Despite the fact that the holiday roster-freeze is almost in full effect, the Sens seem to be the centrepiece of a whole lot of trade rumours that are going on now.
Let's talk about the most commonly-cited (a seldom correct) rumour-monger: Eklund. In the past couple of weeks, he's linked the Sens to deals with Jay Bouwmeester, Cory Murphy, Tom Preissing, Vesa Toskala, Brendan Shanahan, and Mats Sundin. The 6th Sens thinks he might be compensating for the lack of a designated Sens blogger, which is probably more reasonable than a lot of the names on that list.
The Bouwmeester possibility is intriguing, and would be pretty nice. Although his offensive numbers aren't incredible, he's really fast, big, and is one of the best skaters in the league. He can pass, too, and would look good with Filip Kuba on the first powerplay unit.
Still, the most intriguing possibility seems to be the Sundin sweepstakes. We've kept the Sundin talk low here at Sens Army, but Bryan Murray's persistence in signing the Swedish centre came up today in the Ottawa Sun (the ever-reliable trade-breaker that released the Evgeni Malkin-to-Los Angeles deal that never happened), so I figure why not discuss it. First off, I don't think Sundin is coming to Ottawa. He's got to know we'd like his help, but the Sens aren't in a good position in the standings, don't have a lot of cap room (although Murray said he'd make room), and are among the biggest rivals of his beloved Maple Leafs. You could make a lot of the same arguments about the Montréal Canadiens. He might not want to deal with the travel schedule of a Western Conference team like the Vancouver Canucks, but they've been the strongest contenders and the Sun said their 2-year, $20M offer is still on the table. After them are the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers, but who knows with them.
Still, even if it is unlikely, imagine Sundin alongside Daniel Alfredsson; wouldn't that make Peter Forsberg want to play with his Swedish brethren? 21-13-11. Make it happen, Murray.
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