Partway through the season, it seemed like a given that Senators GM Pierre Dorion would approach Bobby Ryan about waiving his no-move clause for the upcoming expansion draft. However, after a postseason where he was dominant, Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun believes that he is now a must-protect player.
Ryan led all Ottawa forwards in scoring in the playoffs with 15 points (6-9-15) in 19 games and Brennan suggests that the 30 year old is now starting to better grasp head coach Guy Boucher’s system, something he said he was having some difficulty with earlier in the season. However, it’s also hard to overlook the fact he has five years left on a deal that carries a cap hit of $7.25MM. The Sens are a lower budget team and Ryan has yet to surpass 56 points in any of his four seasons with the team; freeing up that money would give them some flexibility heading into the rest of the offseason.
At the end of the day, despite his postseason success, the contract may be enough of a deterrent for Vegas anyway and if that’s the case, Dorion would be wise to see if Ryan would be willing to waive his no-move, allowing the team to protect an additional forward.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Still with the Sens, blueliner Mark Borowiecki has a torn labrum in his shoulder but will not require surgery this summer, reports Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun (Twitter links). Fellow defender Cody Ceci had also been dealing with injury issues; he mentioned to reports (including Garrioch) that he played with a broken finger more than once during the course of the year.
- Czech defenseman Jan Rutta is leaning towards signing with the Blackhawks, Fox Sports Midwest Andy Strickland reports via Twitter. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun tweets that a final decision could come this weekend and that six teams are in the mix. The 26 year old had a breakout season with Piráti Chomutov of the Czech Extraliga in 2016-17, recording a career high 32 points in 46 regular season games while tacking on another 13 points in 17 postseason contests. He recently suited up for the Czechs at the World Championships, taking part in eight games while logging 15:22 of ice time per game. Edmonton and Calgary are among the other teams who have shown interest in Rutta’s services.
- With Detroit goalie Jared Coreau becoming waiver eligible next season and Jimmy Howard and Petr Mrazek on the roster, MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that the Wings could carry three goalies to start next season if no one is moved over the summer. Coreau had a good start to his NHL stint last season but struggled in his final few outings which, coupled with his waiver situation, wouldn’t give him a lot of trade value at this time. Khan notes that the team has gone this way in the past when they were worried about losing Joey MacDonald at the start of the year back in 2006-07 and already had Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood in the fold. (They wound up waiving MacDonald later in the season, losing him to Boston.)
If I was Dorion, I’d still ask him to wave his NTC. Vegas probably won’t bite, and if they do, then it is what it is. It’s a big contract off your hands and Ryan still hasn’t shown that he wants to be that physical aggressive player outside of a playoff scenario anyway. Hopefully these playoffs lit a fire under his ass and he proves me wrong next year.