Thursday Mez-day

Plenty of obscure news filling in the summer doldrums, but a nice Meszaros update today that's worth taking note of.

TSN brings us word of the slow progress between Meszaros and Murray in closing in on a contract. Pleasantly, it's more detailed than Garrioch's Ottawa Sun report on the same subject. Adding to Bruce's notes that Murray's many offers have been rejected, and that the gap is believed to be between $3.5 and $4.5 million as a cap hit, TSN adds that the Ottawa Senators have offered deals from as short as one year, up to a solid five year deal. Murray mentioned as well that Mez's agent has brought up the possibility of a departure to the KHL, but thankfully has stated that were he to do that, the Sens would look within the organization to replace him, easing any worry that we might think Schneider is coming to town.

Mez certainly has a lot to ponder. My guess is that the worst this might come out to would be a one or two year deal closer to Mez's $4.5 million number, with Mez hoping to prove himself worthy of more during that time. Murray might also like a short contract, not being completely sold on Mez yet. I would wager that this year, Mez has a great chance to step up, especially if he were to be paired, as has often been suggested, with newly acquired Jason Smith. No more worrying about how bad Redden is on the other side of the ice defensively, and I think that will only lead to greater success from a more mature Andrej.