Despite being the butt of many jokes for the past couple of seasons, the Ottawa Senators head into this offseason with some real opportunity. The team has just a single player—Bobby Ryan—under contract for more than two years and a huge number of draft picks to work with over the next several seasons. Putting the Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone and Matt Duchene situations behind him, GM Pierre Dorion can now go to work on rebuilding the franchise back up. Still, there are a few veteran names on the roster that come with some question marks. One of those is Cody Ceci, who is a restricted free agent once again after seeing his one-year $4.3MM deal expire.
Ceci, 25, is the experienced one on the Ottawa blue line, with six NHL seasons under his belt already. He’s coming off a 26-point performance while being used heavily in the defensive zone. A relatively young, experienced defenseman that is logging more than 22 minutes a night in all situations is usually one a team wants to lock up long term, but Ceci may not be in that situation. There has been criticism launched towards the defenseman for years, partly because his skills make him neither an offensive or defensive talent, but somewhere in the middle. He probably shouldn’t be used as much as he has been in Ottawa, but they haven’t had many other reliable options over the years.
Now, as free agency looms once again and the Senators prepare for an offseason of change, Ceci is in talks on a new contract. Both Wayne Scanlan of Sportsnet and Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen note that discussions are ongoing, but Warren also reports that Dorion is “seriously exploring the trade market.” The league has watched several defensemen change teams in recent days, with Olli Maatta, Jacob Trouba, Matt Niskanen, Radko Gudas and Justin Braun all traded. Nikita Zaitsev and Rasmus Ristolainen have also been discussed and could be moved by the end of the summer. Will Ceci be another name to add to that list?
Scanlan writes that other teams have been calling Dorion because of their cap space and draft assets, and the Senators GM admits that they’ve spoken about moving up in the draft. The Senators currently have picks 19, 32 and 44, but with so much other draft capital available could potentially move up significantly. A Ceci deal would obviously not have to be involved in that, but it is still something to monitor over the coming days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
ok so they get rid of ceci, then what? they still need to spend in the range of 12 million to reach the floor. white likely takes up 3 – 3.75 million or so of that is my guess.
Without Ceci their entire D core makes less than almost every teams most expensive defenceman.
Sign White to a longer term deal for medium money. 4.5? Trade Ceci and the money is a wash, then you can eat a bad contract. Personally if I was them I’d take on Backes because that would enable you to take on a second bad contract when his expires in two years. They could probably take on Callahan, buy him out, and then take Backes and be right around the floor.
Overpaying Ceci just because they have money now is not an option. He will impede their cap situation when their young guys need to get paid, especially if he’s on a long term deal. Trading him and then bringing in a guy like Eriksson or Clarkson makes way more sense. Unless he’ll take a pay cut for more years which won’t happen. For some reason teams want to pay him like a top pairing dman.
JDgoat … What Eriksson are you referring to? Also, what do you mean by “teams” want to pay him…?? I haven’t heard or read anywhere that he is considered a top 2 Dman and should be paid as such. This is just one team here who had no choice but to play him in that position (read the article again). He’s more suited for say the 4th-5th defencemen and penalty killer. Good for 18-19 minutes a game. That’s probably say $4.5-$5 with some term. He’s young for sure, but you pretty well know what you get from him now.
Every team is exploring the trade market for a D on their roster. See what Braun and Trouba fetched? Why wouldn’t you put out one of your short-term contract D men to see who bites. Chris Tanev (Vancouver) has hit the market now too – and there will be plenty of others in the next few days.
I was hoping he’d become available. I know a ton of guys are down on him, but he and Zaitsev are two guys I’d like the Stars to look at. Zaitsev, if he either costs almost nothing or they’ll hold on to a small part of the salary.
I’m fine with Ceci at those numbers with sheltered play as the teams fourth or worse defenceman. I fear he’s going to get at least 6 million though which is cringe worthy. And then you might have to factor in if the new coach likes him and misplays him as a shutdown defenceman like previous coaches have.
Ceci is crap. A career CF of 45.7% – he gets absolutely murdered on the ice.