Breaking: Sens preparing MASSIVE fire sale

This is just insane. No one is safe.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Breaking: Sens preparing MASSIVE fire sale
KeyStone Press

The Ottawa Senators are in a full collapse, losing 11 out of their last 12 games. This, after acquiring star player Matt Duchene and being an overtime loss away from the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016-17.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what changed this year - there's a lot more going wrong than just losing Kyle Turris and Marc MethotErik Karlsson hasn't been quite the same since undergoing ankle surgery, and the team has gone completely dry offensively.

General manager Pierre Dorion has requested that all his players containing no-trade clauses in their contracts provide him with lists of which teams they refuse to be traded to, as reported by Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet. That list includes Erik Karlsson.

The other players on that list are Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman, Derick Brassard, Clarke MacArthur, Zack Smith, Alexandre Burrows, Nate Thompson, Dion Phaneuf, and Johnny Oduya.

That's a very hefty list including some star players and very serviceable depth players. The big ticket item on the list is evidently Karlsson, but players like Hoffman and Brassard among others will garner serious interest on the market.

The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres appear to be in fire-sale mode, or are at least reaching that point, and the Senators may join them. 

One interesting thing to note, in regards to the potential trade of Karlsson, is that there are a couple incredibly gifted Swedish defensemen at the top of the the 2018 NHL draft in Rasmus Dahlin and Adam Boqvist - with the latter being considered as the most "Erik Karlsson-like" defenseman to come out of Sweden since Karlsson himself. 

Dorion and company may be aware of this, and if the team continues to freefall, they may bite the bullet and reset themselves with a "new" Karlsson.

Source: Sportsnet