Marc Methot Saga Continues On Eve Of Training Camp
The Marc Methot contract saga, that I wrote about yesterday, got a lot more interesting and from a Methot fan’s perspective a little uneasy as Senators assistant GM Pierre Dorion fired back at the article in the Ottawa Sun, disputing the numbers put forth by Methot’s agent, Larry Kelly.
While it is speculated that the Methot camp went public with the numbers on the tail of Bryan Murray’s interview with TSN’s Bob McKenzie where Murray stated that if a contract is not agreed to with Methot, then the Senators would investigate trading him, and that they weren’t in the same ballpark where numbers were concerned.
My question is, why would that statement surprise Methot? The Senators have a budget to stick to, and if Methot prices himself out that is his prerogative, but he can’t be shocked if a trade comes up because they can ill afford to lose him for nothing at the end of the season.
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Methot is a good player and a top 4 defenseman, but by no means is he irreplaceable. Whatever the numbers are, which Dorion didn’t make public although McKenzie tweeted out later in the day that the Senators don’t really want to go more than $4.5M per season, the Senators can’t afford to go more than that for that player.
I have said repeatedly that despite the claims of the ownership, you can’t succeed (and by that I mean make a deep playoff run) unless you spend at or near the cap. That remains true, but you also can’t afford to continuously overpay for marginal players. They did it with Colin Greening, they have done it with Craig Anderson and if Methot gets $5M, regardless of what he can make on the open market, that would be another gross overpayment.
Quite frankly, I am surprised they have been willing to go that high for a player who is essentially Chris Phillips of 7 or 8 years ago. Phillips’ salary at that time was $3.5M and if you account for inflation and salary cap rises, about $4.5M would be an appropriate comparison.
Bobby Ryan and Marc Methot are two different players at two different stages in their career and as a result they need to be treated differently. Ryan is expected to be “the man” up front now, and the Senators have to wait for Ryan to be ready to sign an extension and are basically at his mercy. Some have suggested Methot has his nose out of joint over the difference in the way the Senators are handling the two players.
Methot is part of a defense corps that is going to be sitting 2 players every night due to contract status and if they can get value for him in return they have to look in the direction of making a deal.
By going public with the alleged numbers, wherever the truth lies, Kelly has made it tougher to get a deal done and might just be expediting his ticket out of town.
It might still get resolved and they can get back to being one big happy family, but at this point I am not so sure the rift can be repaired.