The Senators have been active this past week. The biggest moved they made since the off-season has officially started and that was moving up from nine and made a trade with the Anaheim Ducks to the third slot on this Saturday’s draft. They paid a hefty price of moving out prospect forwards Marcus Granlund, Bill Arnold, and defender Tyson Barrie, along with the 39th pick in this year’s Draft.
With moving up to the third overall pick gave the team a chance to select a potential franchise player. The team didn’t tip their cap on who they are leaning towards but rumors are swirling on potential guys they are targeting. It is expected that Nail Yakupov will be taken by the Minnesota Wild with first overall pick, leaving Columbus the only team in front of Ottawa. With high impact players such a slick offensive defenseman in Ryan Murray from the WHL, Highly skilled winger in Filip Forsberg, a solid two way defender in Griffin Reinhardt, and OHL skilled center Alex Galchenyuk who missed the season from a ACL tear.
“We can go really anyway in this draft. We spent some time with these kids at the combine two weeks ago and these kids showed a lot and we would be happy to select any of them. Some have us targeting a defenseman in mock drafts, but we’ll take the best player available, so if Nail is there we’ll take him.”, said Burkholder jokingly.
Rumors were swirling a blockbuster was in the works for the Senators but an insider has said the deal is all but dead and the team is moving on with their off-season plans. There was no idea who the player in question was, or who the other team was as that remains a mystery. The team did make a deal today with the Eastern Conference Champions, the Carolina Hurricanes and they picked up the rights to star goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, and veteran defender Brad Stuart.
Bryzgalov is going to be 32 next season and was one of the major catalyst for the Hurricanes this past season and if he hits the open market he will be the prize for goalies this offseason. The Senators are looking for a legit starter so they can sit Rask for another couple years to make sure he is ready to take over the reigns as a everyday starter. Stuart 33 is a stalwart veteran defender and would bolster their blue line.
“We acquired their rights for a extremely good price for a 5th and a 7th rounder in the 2013 Draft, which is a very a good price and we have talked to their agents and were hoping to hear back from them soon. Brad (Stuart) would bring some really good leadership to our squad and is a nice shut down type of defenseman and that is what we are looking for, add Brad with Robyn, Joni, Alex, and Radek you have a nice core of blue liners and maybe one of the more well-rounded groups in the OTHL. As for Bryzgalov you got to love a work horse like he is. We know Tuukka is our future, but he is still developing nicely he showed he can take over when we made our deadline moves and he looked great out there, but Bryzgalov can steal games and would make our team better right now, and let Tuukka ease into our starting role.”, said Burkholder.
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