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

The rebuild is on. If you're going to blow it up, blow it up and blow it up real good. The Senators trading their #2 and #3 centres in Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly show they aren't messing around and are fully committed to the rebuilding process necessary to get this team back to being competitive again. Good drafting, developing their young prospects...the cornerstones of building a strong franchise. Ottawa actually did this quite well for about 10 years, when they brought up such players such as Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat and Daniel Alfredsson.

Some bad signings, trades, and recent draft picks have made them a shell of their former self. GM Bryan Murray is trying to bring in as many assets as he can with the players that he has that still have some value. Teams are loading up for the playoffs and veterans with playoff experience are a prime candidate for trade, especially when they have an expired contract at the end of the season.

Chris Phillips has been a model Ottawa Senator since 1996 when he was drafted first overall by the Senators. He's not flashy, he doesn't have the offensive skills that some elite d-men have, but he does bring a hard work ethic and a simple, no nonsense defensive style that, until perhaps this year, you can count on to shut down the opposing team's top tier players. At 32 years old, he doesn't have a lot of time left in the NHL. And just to be selfish, he should agree to help the team he's been loyal to for 14 years by agreeing to get traded to a Stanley Cup contender and get the Senators a pick or prospect they can hopefully develop into a full-time NHLer.

While he is saying the right things to the press by stating he wants to stay in Ottawa and help with the rebuild, the bottom line is that there are no guarantees the Senators will re-sign him to a new contract. In actual fact, I think if the Senators DID want to hang onto him, they'd have signed him to an extension already.

If Phillips plays for another team and has a strong playoff, that increases his value come free agency time. And that might also convince Ottawa he'd be worth keeping. There is no rule in the NHL against trading a player at the deadline and re-signing him for next season over the summer.

And one thing I've learned as a fan over the years, is that winning the Stanley Cup is one of the most difficult things you can do in pro sports. You never know when your career will end. You never know if the next injury will be your last. And you never know if the team you play for will be good enough to take it all. You want to give yourself every opportunity to win it, and I think Phillips might regret one day missing out on what could be the chance of a lifetime.