Silver Nuggets: What roster moves await?

Defensive help is on the way, but someone is going to have to be moved for that help to arrive. That's right, Marc Methot, who sustained a back injury in the offseason, is on the verge of making his season debut. While he was speculated to play tonight against the Islanders, he will not be in the lineup tonight. However, by the time the next Nuggets roll around on Friday, we should probably have a definitive answer on how the Senators are going to make room for their other, top-four blueliner. What do you think they should do? Here are their options:

1. Put Bobby Ryan on the IR. Now, this one is a bit tricky. Ryan has a finger injury after being slashed in the game against Florida, but has still practiced with the team. Initial reports looked bad (broken finger; usually 4-6 weeks) but it may just be a fracture where pain tolerance is an issue. My initial thoughts are to put Bobby on the IR and make sure he's at 100%, but the team can't afford to lose their star right-winger for too long if they hope to stay in the race, and thus, Ryan may play on a day-to-day basis.

2. Put someone on waivers. The only Senators player that is eligible for waivers is Cody Ceci, but we all know that he's staying with the big club for the foreseeable future. Should the team put one of their extra forwards, Colin Greening or Erik Condra, on waivers with the hope of some team making a claim? I think that this is the last resort option, as by now, management and ownership would rather move one of these two for a player or a pick rather than have to potentially pay them to play in Binghamton. It is a better use of Eugene's money than having Greening's $2.5M+ in the press box every night. Condra is a perfect bottom six forward and is on a cheap, expiring deal, and thus, I think Murray and co. want to keep him around for at least this year.

3. Trade. Now, this is likely the best, but also the scariest option. Pierre LeBrun has said that trade chatter has risen among the league, which is the usual for this time of year (American Thanksgiving) anyways, but that he hasn't heard Ottawa much. The Sens have been linked to Chris Stewart since last year, and although Tim Murray initially wanted Lazar, I'm sure he's realized that it's never going to happen. Still, I think that trading for Stewart is a bad move for a number of reasons, including having a similar player in Alex Chiasson, so I hope this doesn't happen. Bruce Garrioch also links some teams to Patrick Wiercioch, who is also a trade possibility given that he seems to be a frequent scratch and would be a logical subtraction seeing as another defenseman is coming back in. Teams always try to hoard defenseman, so I'm sure there are suitors for him, though again I don't think it'd be a very good move for Ottawa unless the return was okay. Lastly, I think we'd all agree that Colin Greening should be traded in a heartbeat, and if there are any teams that would give Ottawa something other than a bad contract for him (such as a mid-round pick), a deal should be made in a heartbeat. The term and $ on the contract extension must be scaring teams away.

What's your preferred option?

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Sens Links

• Remember when Florida used to be the easy part of the road trip? Well, the Panthers and the Lightning are only getting better, and they curb-stomped the Senators in back-to-back games over the weekend. Here are your recaps from Friday night's loss to Florida. [Silver Seven, Rank the Performances, Ottawa Citizen, SensChirp, SenShot]
• Here's your recaps from Saturday night's loss to Tampa Bay. [Silver Seven, Rank the Performances, Ottawa Citizen, SensChirp, SenShot]
• Brad has your look at the Week Ahead. Helloooooo the best team in New York! (no, I'm not talking about the Rangers). Chirp also has a look ahead to the future. [Silver Seven - Week Ahead, SensChirp]
• Eugene Melnyk had an interview with Bob McCown recently that Nichols transcribed for us. Lots of interesting things, including tidbits on Alfie and the succession plan for Bryan Murray. Please no Ray Shero. The Citizen covers the Alfie-specific news from Melnyk's interview [6th Sens, Ottawa Citizen]
• Another talking point from that interview (seriously, go read Nichols transcription), is that Melnyk didn't really give Paul MacLean a vote of confidence... [Ottawa Citizen]
• Varada has a really good piece on playoff probabilities and whether this year is a transition year for the Senators. I don't think that'd be very good for Paul MacLean.. [WTYKY]
• A ton of Daniel Alfredsson news this week. On Silver Seven, Amelia is looking at a significant Alfie moment every day until the 4th, and here are the first two entries. 1) Alfie's seven point night, 2) Alfie's hat-trick against Buffalo and his 1000th point.
• Old Ottawa Senators coaches have very fond memories of Daniel Alfredsson. [Ottawa Citizen]
• Our weekly question is also around a hotly debated topic, which is whether Daniel Alfredsson will get into the Hockey Hall of Fame. My vote is "yes" [Silver Seven - Weekly Question]
• Y'know what coaches love most? Consistency. Y'know what the Ottawa Senators are? Inconsistent. [Ottawa Citizen]
• Nichols has a piece on the anchor that is bringing down the Sens so far this season. You have to click through to see the player because it's really hard to guess - there are many candidates. [6th Sens]
• The Binghamton Senators, led by second-youngest player, Shane Prince, are finally playing better. Here's Ian with your weekly prospect recap, and Jeff on Shane Prince earning "AHL player of the week" honours. [Silver Seven, SenShot, AHL]
• Jeff also recaps the two BSens games, and has player grades for the offense, defense, and goaltenders. [SenShot - Recap v. Syracuse, Recap v. Rochester, Player Grades - Offense, Player Grades Defense + Goaltenders]
• A nice column on Freddie Claesson by beat-writer, Matt Weinstein [PSB]
• THERE'S TOO MUCH RED.... in the Ups and Downs this week by Sheer_Craziness [Silver Seven - Ups and Downs]
• Did you get a chance to vote for your November player of the month? Jack also has some thoughts on a wild month for the Senators. [Silver Seven, SenShot]

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