One of the things Pierre Dorion has proven to be adept at during his tenure as general manager of the Ottawa Senators is dumping bad contracts.
From Dion Phaneuf, to Zack Smith, to Evgenii Dadonov, to moving LTIR contracts in Mike Condon, Anders Nilsson and Marian Gaborik, to moving expensive short-term contracts to veterans like Erik Gudbranson, Dorion has found ways to get out from underneath some poor investments.
Granted, many of Ottawa’s problems have been self-inflicted. Dorion has wasted a lot of money and assets acquiring veterans who have simply failed to live up to their contracts.
Goaltender Matt Murray is just the latest example of a player whose contract the Senators were able to get out from under. Two years into the four-year contract ($25 million, $6.25 AAV) that he signed in 2020, the Senators traded Murray to the provincial rival Maple Leafs for future considerations.
With a shrinking goaltender market and waning options, the Leafs are rolling the dice on Murray for many of the same reasons that the Senators took a chance on him. Murray has a championship pedigree after winning two Stanley Cups with the Penguins in his first two years in the league. And at just 28 years of age, the blend of Murray’s age and experience was obviously enough to entice teams to be interested in his services.
Injuries and inconsistency have plagued Murray since his first two seasons in the league, but Kyle Dubas’ familiarity with the goaltender from his junior days in Sault Ste. Marie assuredly played a role as well.
After the Petr Mrazek experience failed miserably, it is surprising to see the Leafs roll the dice on another reclamation project. As I wrote on Twitter yesterday, Auston Matthews only has two years left on his contract before unrestricted free agency. For the Maple Leafs to use that two-year window of contention relying on a goaltender like Murray is courageous or stupid. Kyle Dubas has to have one massive set of stones on him to rely on Murray because he is either coming off looking brilliant or silly. If the move fails, it is the kind of transaction that could ultimately cost him his job.
The Toronto Maple Leafs do have strong analytics and sports science departments, so perhaps a lot their confidence in Murray stems from these groups believing that they can unlock the performance levels that he exhibited earlier in his career.
Murray did have an exemplary nine-game stretch from January 13th through February 12th that had fans believing that he had turned the corner. In these nine games, Murray posted a 5-2-2 record and one shutout while stopping 94.9 percent of the shots that he faced. Unfortunately, injuries railroaded his season and he never had a chance to build on the momentum of that month’s worth of games.
The Maple Leafs have to be hoping that Murray is closer to being the goalie who had a torrid nine-game stretch than the one who has struggled mightily over the last three seasons. Investing in that small sample when he has been so far removed from playing well consistently is so unbelievably risky, it is almost a shock to believe the Leafs took it given the circumstances.
That the Senators only had to retain 25-percent of Murray’s salary ($1.5625 million in each of the next two seasons) and trade two low-value draft picks (a third-round pick in 2023 and a seventh-round pick in 2024) to sweeten the deal, is incredible given the circumstances. After the Senators’ deal with the Buffalo Sabres fell through at the 2022 NHL Draft, I was expecting the Murray trade to be way more cost-prohibitive.
For the Senators to come out without having to give up anything of value from their farm system or roster is a huge win. After acquiring Alex Debrincat and putting together this Murray deal, Pierre Dorion has strung together some successful trades. If he can build on that momentum and continue to shed the roster of redundant talent while adding competent players to insulate the young core, this may go down as one of the best offseasons in Senators history.
Michael Del Zotto Waived
Speaking of redundant veterans, Michael Del Zotto was placed on waivers at noon for the purpose of a buyout.
Del Zotto inked a two-year contract as an unrestricted free agent last summer and was slated to earn $2.25 million next season. His buyout will cost the Senators $1.5 million spread out over the course of the next two seasons.
With the Murray and Del Zotto being jettisoned, the Senators now have almost $25.4 million in cap space. If the team can shed Nikita Zaitsev’s salary, the Senators should have a ton of money to reallocate on more talented players.
The expectation is that when free agency opens tomorrow, the Senators will make a hard push on forward Claude Giroux.
Senators Kicking Tires On Brent Burns
According to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, the Senators have explored the possibility of acquiring defenceman Brent Burns.
Burns is 37 years old and has three years left on a deal that carries an average annual value of $8.0 million. Burns’ contract was front-loaded in nature and after his $3.5 million signing bonus was paid on July 1st, he would only cost his acquiring team $3.0 million for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
Back-diving contracts have been enticing to the Senators in the past, but with Burns’ age and performance that is clearly on the decline, it is probably smart for the Senators to look at other alternatives.
Burns has never been a stalwart defensive player. Offence has always been his carrying card and in looking at his isolated impacts on HockeyViz.com, he is clearly not the player he was earlier in his career.
He is essentially a power play specialist at this stage of his career and that is not really a need that the Senators need to address. The Senators need good defensive defencemen who can retrieve and transition the puck quickly.
I think Dorion's streak of only giving away picks in deals ends with Zaitsev though. I suspect Branny is part of package.
I was hoping you'd give us a look under the hood of Burns's analytics.