If they were smart, the Ottawa Senators wouldn’t field any calls about trades from these teams.
The trade deadline is right around the corner, folks. Just seven days away from the most hectic time of the regular season and already the Ottawa Senators have hit a snag.
Whether the snag stems from trying to re-sign their UFAs, deciding which trade offer is the best, or having no idea how to run a hockey team, the Sens are beginning to feel the pressure and may want to make a deal quickly.
But if management/ownership knew what was good for them, they would avoid trading any of their players to the teams listed below.
Toronto Maple Leafs
No, this writer is not saying that you shouldn’t trade with your division rivals. What this writer is saying is that you shouldn’t trade with your division rivals if there is nothing to gain from the trade. Trading with the Leafs isn’t too bad of an idea, they have plenty of young forwards to trade away. But they will not be looking to trade for more offense, which is really all the Senators can offer them.
Also, given their roster, the Maple Leafs are going to be a playoff contender for the next few years, devaluing any draft picks the Sens may receive in return. Plus, the Leafs are probably going to involve Nikita Zaitsev in the trade, a sub-par defenseman making $4.5 million per year until 2024. Taking him from the Leafs would give them cap space to re-sign Mitch Marner in the summer, something the Sens shouldn’t allow their rivals to do without making them pay a steep price.
Winnipeg Jets
The front-runner to land Mark Stone before the deadline, the Jets don’t really have a lot to offer the Jets.
Winnipeg is going into an off-season where 11 players on their current active roster have expiring contracts. They will have just north of $23 million to sign them, and a few won’t be re-signed. The Jets may try to send some of those players Ottawa’s way in order to get something for them instead of losing them to free agency. The Sens wouldn’t benefit from this, since those players probably wouldn’t want to re-sign with a rebuilding clown show like Ottawa.
And, like the Maple Leafs, the Jets are a Stanley Cup contender and will be for the next few seasons. Any first round picks given to the Sens would be mid-round at best, something the Sens can’t afford to gamble with given the shaky nature of this rebuild so far.
Colorado Avalanche
Don’t even think about it!
Yes they have over $11 million in cap space, and yes, they have a spare first round pick in this year’s draft (Thanks to the Ottawa Senators), but no, the Sens should not trade with the Avalanche.
They are another team with several contracts expiring in the summer and will have to go on a cap crunch after the off-season. They will not want to take on a larger contract, trade away picks and prospects, then watch the player they traded for leave in free agency.
Going back to Joe Sakic, after the Matt Duchene trade, would make the management group look worse than they already do. They need to wash their hands of that trade as much as they can, and trading with them again would not be the best way to do that.
San Jose Sharks
This one speaks for itself.
The Ottawa Senators do not need to be trading with the team that fleeced them in the Mike Hoffman deal, then turned right around and took Erik Karlsson from them for a minimal return.
They don’t have the proper draft capital and a lot of their top-tier players are approaching or are over 30, so the return wouldn’t really be what a rebuilding franchise is looking for. And like the Maple Leafs, they may try to pawn a bad contract on the Sens in order to free up the funds to re-sign players, most notably Karlsson.
Don’t let the Sharks be to the Sens what the New York Islanders were to Peter Chiarelli (Look up his trade history, he loved getting fleeced in trades by the Islanders), don’t trade with the Sharks and risk losing another trade with them.
Time Keeps On Slipping, Slipping, Slipping
The Ottawa Senators are running out of time. If they can’t make a deal to trade away their UFAs, then they could lose them in free agency and get nothing for them. If they do make a deal to trade away their UFAs, they will likely be scrutinized for trading away two potential faces of the franchise (Stone and Duchene). It’s a lose-lose situation that they have put themselves in. But, they need to avoid trading with the teams mentioned here. It would prevent a poor return for their players, prevent rivals or contenders from having the cap space to sign superstars, and hopefully force the Senators to get creative with how they negotiate with other teams. And that latter reason is something the Sens need to learn how to do.