Worries Galore Part 2

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @a_santiago1517!



    It's been fifty-six days since the Ottawa Senators played their final game of the 2012-2013 campaign, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference SemiFinals. It's been fourteen days since the Free Agency period began, and what a crazy fourteen days it's been. If you want to get all the details of what happened on Day 1, I'll drop the link below. For the most part, Ottawa has been able to bring in some great talent to compete and get a step closer to the thing every team competes for, the Stanley Cup. However, there are still some questions that still haven't been resolved by Ottawa management, and it's starting to become a bit worrisome. Bryan Murray has been able to retain:

- Forward, Erik Condra
- Forward, Mike Hoffman
- Forward, David Dziurzynski
- Defenseman, Mark Borowiecki
- Goalie, Nathan Lawson

    Like I said, for the most part Bryan Murray locked up the players he felt would be a great fit with the direction the team is going. However, as you can see, all these players with the exception of Erik Condra are all AHL players. There are still two big names that need to sign the dotted line in Ottawa, and those two players are Defensemen, Jared Cowen and Patrick Wiercioch. We already know that Ottawa wants them back without a doubt as these two players are well on their ways to making the roster come October. Cowen, who should've been in the NHL roster, was sidelined basically the whole season with injury, and Wiercioch came in relief and did well in his stint up with the Senators.
     So, considering the fact, that both these players have proven that they are NHL ready, they will be asking for a higher dollar amount than they had before, especially Wiercioch who is coming off his entry level deal. Cowen is coming off a season highlighted by injury and sloppy play in the time he returned, so those will be highly detrimental in any negotiations he may try to have.
    I'm curious to see what the asking prices are for both of these players. Ottawa has been pretty quiet on this front, and it's a bigger deal than many expect it to be considering the lack of depth in defense with the departure of Sergei Gonchar. As of now, the Senators only have five defensemen signed throughout the 2013-2014 season. I want to say that I'm almost a hundred percent sure that Murray will get them signed, but as we saw with Alfie, nothing is a guarantee, especially if the money is coming from Eugene Melnyk.


Worries Galore Part I : http://bit.ly/17pnpgE

Day 1 of Free Agency: http://bit.ly/15rIVAe



Thanks for reading!