What Has Happened To Chris Phillips?

Ever since Chris Phillips, Chris Neil, and Zack Smith went down with injuries, the team has gone on a magical run. Even with the loss to the New York Rangers last night, they still barely sit in a playoff spot. Of course lots of this amazing stretch are due to luck, but the team has also played much better. The fact that Phillips, Neil and Smith have been out for all this team coincides with the team’s success is no coincidence.

The most amazing part of this is the Phillips situation. He hasn’t played a game since February 5th against the Capitals, and he has been forgotten by the entire fan base. He had been scratched multiple times throughout the year (mostly by Dave Cameron), but for the past two months almost he has been “injured” by wear and tear, but that most likely means his back.

It’s a fascinating turn of events, because earlier in the year he was getting playing time with Erik Karlsson on the first pairing under Paul MacLean. But for the past few seasons now, Phillips has been a below replacement level defenseman. In his hey-day, he was a quality second pairing player, but now at the age of 37 he doesn’t bring much use to Ottawa.

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While almost all Senators fans realize this, the organization still feels they owe a bit to him, and I see where they are coming from. He recently passed Daniel Alfredsson in the most games played by an Ottawa Senator, but it would be embarrassing to see him watch from the press-box the rest of the season after accomplishing such an amazing feat.

Phillips must know his limitations, and I doubt he thinks he is better than much of the defensemen currently on the team. I would not be surprised if he was slightly injured, but told the team to release that he has this mysterious injury. Just as likely though, is that Ottawa needed an excuse to keep him out of the lineup, and told him that this wear and tear on his body wouldn’t be able to keep him competitive for a while. Either way, I feel as if this whole scenario is centred around attempting to keep Phillips reputation in tact.

His whole career, he has been a great leader, a fantastic man in the community, and a model citizen. He was good for a while, and many fans loved him. He certainly means a lot to the franchise and I doubt many people dislike him as a person. But everybody knows that his days are numbered. The eye test is never good with him, as he has lost lots of foot speed.

Diving deeper into the numbers, it looks even worse. Here are his five top comparable players for this past season:

If you want evidence that he is a good player, this is not the place to look. All his comparables have awful relative corsi percentages, and their points per 60 are near the bottom of the league. Douglas Murray was once (strangely) considered good, but you can see that in 2011-12, he was pretty awful (Side note: San Jose got 2 2nd round picks for him. I bet Ottawa could have gotten a quality return for Phillips back in 2011).

In fact, of all his teammates this year, only Bobby Ryan and Mika Zibanejad have worse possession numbers without Phillips than if they are with him. Everybody else sees their play drop when Phillips is on the ice, and that is not a coincidence. Luckily, Cameron has realized this, but MacLean did not. It’s a sad turn of events, as he has seen his play drop from an NHL calibre defenseman, to someone who is 8th on the depth chart.

In the end, I think Phillips will retire this year, because realistically there isn’t much interest for him around the league

All of this leads to the question, is Phillips going to retire this year? Somehow he still has one more year left on his deal, but considering Ottawa isn’t likely to play him much (if at all), retirement is a possibility. I think Ottawa looked around in February to see if teams were interested in him, but I doubt anyone would have any interest.

Last year and also in 2011 there were rumours of him being traded, but ultimately nothing came of it. I think looking back, it was a mistake because they could have gotten a first round pick most likely in 2011, and that draft produced a lot of good players. The Senators felt too loyal to him though, and I understand why it must be hard for Bryan Murray to move him.

In the end, I think Phillips will retire this year, because realistically there isn’t much interest for him around the league. He doesn’t have much left in the tank, and I doubt he wants to tarnish his reputation any further. We’ve hardly heard from him at all the last two months, but maybe by summer time he’ll be the talk of the town as he moves into another life of not playing hockey.

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