The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Tampa Bay really, really wanted to land Andrej Meszaros. At a reported 6 year, $4 million a season deal they signed him to, I have to wonder what the thinking was over at Lightning brass when they already had proven d-man Dan Boyle under contract for $6 million a season but shipped him off to San Jose earlier this summer. They could have held on to prospect Alexandre Picard and veteran Filip Kuba, the two players they sent to the Senators, and after training camp trade for the players they didn't want anymore.

But it's such thinking that perhaps makes me realize my incompetence in NHL logic and forces me to work a desk job. In any case, the Sens also picked up a 2009 1st round pick in a draft said to be the deepest in years, and I have to give kudos to GM Bryan Murray for getting a good return for Meszaros. No question, he is the best player in the deal, but Murray certainly didn't feel Meszaros is ready to be the #1 d-man for his team. Tampa Bay is strong up front, but if you just consider salaries, they think the 22 year-old Slovak is their #1 defenceman, from whom you cornerstone their back-end. I simply don't think he's ready for that sort of responsibility at such a young age and coming off of average seasons, and the Lightning are taking a huge gamble on this deal. But if he's the next Niklas Lidstrom, hey, they won the deal hands down.

I actually feel a lot better about Ottawa's defense then I did just a few days ago because acquiring two new defencemen gives Ottawa plenty of options. Philips, Volchenkov, Smith and Kuba are pretty much locks to be on the roster opening night. So the final two spots will spruce up some healthy competition between Picard, Brian Lee, Christoph Schubert, Lawrence Nycholat, Brendan Bell and Binghamton's Matt Carkner. Knowing there are players behind you nipping at your heels wanting a spot will no doubt push these players to be their very best. At least in theory.

In theory though, communism works, so we'll just have to wait for the start of the season to see how they do. This is probably the biggest Sens shakeup in the off-season in quite some time, and hopefully the core group and the new guys will mesh well and produce a contender for Sens fans.