Senators Reveal Their First-Round Draft Approach After NHL Sends Them To The Back Of The Line
Ottawa's scouting team expects some elite defensive depth to be taken early and maybe some undervalued first-year NCAA players later on.
Video Transcript
Would Victor Arvidsson at age 33 be of interest to you?
yeah, he would be.
I, I, I'd like to see him Like, he, he's not-- Like, I'm on record as saying they need to get a guy that's gonna score, you know, 40, 45 goals every year, year in, year out, a pure sniper.
I'd love to see that be the guy they acquire.
But as you look at the lineup, and you have to figure aforementioned Claude Giroux is probably dropping down.
we'll talk about Dylan Cozens in a few minutes, but I can see Arvidsson being a guy that can step in.
Worst case scenario, he's, he's middle six.
You know, best case scenario, he's top six.
This is a guy who scored, now, it was years ago, mind you, but he scored, like, 30.
Three years in a row, I think he was 31, 29, and 34 or 35, something like that, three years in a row back at Nashville.
He had some decent seasons, a good run in LA.
Last year in Edmonton was a complete write-off.
Like, I mean, he still scored 15 goals.
That's nothing to snooze at.
Or sorry, two years ago.
But this past year, goes to Boston, scores 25.
That's not bad.
So the question is, is that Victor Arvidsson stepping up in a contract year, or is that Victor Arvidsson is back and this is the player he's going to be?
Like, if you can get 20 goals out of anybody to slide in there in your second line, I'm, I'm all for it, as long as it doesn't cost you a fortune, right?
He's coming off four mil, I think he's making a year there in, in, in Boston.
So if you can get him for the right amount of money, then why not?
Why not g- go for it and see what he can do, depending on what else you can come up with via trade or free agency.
But I'd, I'd be up for it.
I'd be okay with it.
What are you thinking?
Yeah, the injury factor's a big deal.
he has been injury-prone in recent years, even at the end of these playoffs, 'cause he missed, I think he missed something like 13 games early in the year back in November.
I think it was a lower body, and then at, in playoffs, I think he had a fractured rib and a slightly punctured lung.
So there, there is an injury-prone factor there.
He's one of those, like a Ridley Greig, who concerns me all the time about, you know, playing the big man's game in a smaller frame.
I think Arvidsson does a little bit of that.
He is not afraid to go to the dirty areas.
He can be a-- he'd be a good fit for the pesky Sen moniker, 'cause he is a pesky type of a player, not particularly big.
Yes.
And I think he's, he showed this year that he's still got some offense left.
It would be something of a roll of the bones.
I certainly wouldn't wanna go any higher than $4 million.
But if you decide, for example, maybe you want to do something with a Fabian Zetterlund, who didn't really have the kind of season they were hoping for in and around that same chunk of change, I can almost guarantee you'd probably get more productivity out of an Arvidsson over a Zetterlund.
I don't know that Zetterlund is, you know, a tradable commodity at his contract and, and production level this year, but he might be.
You know, he's had some good seasons in the league.
I just, I just don't see the need to pay, Zetterlund that kind of money, and I don't think he's in your top six, and I don't think he's a prototypical bottom six.
So I'm like, "Mm, if I, if I could maybe make that work, trade out one contract for another effectively by signing an, a guy like, Arvidsson and moving out Zetterlund, I'd be doing that all day long."
I re- I've always liked the player.
I think it was Jason York that, actually talked about Victor Arvidsson, and may have misspoke about the Kevin Weekes effect, but, either way, I have been an admirer of his game for a long time, and if he can stay healthy, yeah, I, I think he's probably going to- Yeah produce for you.
That, I think that year in Edmonton last year, the year before this year, it was not good.
and he wanted out just as bad as Edmonton wanted to move him.
They, they sent him away for a fifth rounder, and he had a no-move clause, by the way, in the trade to Boston.
Boston only had to send a fifth rounder for Victor Arvidsson, and he comes up and, I don't know, h- close to 50 points this year, so that was a hell of a deal.
So anyway, I think, yeah, I, I'd probably be willing to roll the bones as long as the contract doesn't get much beyond four mil.
And you make a good point of the, the contract, what you're paying Zetterlund right now.
if you can stomach that, then i- if Arvidsson ends up being a third-line guy, you can stomach it that, there too, right?
But as you say, it, it'd be a perfect world if you could sh- slip out, ship out, the Zetterlund and that contract somehow, and then bring Arvidsson in for the same money.
He'd be higher up in the depth chart, I would think.
the thing about Zetterlund is the only way you're moving him is to somebody who needs to get to the floor or as a second or third piece in some sort of deal that you make with somebody, and it's kind of like, "Hey, look, we wanna make this deal, but you, you gotta take Fabian Zetterlund too."
So I think that you're not, you're not getting somebody-- Es- Fabian Zetterlund will not be the centerpiece in a trade with somebody, right?
Or who knows?
Maybe you could trade Fabian Zetterlund to Boston for a fifth-round pick.
I can't see it.
It worked once.
But who knows?
Yeah.
Hey.
Who knows?
No, that might be the world of the Edmonton Oilers.
part of that deal too, I should just say that it was lack of productivity.
That was part of it, but Edmonton was in cap hell, and they had to just basically dump some salary there, effectively get rid of a player that they didn't think was going to be able to do much for them.
But I think, you know, the Oilers did a lot of things that weren't very good over the last, year, and that, was probably one of them.
A guy like Connor McDavid was probably absolutely dying for some offensive support on lower lines that might have come from a Victor Arvidsson, but he was not there.
But you did have a fifth rounder, so good on you.
Well done.
Well done.
