BlueAndWhite
Registered User
Monday, January 26, 2003 -
It seems the Ottawa Senators' management team cannot make up their minds. After promising a major shakeup and a youth movement just three days ealier, GM Fernandes retracted his statements earlier this morning.
"We have tested the market and it seems like this really isn't a seller's market. A lot of teams simply cannot afford high-price talent. The teams that do have young, cheap talent are WISELY holding on their players. It is in this team's best interest to keep together the core in order to have a chance at the HFNHL Championship. Make no mistake, we still want to be fiscally sound. We do want to be competitive year in and year out. We still have some work to do but the core group of guys are going to stay in Ottawa for a while."
Shortly after his comments - news from the HFNHL office indicated that the Senators had pulled off two trades and a roster move -
The first trade saw beloved Senators d-man Wade Redden head to Boston along with 4th line centre Erik Rasmussen. In exchange the Senators received centre Michal Handzus, defenseman Nick Boynton, $200,000 and a 5th round pick.
GM Fernandes had these comments on the deal;
"I know Redden was IMMENSELY liked by the Senators fans and he was a Senators draft pick. It was hard to part with Wade, but we are ecstatic over the return. Our staff likes Handzus a lot. He gives us a BIG, strong centre with an above average defensive game. We feel his NHL offense could see a nice jump in the coming years with the Flyers. As it stands his production is around 45-50 pts with 25 goal capability. He's only 26 and big forwards always take longer to develop. Our centre depth is the best in the league, bar none IMO, and all of them are great defensively as well.
Nick Boynton is the key to the deal however. Our scouts have pined over this kid for a long time now and to have him play for the Senators is a boon. He's going to be a very good two-way, 'yet more inclined defensively', d-man in this league for a long time to come.
When you factor in the salary, which is a huge thing for us - we save roughly 2.45 million in this deal in the two players swap, plus we have another 200,000 and a 5th rounder to work with."
The other Senator deal involved the Vancouver Canucks. The Sens shipped Dave Andreychuk and Sammy Pahlsson to the Canucks in return for Jerred Smithson, $650,000 and a 5th round pick in 2005.
"Dave Andreychuk is an NHL veteran that would be a great addition to any team. However, at his salary, this was a move we simply had to make. Dave had nearly a million dollars left on his salary for this year and we couldn't afford him."
The Senators designated veteran Adam Graves for assignment and placed him on waivers. If he goes unclaimed, it is expected that he will not report to the Senators minor league affiliate and retire.
Rumours out of Ottawa also indicate that Luc Robitaille could be headed to Florida and that Ray Whitney is the next to go.
-Dash Domi
