With the Sens suddenly not stinking anymore, you’re easily forgiven for neglecting the reason 29 fan bases follow hockey: thinking of next season. (Especially when “next year” doesn’t necessarily mean daydreaming about Yakupov.) The team’s competitive for now, and winning in an entertaining fashion. Obviously I’m making all sorts of trips to the Wine Rack for my daily dose of Iniskillen Iced Wine and totally paying for my Senators Sportsnet Digipak Bonus (Not Free) Content legally.

But here’s the thing: if the team ends up more competitive than we thought it would be (whoa whoa WHOA, I just said “more competitive”…not “competitive”), and they already have all this cap space, there are some exciting scenarios for next season.

It’s Friday so obviously I’m on Cap Geek. And I notice, first, that the team has about $12,500,000 in cap space already, which is, you know, sort of crazy. (Also crazy: Dallas is competitive with the lowest payroll in the league. Columbus has the fourth highest eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeshsorryguys.)

But then, check it out: there’s just under $2,500,000 coming off the books just in buy-outs. Cheechoo. Emery. Alfredsson. (So glad we bought out that bum.) That’s a whole, real, corporeal player in exchange for nebulous bills. Or two Konopkas.

I sent out a Tweet asking if anyone would consider re-signing Kuba considering his strong play this season, and to sweeten the deal I posited a scenario in which he accepts less money and years. Say…about the $2.5M we just saved on buyouts. The completely scientific results of that Twitter poll (which, by the way…. @wtyky) indicated that 175% of respondents would not re-sign him. (Margin of error of + / – 200%) Hm. Well then. I guess that’s another $3,700,000 in space.

Then you’ve got Carkner, Winchester, Lee and Konopka who, for the sake of argument, let’s say aren’t coming back. Another cool $3,025,000.

Murray has got to re-sign Karlsson. (FOR LIFE, BTW.) That’s a subject for another many dozens and hundreds of posts. (If there’s anything I learned from being notified 10,000 times that that Mika Zibanejad had been sent back to the SEL, it’s that we’re all on the same page when it comes to discussion topics.) But let’s just split the difference between the low and high ends of potential salary and say he makes $4,000,000 a year. We’ll say Da Costa, Regin, and Foligno come back for about the same amount. We’ll also assume Papa Alfie stays in house, and lets the Sun columnists tell him who should live in his basement for one more year. We’ll also assume a few new youngins come into the fold. Let’s also assume we remember Filatov is alive.

That gives this team around $18,000,000 in cap space. Or over a quarter of the entire cap. Which is absolutely nutty. $2M more cap space than the lowest payrolled team in the league right now.

My point being: 

1. We should probably seriously look at re-signing Kuba, especially if he’ll take a paycut and sign for a year or two without a No Trade Clause. I know he’s frustrating. I’ve been right there with you, throwing my chicken wings into a child’s face with frustration. But he can play 20+ minutes a night, and this is a young team, and c’mon guys. Just c’mon. He’s not that expensive. Maybe we can teach him to throw his size around! Just kidding. But think about where you’re gonna put your Kuba hate if he finishes the season with 35 points and a plus rating.
2. There are some seriously exciting players up as UFAs. Not a ton of them, and of course Zach Parise AND Alex Semin will somehow both end up on the Rangers after they bury Brad Richards in the Latvian Mediocre Excellence Brigade. But there’s those two, Ryan Suter, Willie Mitchell, Mikhail Grabovski, and of course a whole slew of Misfit Toys willing to take on cheap contracts just because no one else wants them (helloooooo Lee Stepniak). Murray might actually be in the enviable position, now known as The Tallon, of having to spend to get to the cap floor. This team can have a major shot in the arm next year, and so long as Murray signs players to short contracts to keep room for the necessary re-signings, this team’s in great shape. 
3.  Yakupov-Schmakupov.
4. This is a chance for Melnyk to re-coup some losses. (Which, you know, I’m not entirely convinced about.) This is also a chance for the team to reinvest. Scoreboard. Cheaper concessions. More ticket deals. Let’s get a foam finger on all of those kids’ hands. (Though thanks for the pin during the home opener, that was nice.)

As everyone in the NHL knows and is currently losing sleep over I’m sure, Ottawa Senators sixth overall pick Mika Zibanejad will play his ninth NHL game tonight. Which means that if he plays any more games the first year of his entry-level contract kicks in, regardless of how many more games he plays. Bryan Murray, looking at his deep, deep stable of 2nd line centers (uhh…) must now decide what is best for the 18 year old. Send him back to the Swedish Elite League (“It’s a league of MEN.”) or commit him to a season’s worth of “development”, AKA punishment in the NHL.

James

What do you think is best for Zibanejad? SEL or NHL? I know youre very strongly against not kicking in ELCs til the last minute.

I feel like I couldn’t be any more on the fence about it. Maybe with a slight edge toward returning him.  I really wish he could just be sent down to Binghamton. He’s the new Jared Cowen!

Varada

 I think he should go to the SEL this year. For me the AHL route is a perfect middle road, if only it were possible. He can be called up easily, still gets used to the smaller ice surface and North American style game, etc. That’s the debate with Rundblad. But my understanding is that both have options in their contracts to return to Sweden if they want, and I can understand why they would. You have a choice of returning to your home country, living with your family, and being a star in a league where you know exactly what to expect. Or you can ride the bus all over the US.
 
But if it’s between staying and going, I think he should go for all the common reasons. Mostly though it’s just because 18 is yoooooooooung. I see what Atlanta did with their prospects in consistently playing them early, and it’s never fast-tracked a player’s development.

James

You know what, I swayed more to the send him back side. I sometimes think back to how his SEL number of games-played is somewhere in the 20s, and I think their season is a little over 50 games. It says a lot about his pedigree: just broke in from the Swedish Juniors and caught a bunch of scouts’ attention. I think it would be extra exciting to see him go back and enjoy a Rundbladian domination of the league. Though that’s asking a lot, it did make Rundblad seem all the more of a sure NHLer and SEL graduate when he came over this year. Same goes for Jared Cowen going back the WHL and absolutely hurting that league’s feelings.

Even though winning two games has been a gas to watch (except for like 53 minutes of that CLB game) it’s still a rebuild year and I think Ziba is more of a sure-thing prospect, like Rundblad, where there’s little question he’ll make the NHL one day. With so many prospects in the mix, I’d actually prefer to see DaCosta get a bit more of a look. He seems more the wild card. Maybe even a couple of games for Corey “AHL Hall of Fame” Locke. That and I guess it makes more room Nikita Filatov which, for me: give the kid the full try out. Rebuild year, last year on his ELC, might as well see what he can do, warts and all. Better than having Zbad crammed in there potentially playing wing (like what’s now happening).

Interesting to see The Dogman getting called up ahead of Filatov. I like me some dogman though.

Varada

Yeah, Filatov must be secretly seething. D-Man gets his callup as he wanted to sign in Latvia or some shit and re-signed in Ottawa (apparently) after a promise he’d get a shot in the NHL, so this is probably it. Eventually Filatov though – he’s gonna get his Bobby Butler treatment. “You’re what we’ve got! Top six minutes for the last 30 games of the season!” (*hides under blankets.*) 
 
I mean, don’t get me wrong about Zibanejad: I’d like to him to stay for entertainment value. I’d like to see him develop. I really wanna see him get that first goal, and he was awesome in pre-season. (What a tease preseason is, huh.) Also we need him for depth purposes, as I’ve already said a billion times that I expect like 40% of our lineup to be hurt by mid-season. But you know, if we need to call up someone I’m totally cool with like, Mark Parrish, he of 10 seasons in the NHL and currently with Bingamton, coming up for a few games.

James

I know. I look at Parrish as a very, very smart signing by the Murrays. The David Hale of forwards.

Yeah, I’m not losing sleep over the whole Filatov thing. Still so much season to go and you have to think he’s going to get a pretty extensive shot again with his contract expiring.

Exeunt (weigh in in the comments section)

I feel emo-tioooooooooooon.

Featuring prominently in Ottawa’s stunning last minute comeback win over the cursed Columbus Blue Jackets were Alfredsson, whose savvy read and work ethic generated the chances, Spezza, who scored the tying goal, and Michalek, whose play has been equal parts gritty and speedy. Without those three – arguable the only legitimate NHL line this team has – and Ottawa’s surprisingly potent powerplay (3rd in the league), Ottawa’s early season would be even worse than it’s been.

Spezza in particular has been dominant at times, and with 11 points in eight games might finally start to receive the kind of respect and attention elite players deserve. Michalek is showing what he can do when 100% healthy, and Alfredsson is once again defying his age. Beyond Karlsson, they’re everything this team has.

If Ottawa is going to surprise anyone this season – and read any non-Senators blog and you’ll see an endless stream of “lowly Senators” and “destined for a lottery pick” and just straight up “this team stinks” references – these three need to play this way all season long. In other words, they’ll need to play the role expected of Craig Anderson in everyone’s pre-season predictions and steal some games.

Now, were Anderson to return to his late 2010-2011 season form combined with the trio’s play, you might even have consistency from game to game. You might even, dare I write it, compete for a playoff spot. Now that there’s an extremely modest win-streak under their belts, this team might have some momentum and start challenging teams that aren’t, you know, the absolute worst.

More likely of course is that at least one (if not all three) of those forwards will be injured in due time, and then there will be trouble. Stephane Da Costa has one point in eight games and is -8. Zibanejad has one assist, and is 18 years old. Peter Regin is already hurt. Forget that these guys are barely second line centers, sooner or later they might even be called up to take critical face-offs as the Senators top centermen.

In other words, I’ll take these gutsy, exciting wins while I can. There will be enough tough games ahead. But what’s clear this early on is that Spezza is again proving himself, and is likely the future captain of this team. Let’s soak up the chance to watch him in his prime.

Bill Simmons is as well known a generalist in sports writing as there exists; long-time ESPN contributor, editor-in-chief of Grantland, getter-of-massive-figures-like-commissioners for his podcast, he’s a bit of the everyman, even if his level of access is anything but common. Not a former athlete or general manager, not a specialist; just a former blogger who writes about sports from a fan’s perspective while achieving that tricky balance of humor and authority. He’s sort of the sports blogger equivalent of the musician who gets picked out of obscurity to become a rock star.

He’s also getting into hockey (moreso). With the NBA lockout, the epic collapse of the Red Sox, and football being football (meaning, obscenely well covered already) he’s watching some Kings games. And he’s been writing down some great ideas. So, prompted by this article, I thought I’d take a few minutes to highlight those I think would benefit the NHL the most.

1)      Shorten the season and have a week-long tournament for the eighth seed.

The atom bomb. This one’s a game changer. Here it is in a nutshell: Only the top seven seeds in each conference get into the playoffs. All remaining teams, whether eighth or 15^th, play a round-robin tournament for the eighth seed. This requires the league to drop the already-too-long NHL season from 82 games to maybe 76 or something, which frankly is overdue considering how long the playoffs are (and how weak late-season hockey tends to be). It adds a week of ultra-fun, winner-suddenly-gets-in-hockey. And it prevents tanking for draft picks. Imagine your team toiling in 14^th (ahem, Ottawa) only to suddenly get hot at the right time and, after a few epic wins, find themselves in the playoffs? It would send just the right message about never taking contention for granted, and about competing all year long. And the ratings for that week long tourney would be absolutely bananas. You’d have a huge spike in ticket sales for those down-and-out markets. You’d reward seventh-and-higher seeds with a week’s rest before the playoff grind. You would create an instant underdog favorite. (Imagine a team like the Islanders winning a few games in a row in the last week of the season to jump from 13th to eighth, re-energize and suddenly have to take on a well-rested but rusty Washington in the first round. How could you not root for them at that point?) And it’s absolutely the only way the Columbus Blue Jackets will ever return to the big dance. (Just kidding. [Not kidding.]) In a league that already has all sorts of parity, it would be the ultimate “anyone can make it” gesture, and it would be a hell of a lot of fun. This is a Nobel Prize idea.

2)      Larry Bird Clause, kinda

When it comes to a pending UFA, allow the team who drafted the player (should he still be with that team) to offer more money than competitors. This allows small markets to keep their stars – if they’re willing to pay for them – and gets us out of this whole ridiculous “we just couldn’t get a deal done” parlance. This is a little bit less obvious in hockey than in basketball, because there’s a league max per player in hockey but no one in the league, even its biggest stars, comes anywhere close to it (there’s always some chatter about the next big UFA getting a league max deal, and inevitably he’ll sign the nice secure long-term deal with a reasonable or only-slightly-unreasonable cap hit around $7M); theoretically, small markets already can outbid other teams – if they have the cash – by just going league max, AKA officially insane. They don’t because you have to sign 20 guys in hockey, and Kovalchuk can’t play goaltender.

The solution is to create artificial cash advantages. Limit the maximum bid allowed by competitors on a UFA. So, to use Kovalchuk again, all other markets would not be allowed to offer more than, say, $7 million a year (in the highest paying year of the deal), and Atlanta (R.I.P.) could have offered more than $7M, up to league max. This also removes the unofficial but totally real advantage large market teams have and use when they bury contracts in the minors or overseas in order to dish out for today’s big UFA. Oh, and only allow the drafting franchise one Larry Bird Clause per UFA period. Which means Nashville is still boned when Weber, Suter and Rinne come up for new contracts after this year.

3)      Incentives for players who outperform

The two above ideas would be a tough sell to the players’ union. They limit the maximum payout to the league’s stars and not-really-stars. (How will Brain Campbell put food on the table without Dale Tallon having every opportunity to make him the next okay player with an elite player’s paycheque?) And they encourage teams to spend less, load up on stars at the deadline, and then try to run the table during the round-robin tourney rather than spend all season long on salaries. Here’s a bone thrown the other way: bonuses to players who outperform their contract expectation and, here’s the key, bonuses which don’t count against the cap. You can argue we already have bonuses, but they do count against the cap. It’s also not spectacular for a player like Sean Bergenheim to outperform expectation by scoring, like, five goals. How about for contracts in excess of $5 million there’s an automatic superstar provision wherein the player earns more if they win a major award, or land in the top ten in their respective categories? You’re telling me a team will complain about having to shell out an extra million or two if 1) they have a player on their team good enough to win the Art Ross? And 2) they have the advantage of the Larry Bird Clause, which allows them to keep all of their players OR if bidding on a non-drafted UFA to get them for only up to $7M?

So there you go: three solid ideas to improve upon an already improving league.

BONUS IDEA (this one is mine)

Trade Sergei Gonchar to the Rangers for Wade Redden and their 1st and 3rd round picks. They save $5.5M overall, get an actual NHL player (sorta), and we get a defenceman who might feel like he has something to prove and has a positive history with the city, and some picks. New York would have to figure out the cap, and Gonchar isn’t going to waive his no trade if they plan on stashing him in the minors, but I dunno…get an analyst to put some scenarios in a Word document and email it to Sather.

Oh, and no-touch icing for Christ’s sake.