Curtis Lazar to Stay, Who Goes?

Early on into the season, many NHL teams are forced to make some hard decisions with their rookie players. After nine games of play, the management has to ask themselves a question. Do they stay, or do they go? For some, the answer puts them down to their AHL affiliate, where lies an opportunity to be called back up to the big league if they are playing well enough. For others, they are sent back down to junior where they will remain for the rest of the season. Then, there is the lucky few that are told to stay with their respective teams.

In the case of Ottawa Senators, centre Curtis Lazar was given the normal nine game period to impress the Senators management, and prove he is ready to play in the NHL. In the nine game period, Lazar was scratched two times, so on Tuesday night, the eleventh game of the season for Ottawa was his last chance to prove himself to the organization. In his nine games, Lazar recorded three assists including his assist to the game-winning goal on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the Senators announced that Lazar is going to stay with the team for the year.

Lazar has been a fan favourite so far this season. At just nineteen years old, he has shown his readiness to match the speed and physicality of the NHL. Although he has yet to score his first career NHL goal, the rookie shows lots of promise and the choice the Senators made to keep him has been very well received. With the chemistry building on the “young line” with Lazar, Hoffman, and Stone, he seems to have found his place in the organization as a strong fourth line centre. This gives Lazar a comfortable way to enter into the NHL, especially with the rotating scratches to be expected between Erik Condra, Colin Greening, and himself. It seems as if the coaching staff wants to ease him into the league rather than putting him in the lineup every night. Which, for the nineteen-year-old, is a good way to get him started.

Who Goes?

There's no doubt that Lazar staying for the season is a success story for the Senators. However, while Marc Methot is still injured with no news of a return date in sight, there lies more decisions to be made. Once Methot is able to return, the Sens will have one extra man on their roster. Someone will either have to be sent down to Binghamton, or a trade will have to be made.

With the coaching staff showing signs of favour in the young guys, we have seen the tables turn on two veteran Senators forwards, Colin Greening, and Erik Condra. Both players have not seen many games so far this season with out of the eleven games played, Condra has played five and Greening merely two. The two players, however, find themselves in different situations. Condra is in the last year of his contract and becomes a UFA on July 1, while Greening is in the first year of a three year deal worth $7.95 million. In a recent article, Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch commented on Colin Greening's situation,

“Ottawa doesn't want him making that kind of coin sitting and sooner or later the situation will be addressed through waivers or a trade because there is interest in Greening.”

A valuable penalty killer like Condra isn't someone the Sens are likely to move, especially after finishing dead last in penalty minutes last season. But as for Colin Greening, we might see him moving in the coming weeks.