Player Discussion Craig Anderson Appreciation Thread

[DrEasy]

He's easily the best goalie this franchise has ever had, would others agree?

Better than;

Lalime
Tugnutt
Rhodes
Gerber
Emery
Leclaire
Hasek *

?

Definitely. It's Anderson, Lalime, Tugnutt in that order for me.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

ive always been critical of Andy not showing up in big games but he played his heart out in those games 6 and 7. Massive respect.

 

[The Lewler]

So what's the succession plan now? Hogberg and hope O'Connor gets back on track one day?

 

[danielpalfredsson]

So what's the succession plan now? Hogberg and hope O'Connor gets back on track one day?

I'm guessing his inconsistent play in the Rangers series has been attributed by management to the back injury he had. He also was very good this season, and at his best in the bigger games (BOS G6, NYR G6, Penguins G6+7). He really hasn't shown any signs of slowing down.

My guess is that the team is comfortable with Anderson for the next year or two until he really shows that he is declining. Bryan Murray a few years back put fourth the idea that Anderson will be able to maintain his level of play into an older than average age since he didn't put a lot of milage on his body earlier in his career.

My guess is the team probably feels Anderson can start long enough until one of the three goalies in the system is ready. In two years, Driedger and Hogberg will be 7 and 6 years removed from their original draft year. If they aren't ready for the NHL by then, they might never be. Although he has only been a pro for two years, Matt O'Connor turns 26 at the start of this season as well. So the guys we have are getting pretty far along in their development.

 

[Sun God Nika]

If Condon wants more than 2.0 or 2 years im fine with Dreidger being back up, lets see what he brings.

 

[mat_sens]

If Condon wants more than 2.0 or 2 years im fine with Dreidger being back up, lets see what he brings.

Hammond would most likely be backing up if Condon doesn't sign

 

[Langdon Alger]

Hammond would most likely be backing up if Condon doesn't sign

I don't think so. If Condon leaves, I think we look for another backup. I don't take Dorion's comments seriously at all about Hammond being here next year.

Darcy Kuemper could be an option if Condon leaves.

 

[Alex1234]

He's checked out lately wow

 

[Engineer]

is it a 12 game losing streak for him now?

 

[Peptic Balcers]

If Condon wants more than 2.0 or 2 years im fine with Dreidger being back up, lets see what he brings.

Oh man are you ever gonna be disappointed

 

[Xspyrit]

Wouldn't surprise me if we are watching the last games for Andy as a Senator. Buying him out this summer makes too much sense, unless a team would trade to get him without sending any salary back. Still, I think he's gone this summer.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Andy has to go to Drama Management classes. I don't think he gets back to his best form without them.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Wouldn't surprise me if we are watching the last games for Andy as a Senator. Buying him out this summer makes too much sense, unless a team would trade to get him without sending any salary back. Still, I think he's gone this summer.

There will be a market for him. There aren't enough NHL goalies to go around, and he has enough of a pedigree that a team might justify acquiring him on the basis that if he is able to put up a 900+ save percentage behind the 31st team in the league, he might be able to return to form else where as a 1B type goalie.

Out of goalies who have played over half the season (35+ games so far) he's top 30 in save percentage.

More importantly, unlike a Reimer, Anderson doesn't have term. This is an advantage when dealing him. A team only has to worry about how Anderson will impact their salary structure for 19-20.

Trading with retained salary makes more sense than a buyout. We can retain 1/3rd of his cap hit and salary wise it'll be the same for us as buying him out, the only difference being with a buyout we'd pay the 2/3rds of salary owed to him over two seasons instead of one.

The only real advantage of a buyout is that his full cap hit will remain on the books, which could help us hit the cap floor. We'd get 4.75M worth of salary cap this year while only spending 1.33M this season and 1.33M next season. Unless we plan very poorly, we probably won't be in a situation where it makes sense to buy Anderson out for that benefit. We could just trade Anderson for an asset, and acquire another asset for taking on an LTIR contract.

There's talk about Hogberg signing in Sweden. This seems like it might be Hogberg's agent using whatever leverage they have to push for a 1 way contract.

Nilsson is not going to come cheap. Teams gamble on backup/1B UFA goalies in his situation all the time, it's how he got the contract he is on now. We're not getting him for any less than 2-3 years at 2.5-3.0 million.

We're in a position where trading Anderson might make sense. Get the pick for him, gamble on Nilsson, retain Hogberg, and continue to develop Gustavsson. If Nilsson falls flat on his face, this isn't a scenario like when we signed Condon or Hammond. The reason being, we're not trying to compete right now, so every dollar doesn't really count. Even with our supposed limited budget until 2021, we should have loads of salary to work with, so using some of it to retain Nilsson shouldn't result in us losing any other UFA/RFA players. At most, it means we won't get that 3rd or 4th tier 3rd or 4th line UFA who we'd overpay.

 

[Xspyrit]

There will be a market for him. There aren't enough NHL goalies to go around, and he has enough of a pedigree that a team might justify acquiring him on the basis that if he is able to put up a 900+ save percentage behind the 31st team in the league, he might be able to return to form else where as a 1B type goalie.

Out of goalies who have played over half the season (35+ games so far) he's top 30 in save percentage.

More importantly, unlike a Reimer, Anderson doesn't have term. This is an advantage when dealing him. A team only has to worry about how Anderson will impact their salary structure for 19-20.

Trading with retained salary makes more sense than a buyout. We can retain 1/3rd of his cap hit and salary wise it'll be the same for us as buying him out, the only difference being with a buyout we'd pay the 2/3rds of salary owed to him over two seasons instead of one.

The only real advantage of a buyout is that his full cap hit will remain on the books, which could help us hit the cap floor. We'd get 4.75M worth of salary cap this year while only spending 1.33M this season and 1.33M next season. Unless we plan very poorly, we probably won't be in a situation where it makes sense to buy Anderson out for that benefit. We could just trade Anderson for an asset, and acquire another asset for taking on an LTIR contract.

There's talk about Hogberg signing in Sweden. This seems like it might be Hogberg's agent using whatever leverage they have to push for a 1 way contract.

Nilsson is not going to come cheap. Teams gamble on backup/1B UFA goalies in his situation all the time, it's how he got the contract he is on now. We're not getting him for any less than 2-3 years at 2.5-3.0 million.

We're in a position where trading Anderson might make sense. Get the pick for him, gamble on Nilsson, retain Hogberg, and continue to develop Gustavsson. If Nilsson falls flat on his face, this isn't a scenario like when we signed Condon or Hammond. The reason being, we're not trying to compete right now, so every dollar doesn't really count. Even with our supposed limited budget until 2021, we should have loads of salary to work with, so using some of it to retain Nilsson shouldn't result in us losing any other UFA/RFA players. At most, it means we won't get that 3rd or 4th tier 3rd or 4th line UFA who we'd overpay.

You say "the only real advantage" like it was a marginal one but in Ottawa's situation with ownership, it's a MAJOR advantage. 4.75 of "free cap hit" is invaluable for Melnyk. Plus, as Condon will probably be get rid of, it allows them to sign Nilsson and Hogberg, 2 goalies that won't cost that much (between 1.0 and 2.5 per each) but still bring the Sens a bit more towards the cap floor.

The Sens are currently severely under the cap floor for next season, even counting the Gaborik and MacArthur contracts... They only have a few RFAs to sign in White, Wolanin, Ceci and Duclair.

You say "Unless we plan very poorly, we probably won't be in a situation where..." but I'm not sure how you envision the Sens to reach the cap FLOOR of 62 M$ next season

 

[danielpalfredsson]

You say "the only real advantage" like it was a marginal one but in Ottawa's situation with ownership, it's a MAJOR advantage. 4.75 of "free cap hit" is invaluable for Melnyk. Plus, as Condon will probably be get rid of, it allows them to sign Nilsson and Hogberg, 2 goalies that won't cost that much (between 1.0 and 2.5 per each) but still bring the Sens a bit more towards the cap floor.

The Sens are currently severely under the cap floor for next season, even counting the Gaborik and MacArthur contracts... They only have a few RFAs to sign in White, Wolanin, Ceci and Duclair.

You say "Unless we plan very poorly, we probably won't be in a situation where..." but I'm not sure how you envision the Sens to reach the cap FLOOR of 62 M$ next season

We're at 46 million with 14 players signed. Even if we only added in cheap players at an average of 800k each, we'd already be up to almost 52 million with a full roster.

Even if we trade Anderson and Ceci which brings us down to around 47 million, we'd still have to pay any combination of White, Duclair, Nilsson, and possibly Lindberg, all of which will add a few million each to that number. Even if we bridge White, those four players cost minimum (probably higher, but I am trying to be conservative to prove a point) 8 million together, that would bring us up to about 52 million for a 23 player roster.

10 million below the cap floor with extremely conservative estimates. That's not a difficult bridge to gap. If Ceci is kept until the deadline, that turns into 5-6 million below the cap floor depending on what Ceci gets in arbitration (he'll have a 4.35M qualifying offer, so that's his minimum salary).

We phone up Detroit and offer to take Zetterberg+Franzen or phone up Vegas and offer to take Clarkson, etc, etc. That 10 million gets eaten up pretty quickly with the same benefits of buying Anderson out (not having to spend 10 million), except we get assets through trading Anderson and taking bad contracts.

We almost certainly will not be in a situation where we have to pass on getting a draft pick for Anderson because we want his buyout cap hit to help us hit the floor.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

We need Andy next year.

“Andy stays a year... for Lafreniere!”

#theplan

 

[Alex1234]

We need Andy next year.

“Andy stays a year... for Lafreniere!”

#theplan

This

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

This

Not that I wish any ill harm, but good chance that Andy will be sidelined for his usual ‘tweaks’ to let the other couple of goalies get in 4-5 games next year too.

 

[Tuna99]

Andy showed up to camp angry this year, and that to me seemed out of sorts. Somethings not right if Andy is angry on day 1. You can’t be in a rebuild and be angry at everything.

I get it maybe the team sold him they were going for it when he signed, but Andy built so much good will in the city it all kinda disappeared when his trade request came out.

 

[Sens]

Andy showed up to camp angry this year, and that to me seemed out of sorts. Somethings not right if Andy is angry on day 1. You can’t be in a rebuild and be angry at everything.

I get it maybe the team sold him they were going for it when he signed, but Andy built so much good will in the city it all kinda disappeared when his trade request came out.

Can you blame Andy for requesting a trade? Rosters a tire fire

 

[Yak]

In all respect for Andy I would love to have him retire as a Sen, he does deserve that. Now would management let that happen I don't know they probably send him to AHL to save a few bucks or something crazy.

On the other hand our current situation Andy is best served as a mentor, their is nothing for him to prove as a Sen.

Condon is done and needs a fresh start somewhere else. Nilsson has some really good moments in front of a really bad defense but this could be as good as he gets.

Goaltending situation should have been planned much better then it has and things may get worse before they get better.

Realistically you sign Nilsson on a two year deal and who ever wins the backup role in training camp and see how the chips fall.

I am not confident in our goaltending depth as others here but I hope I am wrong.

 

[Neil Patrick Harris]

Andy showed up to camp angry this year, and that to me seemed out of sorts. Somethings not right if Andy is angry on day 1. You can’t be in a rebuild and be angry at everything.

I get it maybe the team sold him they were going for it when he signed, but Andy built so much good will in the city it all kinda disappeared when his trade request came out.

Not with me. I'm not gonna blame the guy for not wanting to spend his twilight years on a franchise that's determined to race to the bottom as quickly as possible.

 

[Sweatred]

I think Anderson has been the franchises best goalie. He negotiated a large contract that pushed him into his 36+ years . He requested a trade and I assume the message was “no body will take you on”. So he got the $$$ but it has limited his flexibility. Next year the Sens can save $$$ if they buy him out but his best years, and chance of jumping on a playoff run, are probably behind him. I wish him the best... it was clear he wanted out but his only option was to hold out and give up his pay cheque when he still has $12 million on the books. That wasn’t going to happen. I wonder hote much of his early season strong play was Anderson trying to attract trade interest.

 

[Alex1234]

Not that I wish any ill harm, but good chance that Andy will be sidelined for his usual ‘tweaks’ to let the other couple of goalies get in 4-5 games next year too.

His annual ''Christmas break''

 

[Alex1234]

Been how many months since his last W?