According to the Team 1200, the Senators made a trade with the New York Islanders to re-acquire centreman Mike Comrie and also pick up defenceman Chris Campoli in exchange for Dean McAmmond and the San Jose Sharks' first-round pick (which was acquired from Tampa Bay in the Andrej Meszaros trade). It is also now posted on TSN.ca.
Sens fans should remember Comrie well from the 2007 playoff run, where he was a big part of the depth that enabled the Senators to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. He was allowed to walk the next season, and is on the last year of the deal he signed with the Islanders that will pay him $4M this year. He's a pending unrestricted free agent, and is having an off-year this season with 7G and 13A in 41GP.
In Campoli, the Senators receive a young mobile defenceman who's signed for a cap hit of $633k for this season as well as next year. According to his scouting report from Sportsnet, he's a very fast and very mobile defenceman who could eventually become a good powerplay quarterback. He's not an elite puck-moving defenceman, but he could very well help the Senators' in building a more effective defensive unit. This season, he's scored 6 goals and 11 assists in 51 games, and has 83P (20G, 63A) in 228 career games with the Islanders.
In exchange, Ottawa is giving up a good veteran player on an expiring contract as well as what would likely be a low first-round pick. McAmmond was never a game-breaker, but he was a veteran who could be relied on regularly to hustle, kill penalties, and could fill in just about any role in a pinch. Unfortunately for me, McAmmond was my favourite non-Daniel Alfredsson Ottawa Senator, which means I'll look like an ass with my McAmmond jersey. But that's fine (maybe we can re-sign him in the off-season; make it happen, Bryan Murray!). The first-round pick appears to be lining up as a very low pick, expectations would indicate somewhere between 25-30 overall, which would mean that the prospect wouldn't be tremendously promising (not likely any better than Campoli already is).
In terms of intangibles, Comrie might bring with him Hilary Duff, who might get along well with Mike Fisher's romantic interest Carrie Underwood. Interesting.
In an interview, Murray denied that he has plans to turn around and sell Comrie to another team; instead, Comrie will likely finish out the season with Ottawa, and both signs sound interested in signing a contract extension at some point. He also hinted that some of the moves he'll be making this season could involve putting players on waivers, perhaps to be dumped to other teams.
Although I'm disappointed to see McAmmond go, he may very well have signed somewhere else in the off-season, anyway. Exchanging him and a low-percentage draft pick for a more offensive player as well as an inexpensive, young, and pormising young defensive prospect seems like a good deal for the present, as well as a look to the future. I don't imagine Murray is done with his deals, though; there are still Filip Kuba and Chris Neil as possibly tradeable assets, and who knows what else.
(EDIT: Interesting note is that we can translate Murray's two biggest trades this season into Meszaros and McAmmond for Kuba, Comrie, Campoli, and Alex Picard. Doesn't look too bad for the time being.)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Posts
