Silver Nuggets: Drooling Over the Possibility of Bobby Ryan

Once the Ottawa Senators brass declared themselves out of the Zach Parise and Rick Nash sweepstakes, it seemed some fans hopes of the Sens adding another big piece up front to replace the aging Daniel Alfredsson and to support Jason Spezza were over, at least for this offseason.

But recently, the hunger of Sens Army has revved up again, as Bobby Ryan's name has been bandied about in trade rumours as the young winger is apparently unimpressed with the way the Ducks have been run the last couple of seasons. Ryan, who was the second pick in the infamous Sidney Crosby draft, took a while to arrive in the league, playing a couple extra years of junior before playing most of his rookie campaign in the AHL.

Once he arrived though, he arrived. The past 4 seasons (each season that he has been an NHL regular) he has managed to score 30 goals, and in 2010-2011, he put up a career high 71 points. He may not have the size of Rick Nash, but he is 6'2 and almost 220 lbs so he would add size to the forward ranks. He is much younger than Nash, being only 25 years old. He has a very reasonable contract for a player of his caliber, with 3 years left at 5.1 million dollars. He shoots right, but plays the left side and would obviously look great playing with Jason Spezza and on a power play with Erik Karlsson.

So what would you give up for Bobby Ryan? Personally, I'd give what we apparently offered for Rick Nash. The problems with that are obvious: Nick Foligno is now a member of the Blue Jackets, and with Jonas Hiller and Vickor Fasth and John Gibson, the Ducks are quite set for goalies and would unlikely be interested in Ben Bishop or Robin Lehner.

What would they want? Well looking at their depth chart, Saku Koivu isn't getting any younger and neither is Teemu Selanne (if he chooses to come back). After their big three up front, they are barren. On defence, they have signed Sheldon Souray and Bryan Allen this offseason, but they recently traded Jake Gardiner and lost Justin Schultz, so they are in need of young defencemen to play with Cam Fowler.

Obviously any trade proposal from the Senators must start with Mika Zibanejad. He would give them a great forward prospect that can play centre or the wing. But what else? Jared Cowen? That seems steep to me, but Bobby Ryan is one of the better young players in the game. I'm interested in your thoughts. I'll be Bob Murray, you be Bryan, let me hear your best pitch.

Links after the jump.

Sens Links

• This story talks about the Senators interest in Ryan, but seems pretty speculative. [TFP]
• Was talked about the other day on our site, but here is Nichols with some thoughts about Kaspars Daugavins going to arbitration. [6thSens]
• Here is an adorable wedding picture of Erik and Therese Karlsson, if you are into that sort of thing. Congrats Erik! [SensExtra]
• As has been mentioned a few times, Nick Foligno got himself a healthy raise, making just over 3 million per season, which is more than we are paying Marc Methot, so that's kind of nice. Here is hoping Nick can live up to that contract. [SensExtra]
• Brad Marsh has been doing a coast to coast bike ride for the Boys and Girls club and he is almost at the finish line! Nice to see a guy like Marshy still giving back, years after leaving the game. [Sens]

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