I had given some thought to offering Hartnell a contract and I think the answer is no. Currently, Scott Hartnell, Troy Brouwer and Chris Stewart are all on the market and I have thought about for a while whether it would be worthwhile to sign any of them or give them a camp invite.
I think part of the problem is trying to figure out what the purpose of this season is and how to move the organization forward in the best direction. Looking at the forward group there are only two core players in Mark Stone and Matt Duchene. Pageau and Dzingel may or may not be good long term pieces so it is hard to determine whether they should be part of the core or whether they are expendable as part of this rebuild. The rest of the forward group in Gaborik, Ryan, Smith and Pyatt is basically dead weight; they will stick around for a little while longer but they aren't core pieces. Hartnell, Brouwer and Stewart are all kind of like that as well; they could be useful for a season or so but they aren't core pieces.
Given that Stone and Duchene are the only core forwards, it makes sense to build the rest of the core around the prospects. Now it is highly debatable about whether it makes sense long term to give a bunch of prospects NHL roles this season, but it is still worth discussing. To me, the current forward core in the prospect group is Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Logan Brown, Drake Batherson and Alex Formenton. The next group that might be part of the core but I am less sure about are Nick Paul, Filip Chlapik, Gabriel Gagne and possibly Adam Tambellini. I included Tambellini because he is still pretty young and with his size, speed and shot he could be a valuable piece moving forward.
Formenton will get sent back to the OHL if he doesn't make the team and the rest will get sent to the AHL. So part of the question is whether it is worthwhile to give a chance for a handful of Tkachuk, White, Brown, Batherson, Formenton, Paul, Chapik, Gagne and Tambellini to make the team or to fill out the rest of the roster will temporary pieces like Hartnell, Brouwer and Stewart. Maybe if the Sens move one of Gaborik, Ryan, Smith or Pyatt, otherwise it is just delaying the core from being built and getting experience playing together in the NHL.
If we had our first round pick this year then it could have made sense to fill out the roster with temporary pieces, but otherwise to create some excitement for the fans and to build for the future it might be best to give more prospects a shot.
