Silver Nuggets: Quantity for Quality?

In this edition of Silver Nuggets, we're going to quickly look at some teams that may be interested in a trade that could benefit the Senators, before moving onto links for the Sens and sports in general.

--

As of right now, the Senators have a glut of NHL-ready bodies for opening day, with 13 forwards and 8 D under contract. Importantly, those forward numbers don't include the likes of Curtis Lazar, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Shane Prince, Derek Grant, Matt Puempel, and Cole Schneider, all of whom could challenge for spots with the big club. With Sens GM Bryan Murray hinting that there may be another trade in the works as recently as the Legwand press conference, what kind of trade should the Sens be after, and what teams could they target?

I'm a huge fan of the quantity for quality trade when you're in the position that the Senators find themselves in right now: lots of potential NHL bodies, but not a lot of "sure things" up front. If the Senators can pawn off some of this talent to get a single young player with a higher ceiling, or a more established NHLer from a team that needs more bodies, I say you do it. It's very easy to get attached to your own prospects, and as a bit of a prospect junkie myself, I've definitely been a victim of this, but I've started to realize that it's all about maximizing your assets. Right now, the Senators have a ton of forwards that can play in the bottom six - often called depth forwards - which teams are always looking for, especially if team X missed out on their depth signing now that most of the quality free agents have signed. Here are some teams that are in need of NHL bodies, and therefore, who the Senators could target in a quantity for quality trade to bring back a single talented player (or 2015 draft picks) to help the organization.

Who would you target?

(Contract information from CapGeek)

--

Sens Links

• Jared Cowen talked about his summer with Chris Lund. Here's to a big season from the blueliner, who was one of the bigger disappointments and carries a $3.1M cap hit. [Ottawa Senators]
• Yesterday, we learned that Sens Pro Scout Rob Murphy has left the organization to join Tim Murray in Buffalo. This move leaves the Sens with only two Pro scouts. Nichols has a great write-up [6th Sens]
• With Spezza shipped out, the door (financial and otherwise) is open for the team to sign Bobby Ryan to an extension. Yost offers his thoughts on the topic. James also adds some humour to it. Hopefully Bobby stays!! [Travis Yost, WTYKY]
• Nichols also transcribed David Legwand's recent interview with TSN 1200. [Audio, 6th Sens]
• Over at SenShot, Justin has a great piece examining the Senators relationship with Newport Sports, and Jeff looks at the play of David Dziurzynski this season. [Newport, Dziurzynski]
• As always, we've been busy at Silver Seven! Did you enter your picks for Amelia's sandwich challenge? Did you answer our weekly question based around who's going to improve in the Atlantic division this year? [nom nom, Weekly Question]
• Amelia also had her latest installments in the 'By the Numbers' series, looking at #93 and #94. [93, 94]
• Sheer_Craziness had a great piece contrasting the departures of Sens captains Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza. [Silver Seven]
• Lastly, I explored the tactics behind the Powerplay as part of our 'Tactical Formations' series [Tactical Formations]

NHL Links