Training Camp.

I start with the players up front. Barring any injuries or rooks making waves at Camp, our Top 13 should be set. Here’s how I think it plays out and their salaries according to CG.

Peter Regin ($1 million) – Jason Spezza ($7 million) – Daniel Alfredsson ($4.875 million)
Milan Michalek ($4.333 million) – Mike Fisher ($4.2 million) – Alex Kovalev ($5 million)
Nick Foligno ($1.2 million) – Zack Smith ($0.583 million) – Ryan Shannon ($0.625 million)
Jarkko Ruutu ($1.3 million) – Chris Kelly ($2.125 million) – Chris Neil ($2 million)
Jesse Winchester ($0.75 million)

Now I’m not saying those lines above are definite, because I still believe we could see Michalek bump up to the first line and El Capitano play alongside Fisher and Kovalev. But those 13 should stay just like that. Now, let’s see what we have on D.

First Option

Sergei Gonchar ($5.5 million) – Chris Phillips ($3.5 million)
Filip Kuba ($3.7 million) – Erik Karlsson ($1.3 million)
Matt Carkner ($0.7 million) – Chris Campoli ($1.4 million)
Jared Cowen ($1.295 million)

Second Option

Those two option show the three defensemen who will be battling for a spot on the lineup. Brian Lee and Patrick Wiercioch have the same salary, while Jared Cowen is making slightly more than $1 mil. Let’s look at the masked men now:

Pascal Leclaire ($3.8 million)
Brian Elliott ($0.85 million)

This is where it gets a bit complicated. Since the Sens owe two buy-outs to Ray Emery and Jonathan Cheechoo, and a bonus buy-out to Daniel Alfredsson, that means cap space left goes slightly down. But because of a bonus cushion set with the new $59.4 million salary cap, Bryan Murray will be left with either $1.284 million left in space if Jared Cowen makes it, or if Brian Lee/Patrick Wiercioch makes it, and due to bonuses being given to Cowen and not to Lee or Patrick, than the Sens will have $1.279 million left in space. Not a huge difference from the previous but somewhat still matters.

So, with the available cap space left, is there room for any more on-eway signings? Well, we all know The Bryan would love some change go into the season in order to make some Trade Deadline moves if needed, so don’t count on it. Binghamton’s lineup is also set to roll minus maybe one defenseman.

What does this also tell us? John Muckler screwed us over so so much, and the Dany Heatley trade was clearly a face wash. But hey, I see this lineup way better than what we started with last season. Goal-scoring, hard work, and a re-juvenated Power Play. The pieces are falling into place.

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