Yahoo Sports Will Ottawa Senators GM Steve Staios Jump Into The NHL Trade Market This Season?
Ahead of Sunday night's 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars, Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios met with the media to discuss the team's performance and outlook at the halfway point of the season.
If the previous regime can be accused of saying too much and being too liberal with their reflections and information, the opposite is true of management now.
Staios refused to discuss the specifics of the player injuries and a prospective Claude Giroux contract extension, but one obvious recurring theme from the answers he provided is that when it comes to improving this roster, do not expect the organization to make any significant external additions.
When asked about exploring the market to address the blue line's quality of depth, the general manager alluded to the Eastern Conference playoff race and the opportunities afforded to their internal depth options.
"If you look at the standings, everybody seems to be in it," Staios said. "It's a little more challenging for anybody to make a commitment on doing one or the other at this point in time.
"But, as far as going and making trades, I could go and explore bringing in a defenseman, and then we wouldn't have been able to see what Nik Matinpalo could do. We can all see that there's potential there. We have players internally who are developing through our system at Belleville and are getting a look right now. So, that's where we're at at this point in time, and our depth, with all the injuries our depth is hanging in there. We've had players come up and play higher in the lineup and thrust into some situations, and they've handled it pretty well."
The reality of the Senators' situation is that their pipeline is not exactly brimming with prospects right now. Despite being in year eight of the team's rebuild, the Senators' prospect cupboard has depth, but outside of Carter Yakemchuk, the system is devoid of safely projectable high-end upside.
Conveniently, The Athletic's Scott Wheeler revealed today that the Senators hold the 27th-highest system in his annual organizational rankings. Looking at the teams that fell behind the Senators -- Florida, Dallas, Boston, Edmonton and Toronto -- it is a spot often reserved for teams in the Stanely Cup contention phase of their respective franchise's development curve. In the Senators' case, they are vying for a wild card seed and do not appear close to that contention phase. Poor drafts and well-intended but incredibly risky trades blew up in the organization's face, robbing it of a considerable amount of draft capital.
Given the circumstances, it would be hard to blame Staios for having reservations about moving more future assets out the door and potentially shortchanging this rebuild further. It may make sense for the organization to hope for internal growth or view players returning from injury like David Perron, Michael Amadio, or Linus Ullmark as their own roster additions.
"I'll continue to look at options now to try and help the group out in certain ways," Staios explained. "(I'll continue to) watch the group grow internally as well with some of these call-ups that are coming up. But certainly, we'll keep an eye on it.
"It's nice to be having that conversation right now. We're at game 41; there's still time as we lean towards the trade deadline. It's really nice to have those thoughts, and this group has earned that by their play and taking that first step. But it's just the initial step. We have a long way to go, but certainly, if I can find a way to help out the group, I will."
If the circumstances were different, Staios could be more aggressive or be open to moving high-round draft picks. However, the punishment for Pierre Dorion's mishandling of the Evgenii Dadonov no-trade list has weighed on the general manager's mind.
"Yeah, it comes into play," Staios referenced while describing his openness to potentially moving this year's first-rounder. "We do have to pay our debt to the league in this situation. There are ways to do it without (moving a first-round-pick).
"We'll look at all ways to be able to do that. I don't think a first-round pick is the only way to do it."
The Senators' cap situation is the other issue compounding their ability to add a player of consequence. PuckPedia lists them as having $89.78 million committed to their payroll with $80,000 available in cap space. Money would have to go out the door for the team to make a significant addition who carries a larger cap hit.
He never addressed whether he would be comfortable moving a player off the parent roster to facilitate that kind of trade, but given Staios' deft ability to use a lot of words and avoid tipping his hand, I don't believe he would have acknowledged that possibility. He would likely prefer to avoid creating any kind of roster uncertainty.
The route that makes the most sense, given how congested the standings are. The limited supply with the surplus of teams looking to make additions should, in theory, drive the prices to spots the Senators should be uncomfortable paying.
Staios joined the 'Coming in Hot Podcast' this morning, where he reflected on this possibility.
"The group will dictate on and where we're at," the general manager said. "Up until this point in time, they're showing that we're in the mix.
"I've never seen this in any year with the amount of teams that are so close, especially on our side. So we'll continue to watch, but certainly, I'm looking at trying to improve this team in certain ways. We have some ideas on how we can do it. Of course, I'm willing to help. And I don't know if deviating from the plan (is the way to go). I think there's ways to be able to do this, where we can help without deviating from the plan moving forward."
One way to create more cap space would be to dump Anton Forsberg's $2.75 million cap hit. According to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun, the Carolina Hurricanes were interested in his services last month.
Barring that kind of move, given the prices and the circumstances, it just makes more sense for the Senators to try and improve the margins where the prices should be lower. If the team can improve their third pairing or depth forwards, they should jump at the opportunity -- especially in a few instances where the bar for improvement is relatively low.
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