News and Notes: Weekend Round-up

We are officially in the dog days of summer my friends, about as far from the end of the play-offs as we are from the start of the regular season. There were a few odds and ends that popped up over the weekend, however:

• On Friday, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames swapped some bad contracts in the form of Milan Lucic and James Neal. Edmonton will retain 12.5% of Lucic’s contract, and Calgary also gets a conditional 3rd round pick in 2020 for their troubles. Neal and Lucic’s contracts are two of the very worst in the whole league, so it makes some sense for the teams to see if a swap couldn’t help their fortunes. From a Sens’ perspective, it’s another reminder that it very well could be impossible to get out of Bobby Ryan’s contract without paying some sort of price in the form of picks or prospects — or taking in just as bad a deal in exchange.
• Jacob Trouba and the New York Rangers came to terms on a 7 year, $56M contract on Friday. Trouba, who was traded to the Rangers from the Jets, could very well be one of the comparison points used by Thomas Chabot when he and the Sens are set to negotiate his next contract. Chabot will be 23 at the end of next year and Ottawa will have some difficult choices in front of them if the star rearguard puts up another high scoring performance.
• Salary arbitration began on Saturday. The Sens don’t have any players up for arbitration this year, but you can see the full list of those who elected it here. /