It is now almost a foregone conclusion that Rundblad will be the 4th-highest paid blueliner (should he make the team next year and attain all of his bonuses).

Now that I’ve finished typing that sentence, I guess I could have done without with the phrase ‘foregone conclusion’.

Still, we already have at least seven defenders under contract for next year, and Murray should already have shifted his focus to re-upping Phillips, so it’s fair to say that there will be no UFAs joining the defence corps until after the lockout.

Speaking of which, don’t forget that Karlsson, Cowen, and Rundblad (to say nothing of Weircoch, Butler, and Lehner) will not have the benefit of a bonus cushion next season, so even without another Gonchar-esque addition, our effective cap will take a hit next year.

I have absolutely no problem with this

If he goes down to Junior and plays like a man among boys, the Sens can call him up later in the season for his nine-game tryout, can’t they?

It’s also pretty encouraging

Still, like to see if he can play as well as he did during 08-09.

But I’m no expert…

He deliver some crushing hits, and compliments Karlsson…

mostly for what he did for Karlsson’s game.

But I don’t know if I’d want him in favour of Campoli. In favour of Lee, certainly, and he’s an upgrade over Carkner, but he’s also more expensive.

I wonder, how bad is Brendan Witt? Because I’d wager we can pick him up on recall waivers from NYI for $1.5M, which would be cheap. If not, the fact that he’s about to be bought out might be working to bring down Sutton’s market value to something the Senators might be able to afford.

I was just kidding about that. Awad did a great job on GVT, which makes it all the more difficult for me to dismiss his new Delta stat.

I say difficult, but certainly not impossible. That shit is wack.

And two years of 35+ prevented the Ducks from taking advantage of the bonus cushion (not that they needed it). I’m obviously not as big a fan of Sutton as many of you guys, but I guess I can’t fault the Ducks for securing a decent crease-clearer for only $2.1M.

That doesn’t mean that I thought the Sens should have done it, but the Ducks still only have 4 blueliners on one-way contracts, so they had the roster space. If only they hadn’t given away one year of Wizniewski for a bag of pucks, I’d say they were doing a fine job. As it is, expect Hiller’s numbers to suffer, with the tandem of Mikkelson and Festerling playing 17 minutes a night.