Saturday, Meszaros' Last Day in Sens News - Updated

Today, both the Ottawa Sun and the Ottawa Citizen find themselves pondering just which team made off like bandits in the trade that sent Andrej Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning, while giving Filip Kuba, Alex Picard, and San Jose's 1st rounder in 2009 to the Ottawa Senators.

Murray is confident in the abilities of both new defensemen. Kuba is reportedly a tad inconsistent, but can provide solid work at both ends of the ice. While a -8 last year would not impress anyone, the fact that it came on the League's worst team, the team tied with Atlanta for most goals against at 266, while arguably being in their top 3 defensemen behind Ranger (ironically picked with a pick traded to Tampa from the Sens) and Boyle, who was out for a long stretch this season due to a sliced wrist I believe, the -8 should improve drastically, especially if Hartsburg returns to the solid mixed pairings of defensive defensemen with a puck-mover.

Alexander Picard has also shown some flashes of great potential in his short tenure in the NHL. While not yet producing points at Meszaros' pace, he supposedly does not have Meszaros' problem with physical play, which should make many Sens fans breathe a sigh of relief. Murray also mentioned that whether he has two 1st rounders in a deep draft, or can package them up to get into a high 1st rounder overall, he is content with the trade. Word is that Picard was not originally a part of the deal, but that Murray's experience over Barrie and Koules led to him being able to add in the solid prospect.

I still have to say that I think Meszaros had the potential to be better than Redden ever was, maybe even showing the all-around skill of Chara. But, like so many previous Sens players, he let dollar signs and a lack of effort define his play. While his new 6-year, $24 million contract will see him set up to sign what he hopes to be a peak-age mega deal, I am convinced that he would have been much better off in his development with the Sens. Regardless of that, with guys like St. Louis, Lecavalier, Stamkos, and Malone to feed pucks to on the powerplay, his numbers aren't likely to fall, just his defensive stock.

Lastly, I want to make an empassioned plea to Craig Hartsburg: please mix our defensemen properly! Is it any wonder why we lacked secondary scoring when you pair Redden with Meszaros and Corvo is gone? One of three pairings can get the puck up the ice, while also being the pairing most likely to let it come right back the other way. That leaves two, if not three full lines who don't have anyone on the back end to move the puck up the ice well enough to mount any kind of decent attack.

As the Ducks proved so well to us when they won the Cup over us, you spread the wealth around. Niedermayer, Pronger, and Beauchemin all played on different pairings, to spread around the skill. Only on penalty kills and powerplays would you see them together, or against the Sens you might see them paired against our top line. It is time for the Sens to realize this, and force us to never see Volchenkov and Phillips together, except while killing penalties or while up against a dangerously offensively imbalanced team. Same goes for Kuba, who should never see time with Lee or Picard or Nycholat or Schubert, except on a powerplay.

Update - 14:00EST

TSN reports that Meszaros has signed a six-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, as expected. If it is indeed the deal with a cap hit of $4 million, I wouldn't have had too much trouble giving Meszaros that money, if he could prove himself after another year with the Sens. But, like many Sens before him, money seems to be his number one priority, and I appreciate Murray's comments earlier, where he said he couldn't see paying Meszaros more money than all our other, solid dependable blueliners.