Looking at Defense

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    There is no doubt that the Ottawa Senators made some splashes last Friday at the beginning of Free Agency. The Senators started off the day by informing the media that Daniel Alfredsson would not return after spending his 18 year career in Ottawa. Alfredsson went on to sign with the Red Wings. However, Ottawa management made some moves to attempt to replace the Captain. The Senators first made a move to bring in former Toronto Maple Leaf, Clarke MacArthur to add some scoring to the lineup, and then the biggest splash in my opinion was Ottawa striking a deal with Anaheim to bring in scoring winger, Bobby Ryan to the nation's capital. Ottawa addressed the scoring needs that GM Bryan Murray has talked about. However, the Senators addressed the offensive side of the roster, but how about the defensive side of it?
    The Senators were very undercover this offseason defensively as they let go of Sergei Gonchar before the Draft, and Andre Benoit to Colorado, but then brought in Joe Corvo from Carolina. Let's take a look at what defensemen Ottawa have as of today including some RFA's who in my mind, are no brainers that should be back in Ottawa come October. All players with an asterisk are still unsigned. As of today, Ottawa's defensemen are:

1. Erik Karlsson
2. Marc Methot
3. Chris Phillips
4. Jared Cowen*
5. Patrick Wiercioch*
6. Joe Corvo
7. Mark Borowiecki
8. Eric Gryba
9. (Cody Ceci)

    First off, I placed Cody Ceci in parentheses simply due to the fact that Management has made it clear that they'd like to see Ceci get a year in the AHL to develop before making the jump to the NHL. So, although he is listed as a defensemen, it is very unlikely to see him make an NHL start this season. On the other hand, other than Erik Karlsson, Marc Methot, Chris Phillips, and former Ottawa Senator, Joe Corvo; meanwhile everyone else's name is not written in stone. As we all know, there are only 8 spots for defensemen in an NHL roster, so let's look at what Ottawa has now. Also, these pairings are what I believe we will see next season barring any other moves made for a defensemen by Bryan Murray, but that seems unlikely at this point.

Karlsson-Methot
Cowen-Wiercioch
Corvo-Phillips
?-?

   Assuming that Ottawa indeed decides to part ways with promising young defensemen Patrick Wiercioch, I expect to see something along those lines at the beginning of the season.  However, with these players for the most part set in stone, and with two roster spots left, who will fill those spots in? With Gonchar and Benoit gone, you have Borowiecki, Gryba, and Cody Ceci left with two spots left. However, like I stated before, Ottawa would like for Ceci to have at least a year of AHL experience under his belt. I think you can pencil Gryba in for next season, but you have to be aware that he will struggle fully transitioning to the NHL level. We saw glimpses of hope from Gryba last season but he only tallied 2 goals and 4 assists, with a plus/minus of -6 in 33 games played for the Sens last season. Although, you would tend to believe that Gryba is a heavy favorite to take one of the two remaining spots. However, I  am not fond on the idea of having a Gryba-Borowiecki 4th line pairing. I'd much rather have Murray make a move to bring in a veteran D-man to play alongside one of the two younger defensemen. I listed a Corvo-Phillips defensive pairing simply because I cannot bear to watch Phillips play with anyone else. I am not a Chris Phillips fan, and I'm pretty sure that Ottawa will let him walk when his contract expires at the end of this season. However, he did play well when he was paired with Corvo in their Cup run in 2006-2007. It will be interesting to see what happens if they are paired together this season, which I expect to happen. Ottawa is a very young team. However, having two rookies in a defensive pairing can be very dangerous. There are many veteran defensemen left out there, and the option of making a trade is still not out of the works for the Senators. It'd be great to have another veteran defensemen on the back-end, but then again this is only my two cents, and others may have different opinions. There are many questions that are yet to be answered, but only time will tell. All is looking well on offense, or so it seems, but defense is the biggest concern at the moment.



Thanks for reading!