The Senators' announced today that Brian Lee is headed back to Binghamton. As a result, Luke Richardson will be the Sens' sixth defenceman.
While I am a little surprised by the move, I don't think it's a bad one. Lee hasn't looked quite as comfortable this season as he was at the end of last year, and there is little doubt that he will benefit from some more seasoning in the AHL. It's also a huge boon for the B-Sens, who were already benefitting from tremendous goaltending and will now get a solid mobile defenceman to add to their corps.
Lee may have been a victim of his two-way contract, because every other Senators has an NHL deal. He did look out of place at times, and Alex Picard was slightly more impressive, but the Sens have a lot more invested in Lee.
I'm curious to see how this affects the makeup of the defence corps. The Sens will now have four defenceman who are seriously limited in their offensive abilities--Richardson, Chris Phillips, Anton Volcehnkov, and Jason Smith, and only two reasonably mobile, puck-moving defenceman--Picard and Filip Kuba. What the heck will our second powerplay unit look like?
EDIT: What the shit? Turns out that I missed something in the same release from the Sens: Shean Donovan is sitting out, and Christoph Schubert is in on the fourth line. I guess that a goal and two assists in barely five minutes a night for Donovan isn't good enough, while Chris Neil can dance around doing nothing and stay in the lineup.
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