Silver Nuggets: Marc Methot edition

News surfaced this week that progress had stalled between upcoming UFA defenseman Marc Methot, and the Ottawa Senators. The Ottawa native has primarily played big minutes for the Senators, often serving as Erik Karlsson's defense partner, or paired with stay-at-home defender Eric Gryba as a shutdown unit. Methot, who's entering his first period of UFA availability, is obviously looking for a pay raise from his current $3.75M salary, and has identified former free-agent defensemen Matt Carle (TB) and Brooks Orpik (WSH) as possibilities for his new contract.

Matt Carle, who signed a six-year, $33M contract ($5.5M cap hit) two seasons ago with the Lightning as a 27-year-old was probably identified as a comparable due to age and minutes played, whereas Brooks Orpik, who signed a five-year $27.5M contract (also a $5.5M cap hit) with Washington was probably identified as a comparable due to similarities in play style. By these estimates, it's clear that Methot is looking for something in the $5.5M range.

Though all three can be classified as "top-four defenseman", there are a couple issues with these comparisons. Firstly, Methot's not as offensive as Carle, who put up solid point totals in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, albeit with powerplay time. Secondly, Orpik faces way harder competition that Methot, both in zone starts, and in quality of competition metrics.

In a search to find some more accurate comparables, I used Hockey Reference's fantastic play index and set some filters, mainly looking at age 25-28 seasons, 200 games played, 4000 minutes, and less than 0.3 points per game over those seasons. My results are here, and has Methot smack dab in the middle of the 37 defensemen that meet the criteria.

I urge you to take a look and comment below who you think Methot is most like, and then how much you'd give him in free agency.

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Sens Links

  • SensTV and TSN1200 had interviews with Patrick Wiercioch to discuss his summer and hopes for the upcoming season. [SensTV, TSN1200]
  • The Senators camera crew also followed along Curtis Lazar during development camp, which included an intimidating sounding Paul MacLean. Lazar also stopped by TSN1200 for an interview to talk about his progress at the Canadian WJC development camp. [SensTV, TSN1200]
  • Both Nichols and Yost had articles about Methot's stalled contract negotiation situation - I definitely recommend giving both a read if you're interested in a more detailed breakdown of what I presented above and their predictions on what happens next. [6th Sens, Hockeybuzz]
  • The great @PuckPossessed had an artsy article on WTYKY in which she visualized the tweets of some Senators players. [WTYKY]
  • Nichols had a really interesting article on the Senators relative shooting tendencies, using a neat tool that I touched on earlier in the year. Pro tip I gained from #watchingthegames - shoot from the slot! [6th Sens]
  • Yost had a series of articles in which he guessed the forwards, defense, and goalies for this coming season.
  • Our Top 25 Under 25 series continued, with Adnan tackling Andreas Englund and Amelia discussing our newly signed 19th ranked prospect, Vincent Dunn. [Englund, Dunn]
  • Lastly, Mrs. O and I looked at the benefits of combining qualitative and quantitative analysis. Side note: I think it's really cool that we can write joint articles now!! [Silver Seven] /

NHL Links

  • I'm cheating a little here because this kinda falls under Senators links but anyway, the amazing Chet Sellers wrote the Senators entry of Puck Daddy's "Summer of Disappointment" series. [Puck Daddy]
  • The Ice Bucket Challenge, in support of ALS research, has taken over social media. Here's an NHL.com article on it, as well as entries from Kyle Turris, Jason Spezza, Bobby Ryan, Derek Grant, Mark Stone, and Mika Zibanejad. Erik Condra also has one, but I can't find the Instagram link! Which is your favourite? [NHL, Turris, Spezza, Ryan, Grant, Stone, Wiercioch, Zibanejad]
  • The Red Wings are trying to re-sign Daniel Alfredsson, who has yet to decide if he's playing another year. #AlfieTypical [The Score]
  • Reports surfaced that the Habs owner Geoff Molson overrode the authority of GM Marc Bergevin in order to get the Subban contract done. [The Score]
  • Marc Savard will be joining the Ottawa 67's as a scout this year. [The Score] /

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Lastly, if you want to come out to watch a couple of Sens game with the Silver Seven crew, check out the details found here!


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