When Jared Cowen suffered an ill-timed season-ending injury, much was made about the Sens depleted back end, and subsequently many wondered if Bryan Murray would opt to trade one of his young assets for a proven defenseman. Thankfully, no such trade was made (we are still in a rebuild after all and the price would’ve likely been unreasonable), and the organizational philosophy was to give the Bingo guys a chance. To my pleasant surpruse, the trio of André Benoit, Patrick Wiercioch and Mark Borowiecki have interchangeably filled in the gaping hole left by Cowen’s absence.

Now that Mike Lundin is healthy again and has been cleared to play, what’s next? If Paul MacLean wants to give Lundin an opportunity to showcase himself like he has stated, who does he take out of the lineup? All three of those aforementioned Bingo call-ups have done an admirable job, and assuming Sergei Gonchar is reinserted into the lineup sooner than later that leaves just two open spots for four D. Again, how does Maclean shuffle his defensive pairs? Personally, I’d leave Wiercioch up here for the rest of the year – he’s earned it, he’s in the organization’s long-term plans and his ceiling is higher that Boro’s – but either way you slice it, MacLean is still going to have some difficult decisions to make.

If Sens management ultimately decides that Lundin could provide a decent return prior to the trade deadline for teams looking for additional defensemen (like it’s been bandied about by the Team 1200’s Shawn Simpson), then that’s just one more incentive to play him.

Whether Bryan Murray, Paul MacLean and co. decide to keep him or trade him, the bottom line remains the same: Lundin needs to play, and for that he evidently needs to take someone’s spot. Who will it be?