Silver Seven Sep 23, 2020
This Amelnykan Life, Episode 16: Vibe Check
Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Is anyone *really* a Senator For Life? Is anyone *really* a Senator For Life? Will the pandemic finally force Melnyk to sell the team? Is the departure of Rookie The Sens Pup a metaphor for the state of the Ottawa Senators in 2020? Which NHL teams have the best vibes? Is Logan Couture a villain for voting? We ask all these questions and so many more in this 16th episode of This Amelnykan Life! The music this week is Fake Flowers by the Summersets. Contact us on Twitter @coolcatmum and @CBeataE or email us...
Silver Seven Sep 23, 2020
Dorion: Anderson Will Not Be Offered an Extension
Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI via The GM spoke to the media today. Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion spoke to the media today, for the first time since June. There were a lot of key takeaways for Sens fans going into the biggest draft in franchise history, but perhaps the most striking among them was Dorion’s confirmation that Craig Anderson has played his last game as an Ottawa Senator. When asked about the 39 year-old’s status as a pending free agent, GMPD confirmed that the team would not be offering Anderson a contract extension. Dorion says they've told Craig Anderson he won't be...
Silver Seven Sep 23, 2020
The Senators Should Make All of Their Draft Picks in the 2020 NHL Draft
Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via The organization needs to look at all their options, especially given the current state of their prospect system. Let me make one thing clear before I begin. Of course the Ottawa Senators should look at all options, and if it means trading away a few of the thirteen draft picks they’ve stockpiled for the 2020 NHL Draft to improve their roster, then so be it. In fact, what I’m here to argue is just that: Pierre Dorion and co. should look at all of their options, including stepping up to the virtual podium and making all of their...
Silver Seven Sep 21, 2020
Monday LNN: A New Logo and No Captain
Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via The Ottawa Senators finally let the worst kept secret on planet earth out of the bag while Head Coach DJ Smith confirmed they’ll go with leadership by committee for the upcoming season. Unlike many of these posts, we have some interesting news from the past few days that does relate to the Ottawa Senators. The long awaited logo release was rushed to the presses while another Senators prospect has signed a deal overseas. That, and a few other items, in this week’s Linked, News, and Notes. Beata kind of got what she wanted... except we didn’t get a...
Silver Seven Sep 19, 2020
Weekly Question
Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/ Connor Brown, Anthony Duclair, and Chris Tierney all need new deals this off-season At the time of writing this, the Ottawa Senators find themselves some ~$20M under the salary cap floor. Rumours continue to swirl about dead contracts the Senators can absorb from cap-crunching teams across the league and about free agents the organization could pick up to round out the roster and get closer to the floor. Internally you can ear-mark players like Joey Daccord, Filip Chlapik, and Rudolfs Balcers for two-way contracts that won’t really move...
Silver Seven Sep 18, 2020
Sens Unveil New Logo
via Ottawa Senators New jerseys coming at the draft The long-awaited Ottawa Senators rebrand is finally underway. As first reported by Brandon Plant of SENSTALK last night, the Ottawa Senators have officially revealed their new primary logo, harkening back to that of the mid-90’s, that was phased out in 2007. News Release: The #Sens have unveiled the team's new primary logo: https://t.co/gviWuCkZNs pic.twitter.com/VBERgIeJ8o— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) September 18, 2020 While strikingly similar to the Sens’ vintage look, the trim on the Senturion’s cape is now gold,...
Silver Seven Sep 18, 2020
Five Thoughts: Rumour Has It...
Photo by Andrea Cardin/NHLI via Things are heating up around the Ottawa Senators. If you’re not a fan of rumours and speculation, the next couple of months are not going to be for you. The eyes of the NHL are slowly turning away from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and to the Ottawa Senators. The sacred chalice has yet to be awarded, sure, but with two top five picks in the upcoming draft, and Pierre Dorion reportedly working the phones already, it’s shaping up to be a highly interesting offseason for the team. There’s also a rebrand happening at some point (?), so that should be fun....
Silver Seven Sep 16, 2020
A Case Study on Handling Defence Prospects: Erik Brännström
Photo by Steven Kingsman/Icon Sportswire via The Ottawa Senators have done an exemplary job with handling the promising Swede’s development this year. If you analyze different areas of the Ottawa Senators’ roster management, you’ll be especially bewildered when looking at their drafting and development of defence prospects. Every team has a mix of successes and busts, but the Senators have taken it to the extreme over the years. Think about it. How does an organization have the smarts to draft the best defenceman of the 2010s in Erik Karlsson, only to simultaneously be the proud...
Silver Seven Sep 15, 2020
2020 NHL Draft Profiles: Russian Forwards
Ruslan Bashkirov was the last Russian drafted by the Senators in 2007. | Photo by Gregory Shamus/ Possession-focused wingers? Power forwards? A neutral zone commander? All available if the Sens dip into Russia this year. 2007. That’s the last time the Ottawa Senators drafted a Russian player. You’ll have to go back two more years to 2005 to find the last player the Sens drafted out of Russia directly as opposed to a CHL Import. With the departure of amateur scout Boris Shagas a few seasons later, the Sens haven’t had a staff based in the area since. While the Sens have a...
Silver Seven Sep 12, 2020
Weekly Question: When was the last time the Sens had four NHL-quality top-four defencemen?
Keep reading to see how this old fan favourite surprised me | Photo by Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Join me for a trip down the blistering hellscape that is the Ottawa Senators defensive depth chart. Here are your four top rearguards by minutes played per game for the last decade (via NHL.com): 2019-20: Thomas Chabot, Nikita Zaitsev, Ron Hainsey, Dylan DeMelo 2018-19: Thomas Chabot, Cody Ceci, Dylan DeMelo, Maxime Lajoie 2017-18: Erik Karlsson, Cody Ceci, Dion Phaneuf, Thomas Chabot 2016-17: Erik Karlsson, Cody Ceci, Dion Phaneuf, Marc Methot 2015-16: Erik Karlsson, Dion...
Silver Seven Sep 9, 2020
Cap Struggle Trade Targets
Loui Loui | Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via The Sens should be aggressive in trying to take these teams’ awful contracts I feel like I’ve been saying this for years, but: once again, the Ottawa Senators should weaponize their cap space by taking on teams’ bad contracts for the right price. The Sens only have nine NHL players under contract for next season, and they also have $39M in cap space, meaning they should be more than fine to take on a bad contract or two. Of course, they can’t take on a contract that will still be here in a few years (think Jeff Skinner’s $9M per year...
Silver Seven Sep 8, 2020
RTP Daily, September 8th: Bolts Blast Isles
Photo by Bruce Bennett/ The Islanders got a rude awakening in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals There are some very real similarities between this New York Islanders team and the 2017 edition of the Ottawa Senators. Besides the most obvious link, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, both out-performed their regular season underlying metrics to get into the play-offs and then got hot at the right moment. Both teams rely on a defense-first system designed to keep opponent attempts to the outside, while hoping that their skilled players would find just enough offense to carry the team over...
Silver Seven Sep 7, 2020
Ryan Wins 2020 Masterton Memorial Trophy
Photo by Matt Zambonin/NHLI via He becomes the second Senator to win the award. The 2020 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy recipient is Ottawa Senators forward Bobby Ryan. The award is given annually to “the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey”. This year’s nominees also included the Philadelphia Flyers’ Oskar Lindblom, and Dallas Stars’ Stephen Johns. In November of 2019, Ryan left the Senators, and entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Upon his return in February of 2020, the 33 year-old winger disclosed...
Silver Seven Sep 7, 2020
Links, News & Notes: Abramov Heads to Finland
Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Matt Dumba’s award, Matt Murray trade rumours and more are in this Monday’s edition of Links, News and Notes! It’s been a packed week of news for the Ottawa Senators and for hockey around the world, to the point where I had to exclude a KHL political boycott for the sake of brevity (well, I guess it’s included now. Regardless, let’s jump into this Monday edition of Links, News and Notes. The Ottawa Senators have made their second player loan of the off-season, with Vitaly Abramov heading to Jukurit in Finland to get some...
Silver Seven Sep 5, 2020
RTP Daily, September 5th: Kiviranta survives the Avalanche; Vegas solves Demko
Photo by Bruce Bennett/ The Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights are the two teams meeting in the Western Conference Final. Friday featured two Game Sevens that couldn’t have been any different. The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche traded blows, with goals coming from ex-Senators and unexpected places, and defence being optional during some periods of play. Meanwhile, watching Vegas yesterday was like trying to watch a team solve an escape room together. With a group that talented, it’s only a matter of time, but you never knew if the clock might just run out on them....
