Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Senators Rumors

Bobby Ryan Out With Broken Finger

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Senators will be without the services of Bobby Ryan, one of their top offensive threats at least for tonight’s game against Florida due to a broken finger, according to the team’s official Twitter account. The team also described the likelihood of Mike Hoffman suiting up tonight as “less than likely,” suggesting it’s probable that two of the Sens best forwards will be out of the lineup tonight.

Curtis Lazar, who was recalled from Binghamton of the AHL this morning, will be in the lineup.

Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun adds that this is the third broken finger over the last three years for Ryan.

Ryan has struggled at the outset of the 2016-17 campaign, scoring just three goals and recording six points in 17 games to date. The native of Cherry Hill, New Jersey and former second overall draft choice in 2005 – selected only after Sidney Crosby – tallied four straight 30-goal campaigns from 2008-09 through 2011-12 while a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Since being acquired by the Senators in a blockbuster deal which saw Jakob Silfverberg, Stefan Noesen and a first-round pick going to Anaheim, Ryan has failed to to reach the 30-goal mark. His best season came last year with a scoring line of 22G – 34A – 56Pts.

One of the reasons the Senators traded for Derick Brassard was to give Ryan a skilled, left-handed pivot who could more easily get the puck to the right-handed right wing on the rush. The two have failed to click as hoped and were recently moved to different lines in an attempt to jump start the offense.

Hoffman, like Ryan, is off to a slow start with just three goals and seven points in 16 games. He is considered day-to-day with a lower-body-injury. Hoffman inked a massive four-year contract extension worth a total of $20.75MM this summer on the heels of a 29-goal, 59-point performance in 2015-16.

The Senators currently rank 27th in the NHL in goals scored and losing Ryan for what could be a lengthy period won’t help matters. Lazar has been considered one of Ottawa’s better prospects and the hope is he is ready to contribute some offense.

 

Senators Place Andrew Hammond On Waivers

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The Ottawa Senators have placed goaltender Andrew Hammond on waivers today, reports Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. Hammond is the odd man out in Ottawa after the Senators acquired goaltender Mike Condon from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hammond has struggled so far this season in Ottawa. In his short two game stint with the big club he’s earned a .793 SV% and a 4.50 GAA. His numbers are a far cry from two seasons ago when he put up an astounding .941 SV% and a 1.79 GAA in 23 starts, going 20-1 down the stretch for Ottawa.

The club’s decision to waive Hammond indicates that Craig Anderson will be returning to the team for good. Anderson has taken personal time away from the team to tend to his wife after her recent cancer diagnosis.

It is uncertain, however, whether Hammond would report to Binghamton if he clears waivers. The goaltender previously declined to consent to a conditioning stint in the AHL after returning from a groin injury this week. The Sens attempted to trade Hammond this week, but this waiver addition implies that there were no takers.

Recalls and Reassignments: Senators, Sabres, Canadiens

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

News and notes from around the NHL this morning:

  • The Ottawa Senators recalled forward Curtis Lazar from the Binghamton Senators this morning, first reported by the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch and then confirmed by the team. The Senators have been hit hard by the injury bug lately, and have been without Bobby Ryan (hand), Clarke MacArthur (concussion), and Mike Hoffman (lower body). Bruce Garrioch reported that the Sens would wait until Friday night—after Binghamton played the Albany Devils—to see who would be called up. Lazar scored last night and must’ve impressed team brass enough to earn a recall. He currently has 3G and 1A in 13 games for Binghamton.
  • The Buffalo Sabres have called up forwards Cal O’Reilly and Cole Schneider from the Rochester Americans (Amerks) this morning, reports Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. The Sabres are hoping that the callups spark the team’s scoring woes—Schneider has 7G and 10A in 13 games and O’Reilly 3G and 15A in 15 games—as they’ve scored a mere 6 goals in six games. The two forwards lead the Amerks in scoring.
  • The Montreal Canadiens have reassigned forward Sven Andrighetto back to the St. John IceCaps, reports TSN 690’s Amanda Stein. The Swiss forward has 5G and 6A in 10 games for St. Johns, but went scoreless in 4 games with the Canadiens. He averaged under 12 minutes a night for those four games.

Senators Notes: Claesson, Anderson, Injuries

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After being called up two weeks ago, Fredrik Claesson will be sent back to Binghamton of the AHL according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. The team, facing a handful of nagging injuries up front, needs the roster spot to bring up another forward for tomorrow’s game. Claesson got into six games with the big club this year, barely playing  much at all as Erik Karlsson continues to log huge minutes (27 per game).

A fifth-round pick, Claesson has progressed nicely into a solid depth defenseman for the club. Recently, GM Pierre Dorion specifically mentioned him as impressive in his development, saying he doesn’t really need to go out and get another blueliner now.

  • Craig Anderson will again be in net tomorrow night after returning to the club.  His season-long battle continues as he pops in and out of the dressing room whenever he can. Two nights ago marked Hockey Fights Cancer night in the NHL, where players and teams around the league donned lavender sweaters and the names of loved ones for warm up. Multiple players wore the name of Anderson’s wife Nicholle, honoring their peer in the only way they could. Today, the Anderson’s announced through a Sens press release that Nicholle has been diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
  • The team is fighting a number of small injuries, as Garrioch reports. Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman and Chris Neil are all day-to-day and will be game-time decisions for tomorrow night’s matchup. The team will have to call up replacements for each of them if they miss, as they’re currently only carrying one extra forward.

Snapshots: Senators, Lindback, Flyers

at CDT | by 3 Comments

News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • Ottawa Senators goaltender Craig Anderson has left the team again for personal reasons, reports the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. Anderson has left the team twice so far this season to be with his wife after her recent cancer diagnosis. Andrew Hammond will serve as back-up to newcomer Mike Condon, who the Senators acquired from Pittsburgh for a fifth-round draft pick. Condon is 2-0-0 since being acquired and has put up a stellar 0.48 GAA and a .983 SV%.
  • Former NHL goalie Anders Lindback was ostensibly released from, and reinstated to, his PTO today with the Los Angeles Kings affiliate Ontario Reign, reports Ontario Reign Insider Lindsay Czarnecki. The team initially announced that it released Lindback from the team before retracting that statement within the hour. Lindback was signed to the PTO on October 25th after the Kings found themselves without any starting goalies because both Jonathan Quick and Jeff Zatkoff were out with injury. The Kings are now carrying three goalies in Peter Budaj, Jack Campbell, and Zatkoff (injured), and will most likely send Campbell down when Zatkoff heals.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers have scratched defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere for tonight’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi. In an ironic twist, Gostisbehere was named Philadelphia’s Pro Athlete of the Year by the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association earlier this morning. Coach Dave Hakstol says that the benching should be good for his growth and development. The young defenseman currently has 3G and 7A in 17 games for the Flyers. He will be replaced by Andrew MacDonald who has 1G and 2A in 10 games.

East Notes: Snow, Senators Power Play, Merrill, Hall

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While Islanders head coach Jack Capuano has come under fire for their slow start to the season (they sit 15th in the Eastern Conference with a 5-8-3 record), not enough criticism has been directed towards general manager Garth Snow, suggests Peter Botte of the New York Daily News.

Snow has been at the helm of the Isles since 2006, retiring from his playing career to take the position.  At the time, he stated that the goal was to take them from being a team looking to sneak into a playoff spot to one that would be a consistent contender but that has yet to be the case; two of their last three appearances came as a wild card or eighth seed.

While previous owner Charles Wang had placed significant restrictions on spending for the most, that isn’t the case with new owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin as the team sits with just over $600K in cap space according to CapFriendly.  Snow’s offseason spending has yet to work out as left wingers Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera have underachieved while P.A. Parenteau is off to a good start…for New Jersey after the Islanders waived him in training camp.

Wang had a reputation for being very loyal to his employees but neither Capuano nor Snow have that type of history with the new ownership.  In their first year owning the team, it’s hard to imagine them cleaning house so quickly but if the team continues to struggle, that could change.  It’s not often that in-season GM changes are made given the lack of available candidates from other organizations which could play a role should ownership feel a change is necessary at some point.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Senators are last in the NHL on the power play with a success rate of just 9.3% (a surprise given that Guy Boucher’s teams have a reputation for being strong in that regard). Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun wonders if sticking defenseman Dion Phaneuf up front in the crease to work as a more effective screener is the way to go.  Boucher calls a move like that a last resort and is more inclined to try different forwards – including tough guy Chris Neil – in different spots on the man advantage for the time being.
  • The Devils announced via Twitter that they have activated defenseman Jon Merrill off of injured reserve. Merrill broke his index finger in the preseason and has yet to suit up for New Jersey since the regular season got underway.  He had five points in 47 games last season while averaging nearly 17 minutes per game of ice time.  Still with the Devils, left winger Taylor Hall will not play tonight due to a lower body injury.  Andrew Gross of Fire and Ice adds that Hall is being evaluated by team doctors and more should be known about his situation later today.

Quotable: Senators GM On Trade Market, Team Needs

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion expects trade talk to pick up in the next couple of weeks and is expected to gauge what the market looks like at the GM meetings set to take place in Toronto on Tuesday, writes Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.

While Dorion was looking to add defensive depth both in the offseason and in training camp, he suggested that getting that doesn’t appear to be as much of a concern at the moment:

“Specifically I’m really happy about the play of Freddy Claesson coming up and I’ve always talked about adding depth on defence so I’m really happy about that and I don’t feel as much of a need as I did in training camp especially with the emergence of the way Chris Wideman and (Mark Borowiecki) have played.”

[Related: Senators Depth Chart]

Over the offseason, the team added center Derick Brassard and head coach Guy Boucher and the expectation was that the Sens would become an even higher scoring team after finishing ninth in the league in that regard in 2015-16.  However, that hasn’t been the case early on as the team has just 33 goals (excluding two awarded for shootout victories) which ranks them 27th in the league so far.  Despite that, Dorion won’t be actively pursuing another scorer and hopes that as the team adapts to Boucher’s new system, the goals will eventually come on their own:

“People are going to look at our scoring.  For me, to play good defensive structure we had to sacrifice goals early on but at the same time we’re winning games and that’s what matters the most. It’s not like any of the guys who have produced here in the past are in the tail end of their careers. They’re all still in their prime and they’re all still all going to be able to produce.”

With goaltender Andrew Hammond nearly ready to return, Dorion plans to sit down with Hammond and go over the options.  The team could ask him to play with their AHL affiliate for a couple of weeks on a conditioning stint but even if they don’t, the GM reiterated that they’re comfortable carrying three netminders (joining Craig Anderson and Mike Condon) for the foreseeable future.  A trade isn’t out of the equation either as Dorion is reportedly gauging the market on Hammond as well.

Senators Testing The Market On Andrew Hammond

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Ottawa Senators are testing the market regarding backup goaltender Andrew Hammond, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link).  Hammond noted recently that he is close to being ready to return to game action after missing the last two weeks with a lower body injury.

The 28 year old has played in two games with the Senators so far this season, posting a 0-1-0 record with a 4.50 goals against average and a .793 save percentage.  Those are both well down from his career averages which are much stronger, a GAA of 2.25 and a SV% of .925.

Sep 27, 2016; Buffalo, NY, USA; Ottawa Senators goalie Andrew Hammond (30) during the game against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY SportsHis best run in the NHL came back in 2014-15 where he won 20 of 23 decisions after coming up late in the year to propel the Sens to a highly improbable postseason appearance.  That earned him a three year deal with a cap hit of $1.35MM; 2016-17 is the second season of that contract.

With the uncertainty surrounding Craig Anderson due to his wife’s cancer diagnosis, GM Pierre Dorion made a trade with Pittsburgh earlier this month to bring in Mike Condon to give them extra depth.  Condon has allowed just a single goal in two starts in Ottawa while stopping 58 of 59 shots.  He also has a cap hit of the league minimum $575K; those two factors could have him ahead of Hammond in the pecking order moving forward.

In the meantime, the team will soon have to decide whether or not to ask Hammond to accept a conditioning assignment.  Given how little he has played so far this season, that might go a long way towards shaping what type of value he might have on the trade market as teams will likely want him to shake off any potential rust before making a move for him.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cole Schneider Recalled By Buffalo Sabres

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

According to John Vogl of the Buffalo News, the Sabres will recall forward Cole Schneider prior to tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators. No word on a corresponding move, though as reported earlier Ryan O’Reilly is questionable and Tyler Ennis is out.

Schneider is an established AHL scorer off to a blistering start this season with the Rochester Americans. Fifteen points in ten games leads the club and ties him for the league lead. A three time 20-goal scorer, he’s proven his offensive ability at the lower level and now much try to prove that he can contribute in the NHL.

The Sabres currently find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic Division and looking for a way to score more goals; they currently rank 29th in goals for with just 25 in 12 games.

Atlantic Notes: Leafs Skate, Soshnikov, Blunden

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

In a scene from a mid-90’s sports movie, the power went out at Maple Leafs practice today as the team was put through a hard practice by head coach Mike Babcock. The Leafs lost 7-0 to the Los Angeles Kings last night and, as Morgan Rielly put it (via Pierre LeBrun)“I think we all understood if we didnt skate last night we were going to skate today.” The young Leafs were on a three game winning streak before getting dismantled by the experienced Kings.

  • Also from practice today, Nikita Soshnikov was absent according to David Alter of NHL.com. With a groin injury, the coaching staff didn’t want to put him through the high-tempo practice. Soshnikov only just returned from injury a few games ago, but has contributed two points already and saw time with Auston Matthews during the loss.
  • Despite saying that Craig Anderson would be the starter whenever he was with the team, Mike Condon will start for the Sens tonight, according to head coach Guy Boucher. Condon recorded a shutout in his first game for the Sens last week.
  • Mike Blunden will be recalled from Binghamton to play tonight for the Senators, though no word has been given on who he’ll be replacing. The 29-year old has four points in nine AHL games thus far.
  • According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, Jonathan Drouin is working out on his own, and still has no timetable to return to the Lightning. Drouin was injured a week ago on a hit from Calvin de Haan. Coach Jon Cooper says he’s “gradually coming along” in his recovery.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top