Tag: Sens Feed

Categories
Hockey Feed

Senators officially cut ties with goaltender Cam Talbot.

Marc DesRosiers/USA TODAY Sports

The Ottawa Senators are moving on.

There had been reports indicating that veteran goaltender Cam Talbot had rejected a contract offer from the Senators during the course of the 2022-23 NHL regular season, and on Monday morning Senators general manager Pierre Dorion confirmed those rumors… and then some.

Dorion not only confirmed that the contract offer had been rejected by Talbot, but shared specific details about the negotiations. Dorion revealed that the Senators offered Talbot a one-year deal with a significant pay cut, understandable given that Talbot posted a 2.93 goals against average and a .989 save percentage over 36 regular season games, not exactly inspiring numbers.

Dorion went on to reveal that Talbot wanted a two-year contract, with rumors suggesting that Talbot also wanted a raise to go along with it. It comes as no surprise that the Senators balked at this suggestion and instead opted to move on from Talbot, something Dorion also confirmed on Monday.

Now that we know that Talbot will not come back next season, the next questions become how will the Senators look to shore up their goaltending in the offseason and where might Talbot end up next?

It seems likely that Talbot’s options will be relatively limited, despite a weak goaltending market this summer, given the struggles he had between the pipes for the Senators this season.

Categories
Hockey Feed

Matthew Barnaby chimes in on the coaching situations in Vancouver and Ottawa.

Craig Melvin/Getty

Over the last several days we have seen a number of coaches around the National Hockey League get their walking papers after their respective teams failed to make the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

At this time of year the question is always who will be the next domino to fall, and although we don’t know the answer to that, it sounds like there are at least 2 coaches who should be feeling pretty safe. On Sunday, former NHL enforcer Matthew Barnaby took to social media and, unprompted, shared his thoughts on the coaching situation currently in Vancouver.

The Canucks of course famously made a mid-season coaching change when they brought in Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet and relieved Bruce Boudreau of his head coaching duties, and Barnaby believes that Tocchet will turn that team around in short order.

“Coaches can make a team or break a team at any level,” said Barnaby on Sunday. “Trust me there are some bad ones. A great one is Rick Tocchet. He is going to change the culture and turn the Canucks into a winner”

Barnaby was asked about a number of other coaches around the league but thus far has only chosen to respond to one of those, a question about DJ Smith’s future in Ottawa. When it comes to Smith, Barnaby wasn’t as confident as he was with Tocchet, but he did suggest that the Sens head coach deserves another season behind the bench.

“I would keep status quo one more year,” admitted Barnaby.

As a former NHL player that played for several teams and under several coaches, and as a former assistant coach in the Ontario Hockey League, Barnaby likely has a pretty good idea of what he is talking about here.

Categories
Hockey Feed

Rumor: DJ Smith sends a harsh message to Cam Talbot.

Marc DesRosiers/USA Today

The Ottawa Senators may have sent a harsh message to veteran goaltender Cam Talbot, and we likely won’t have to wait long to know for sure.

On Thursday night, the Senators suffered an ugly loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers, one in which they gave up 7 goals and only managed to score 2 of their own. Notably absent from that performance however was veteran goaltender Cam Talbot, who was made a healthy scratch by Senators head coach DJ Smith.

You could wave it off as a veteran being rested in a season that is, at least as far as the Senators are concerned, effectively already over, but Ottawa Senators insider Bruce Garrioch doesn’t appear to think so.

From Garrioch:

This decision to scratch Talbot in Florida marked the beginning of the end for him with the Senators. It was a relationship that carried so much hope, but it will end in disappointment as both sides prepare for the breakup.

There are a number of potential reasons why the relationship between the two sides may have deteriorated, not the least of which is contract demands. According to Garrioch, the Senators were prepared to offer Talbot a 1-year extension at a discount earlier in the season, with Talbot’s camp looking for a raise and multiple years on a new deal.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Senators have to be looking back in the rearview mirror at the trade they made to acquire Talbot, a trade that sent goaltender Filip Gustavsson to the Minnesota Wild. Gustavsson has gone on to appear in 36 games for the Wild this season, recording a 2.03 goals against average and a .932 save percentage. Talbot, who was brought in to shore up the Senators’ goaltending situation, appeared in just 35 games this season due in large part to a barrage of injuries, and recorded a 2.89 goals against average and a .900 save percentage.

All this appears to be pointing towards an ugly divorce in Ottawa, with Garrioch indicating on Saturday morning that he doesn’t expect Talbot will play against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, in spite of poor performances from goaltenders Mads Sogaard and Leevi Merilainen in their last outings.

Categories
Hockey Feed

Senators officially shut down 3 players on Saturday.

NHL/Twitter

The Ottawa Senators are throwing in the towel with any hope of making the Stanley Cup playoffs now officially out of reach.

The Senators have 3 games remaining on their regular season schedule with a a matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday followed by a pair of games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres next week, but many of the team’s core players will not be present for those games.

On Saturday, the Senators announced that they would be shutting down 3 defenseman with Jakob Chychrun, Thomas Chabot and Travis Hamonic all wrapping up their seasons prematurely. Chychrun and Chabot are under contract for next season so it makes perfect sense to shut both players down and avoid any potentially serious injuries. Hamonic will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season but the Senators could look to resign him, or he simply could be banged up and in need of respite.

The Senators will, despite the huge blow to their blue line, still feature many of their regulars today including captain Brady Tkachuk and veteran forward Claude Giroux. Here is how their lines looked during the morning skate:

Tkachuk Stützle Giroux
DeBrincat Pinto Batherson
Joseph Gambrell Brown
Sokolov Kastelic Gauthier

Sanderson Zub
Brannstrom Holden
Kleven Bernard-Docker