Silver Nuggets: Recapping July

Draft

• The Senators made moves early, trading a 3rd round pick to move up from 12th to 11th in order to snag Logan Brown. [Silver Seven - pick, coach's interview, Ottawa Citizen]
• The team went to Sweden for their second rounder, choosing Jonathan Dahlen. [Silver Seven, Ottawa Citizen]
• With no 3rd round pick, the team selected overager Todd Burgess at 103rd overall. [Silver Seven - pick, coaches interview, Ottawa Citizen]
• The WHL was next, with defender Max Lajole getting the call in the 5th round. [Silver Seven - pick, coach's interview]
• They ended the day by selecting their first Finnish player in 10 years. [Silver Seven]
• Want a summary? [Silver Seven, SensChirp, Eye on the Sens]
• Trevor was happy with the picks, arguing that the Sens farm system is now restocked after a couple of down years. Nichols recapped the Sens draft, featuring comments from ESPN's Corey Pronman. [Silver Seven, 6th Sens]
• In addition, Nichols had McKeen's scout Grant McCagg on his podcast to discuss the Sens picks, and transcribed Pierre Dorion's post-draft media availability on TSN1200. [6th Sens - Podcast, Dorion]
• Peter Levi generally projects the 2016 draft himself, and has an interesting piece on how he (and other major scouting services) did. [Eye on the Sens]/

Restricted Free Agents

• The team re-signed Buddy Robinson to a one-year, two-way deal on June 23rd [Silver Seven, SensChirp]
• RFAs Casey Bailey and Max McCormick were re-signed (along with Group VI UFA Phil Varone) on July 1st. Although these aren't sexy names, they're very important depth players for the BSens. [Silver Seven]
• Depth forward Ryan Dzingel was re-signed to a one-year, two-way deal. He's likely on the team in the fall in some capacity, or is the first call-up out of Binghamton. [Silver Seven]
• Dzingel's RFA counterpart, Freddie Claesson, was re-signed to a one-year, two-way deal. Freddie likely starts the season with the Senators as the 7th defender after featuring alongside Erik Karlsson at the end of last season. [Silver Seven, SensChirp, Ottawa Citizen]
• The Sens final remaining 2011 first round pick, Matt Puempel, was re-signed to a one-year, two-way deal. He's waiver eligible, so expect him to be with the big club for the duration of the 2016-17 season. [Silver Seven, Ottawa Citizen]
• There were some anxious moments, especially after he filed for arbitration, but Mike Hoffman is an Ottawa Senator for the next four years. [Silver Seven - signing, Dorion speaks, 6th Sens - signing, Dorion, SensChirp - signing, reader thoughts, Ottawa Citizen]
• Cody Ceci is the only RFA who hasn't been signed yet. Over at the 6th Sens, Nichols has a piece on what Danny DeKeyser's new contract (Wings) may mean for Ceci, while Stefan Wolejszo guest-posts to estimate Ceci's value. [6th Sens - DeKeyser, Estimating Ceci's value, Ottawa Citizen]/

New signings

• The team's first move of a busy July 1st was to re-sign depth defender Michael Kostka to a one-year, two-way contract. [Silver Seven]
• Centre Chad Nehring joined the organization on July 1st from the Rangers AHL affiliate in Hartford. Nehring provides valuable centre depth since most of the prospect options (Brown, White, Chlapik) aren't ready to turn pro yet and potential college prospect Quentin Shore is likely taking the UFA route. [Silver Seven]
• The team's sixth signing of July 1st was the only one to get a two-year deal, likely due to his familiarity with HC Guy Boucher. RWer Mike Blunden joined the team from Syracuse. [Silver Seven]
• Peter has an informative piece on this trio of AHL FA signings [Eye on the Sens]
• Bryan Murray often stated that he regretted having to trade Chris Kelly, so he probably smiled when he heard the news. Ol' Stonehands is back on a cheap one-year deal. [Silver Seven, 6th Sens, SensChirp, Ottawa Citizen]
• Despite these signings, Trevor argues that the Senators missed a key opportunity to add quality NHL depth given their needs going in. Nichols concurred, noting that Sens management are relying on Guy Boucher to turn the team around rather than making large personnel moves. Andrew brought up the point that the Sens would have to overspend for most of the big names anyways. Chirp commented on Dorion's post-July 1 comments. [Silver Seven, 6th Sens, WTYKY, SensChirp, Ottawa Citizen]/

Trades

• A couple to note here. First, restricted free agent Alex Chiasson was shipped off to Calgary (to be reunited with new Flames asst. coach Dave Cameron) for hulking left-defender, Patrick Sieloff. [Silver Seven, 6th Sens, SensChirp, Ottawa Citizen]
• There were a couple of big trades in the league featuring names like Taylor Hall, P.K. Subban, Adam Larsson, and Shea Weber. Ross wish that the Sens were in on them, while Luke takes this moment to juxtapose Sens management with the Oilers and Habs. [Silver Seven, WTYKY, Ottawa Citizen]
• The Senators DID make a big, unexpected trade, sending 23yo forward Mika ZIbanejad for the more experienced Derick Brassard. [Silver Seven - trade, reaction, Dorion transcript, Q&A with Blueshirt Banter, Zibanejad's most memorable moments, 6th Sens - trade, Dorion, WTYKY Roundtable, SensChirp - trade, reaction, Ottawa Citizen - trade, Dorion, making a push, Zibanejad comments]
• Trevor wonders if Dorion will make more trades to emphasize the team's 'win now' mentality. [Silver Seven]/

Rounding out the Coaching Staff

• The Senators hired a new goaltender coach in light of the departed Rick Wamsley. Jeff has more on Pierre Groulx. [Silver Seven]
• The BSens also hired three more staffers, including a goalie development coach just for Binghamton. I'm happy about the willingness to spend more money on AHL staffers. [Silver Seven]
• The last NHL assistant coach position was filled with a familiar name for Guy Boucher: ex-Bolts assistant, Martin Raymond. [SensChirp]/

BSens and Prospects

• After being with the Elmira Jackals for many years, the Senators have switched ECHL affiliates in back-to-back years. Bye Bye, Evansville IceMen. Hello, Wichita Thunder! [Silver Seven]
• Are the Binghamton Senators moving too? Ross and Nichols cover the news out of Binghamton while Jeff reacts to the rumours, mainly being reported from social media. [Silver Seven - news, reaction, 6th Sens, Ottawa Citizen]
• The blogosphere covered Sens Development Camp pretty well! Chirp had a great primer, while Nichols transcribed Sens AGM Randy Lee's post-camp comments. [SensChirp, 6th Sens]
• Callum had a great piece on likely top-pair Team Canada defencemen, Thomas Chabot. He was called out a bit by Randy Lee after a lax training camp but there's no doubt that he's a key part of the Sens future. [Silver Seven]
• Chirp's been profiling a number of Sens prospects during his "One to Watch" series. [SensChirp - Hogberg, Englund, Perron]

Miscellaneous

• Trevor started a new podcast, and had a bunch of cool guests on the inaugural episodes. Callum was on Episode 1 to talk about prospects, Chiasson, and Patrick Wiercioch. Craig Smith of Hockey Prospectus was on Episode 2 to talk about Thomas Chabot, Gabriel Gagne, goaltender depth, and the Sens organizational depth. I made my podcast debut on Episode 3 to discuss about contract negotiations. Sean Tierney was on Episode 4 to discuss all aspects of the Brassard trade. [Cost per Pointcast - Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4]
• Callum and Alex Brownscombe had Travis Yost on the Battle of Ontario podcast to recap free agent frenzy in Episode 13. They had Anthony Petrielli on to discuss the trends of the offseason in Episode 14. Finally, Episode 15 focused on the Mika Zibanejad trade. [Battle of Ontario - Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15]
• Chet & Luke joins the podcast bonanza to discuss Erik Karlsson and to play some fun games with their listeners. [Chet Sellers & Luke Peristy Podcast]
• The bottom-six forwards have a lot of question marks coming into the season. Chirp profiles the key battles. [SensChirp]
• We had so many mailbag questions that we split the responses into three parts! Read them all here! [Silver Seven Mailbag - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]
• Ross has our offseason coverage rolling in full gear with a "3 Questions" series featuring the blogs of other Atlantic Division teams. [Silver Seven 3Q's - Leafs, Sabres, Wings, Bruins, Lightning, Panthers, Habs]
• In lieu of the Atlantic Division's mediocrity, Andrew argues that the Sens are in a good position to make the playoffs. [WTYKY]
• What if all of the Atlantic Division teams had to keep their drafted players? Trevor investigates! [Silver Seven]
• Chirp has 10 key questions for the 2016-17 Senators to answer. [SensChirp]
• Although the team has made a number of key moves this offseason, Trevor argues that the big push will come a year into the Boucher era: 2017-18. [Silver Seven]/