Minor Deal: Senators Acquire Dylan Gambrell
It isn’t another Erik Karlsson blockbuster, but the San Jose Sharks and Ottawa Senators made a trade tonight that brings some depth to the Senators’ lineup.
Ottawa sent a 2022 seventh-round pick to San Jose for Dylan Gambrell. The seventh-round pick that San Jose acquired was originally their draft selection that they moved with Jack Copacka in last January’s Christian Jaros trade.
Injuries to centres Colin White and Shane Pinto spurred the Senators to search for a centre and the hope is that Gambrell can provide some depth and NHL experience to what has quickly become a thin lineup.
The 25-year old centre has played parts of four NHL seasons amassing 110 career games. Gambrell has compiled 10 goals and 23 points while fulfilling a regular fourth-line centre role for the Sharks in each of the last two seasons.
Gambrell has not played a game for the Sharks this season, but he is on a one-year, one-way deal worth $1.1 million. He will become a restricted free agent at the end of this season.
Using HockeyViz.com’s data, Gambrell has demonstrated some defensive aptitude while struggling to really impact the game offensively.
Gambrell has some prospect pedigree. The centre was a second-round pick of the Sharks (60th overall) in 2016 and has demonstrated some offensive ability at the collegiate and AHL levels. He produced at more than a point-per-game clip in each of his three years at the University of Denver. In the minors with the Sharks, he has produced at near a point-per-game rate for the Barracudas.
The offence has not really manifested at the NHL level.
As a career 10.2-percent shooter in the NHL, there may be some underlying offensive talent there, but Gambrell will never be mistaken as a volume shooter.
Of all the skaters who have logged over 1,000 five-on-five minutes from the 2019-20 season through 2020-21, only seven forwards have a lower individual shot rate per 60 minutes than Gambrell’s 4.42. To put this into perspective, Chris Tierney averaged 4.52 shots per 60 minutes of five-on-five, so that’s a relative comparison to keep in mind.
Some of you readers may wonder why the Senators simply did not claim Gambrell when he was available on waivers a few weeks ago.
The Senators simply did not have a need at that time. Admittedly, the depth and quality of depth were questionable at the time, but the need was not as pressing.
Having already cleared waivers, Gambrell’s status creates some flexibility for the Senators.
If neither of the conditions that Murray Pam outlined above are met, the Senators are free to send Gambrell to Belleville without having to place him on waivers first. The advantage for Ottawa acquiring him now is that if Pinto returns before that time, the presence of Gambrell gives the Senators more depth and talent at the AHL level.
It is true that the Senators could have submitted a claim on Alex Barre-Boulet a few days ago and it would not have cost the team a draft pick. It certainly opens the door to a conversation about asset management and what is in the best interests of a team that will likely miss the postseason. A reasonable argument can be made this depth issue could have been corrected in the offseason or when a number of players hit the waiver wire earlier in the year. After all, the chances of a team staying healthy all season are pretty remote.
Good players have certainly been drafted in the seventh-round before, but the odds or likelihood of that happening are pretty remote. For every Patric Hornqvist, Ryan Dzingel or Ondrej Palat, there are hundreds of prospects who simply never make a splash.
To their credit, the Senators still have 10 selections in the 2022 NHL Draft (Note: That number could grow to 11 picks if Logan Brown plays in 30 or more NHL games this season). Moving a late-round selection certainly should not have a huge bearing on the talent that the Senators should be able to amass through the draft next summer.
Getting into Barre-Boulet versus Gambrell discussion, both players have shown some defensive impact ability, but with Barre-Boulet’s smaller sample size of games — 17 career NHL games versus Gambrell’s 110 — the Senators have to be more confident in having more data and viewing opportunities of Gambrell.