Sens fans have to be excited that Alex Kovalev is coming to Ottawa. Dany Heatley saga aside, this adds some serious secondary (or dare I say more PRIMARY!) scoring to the Ottawa lineup. The recently announced contract is for two years, and the salary has not yet been revealed. (Update: TSN says the contract is with $10-million.)Kovalev's scoring abilities are the definition of streaky. He was loved in Montreal when he was having a good season, and loathed for being moody and selfish when he wasn't putting the puck in the net. He's bounced between 40 and 80 points per season over the last few with Montreal.
From a historical standpoint, this is the largest free agent signing the Senators have ever made. The only other one that pops into my head is Petr Bondra, and that was just a playoff addition (and a disaster, sorry to bring it up).
I believe the recent Heatley hatred has diverted a lot of attention off Bryan Murray. While the city's been busy advertising $4-million salads (seriously Ottawa Sun? Isn't there something about our mayor's trial you could be putting on the front page?), we seem to have forgotten a lot of the anger toward Murray for handicapping this team over the past few seasons. Though I am not his largest critic, stats don't lie, and Murray had to do something to shake up this team.
Holy crap! The Sens have four scorers now! Can we make Kovalev play defence and put them all on the same line?! Imagine the possibilities! (That's sarcasm, btw... Although we'll probably see that on the powerplay.)
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