Ottawa Senators Armchair GM Part 2: Defense And Goaltenders
A few days ago, I wrote a blog as the Armchair GM for the Ottawa Senators for the 2015-16 season. For that post though, I was only focussing on the forwards. Today, I will do part 2 where I focus on defensemen and goaltenders.
At the end of it all, here is what the forwards looked like (I was able to shift the lines this time):
I think that looks pretty good so far, but let’s move onto the defense. Here are the moves that I made as a fake general manager.
1. Force Chris Phillips to Retire
This seems quite harsh, but I really don’t know what else to do with him. There’s no way he’s an NHL caliber defenseman anymore, and Dave Cameron realized that this past season. His cap hit is still pretty large ($2.5 million) for a small budget team, and I doubt any team would take him in a trade. I really wish they had traded him earlier on last year or a couple of years ago, because they could have gotten some value for him.
I understand that he’s been a huge part of this organization and this city, but at the end of the day this is a business. Cutting ties with Phillips is the best move for the team. Buying him out would still cost some money, but maybe he can be convinced to simply retire and leave some money on the table. If not, I would buy him out because he shouldn’t be taking up a roster spot.