With six NHL defencemen under contract and youngsters making a push, Bryan Murray has a decision to make with Kuba.
After Bryan Murray signed Chris Phillips last week, the question from the Sens fan base was logical: What is going to happen with Filip Kuba?
Even after Chris Campoli was shipped off to Chicago, it left Ottawa with six NHL defencemen under contract for next season: Phillips, Kuba, Sergei Gonchar, Erik Karlsson, Matt Carkner and Brian Lee. In addition to those six, David Rundblad and Jared Cowen will be ready to push for NHL jobs in training camp. And there is every indication the Sens want those two kids playing next season.
So a crowded house on the back end means that Kuba, who has become the latest whipping boy for the fans and media, is the most likely to get traded. But if Murray couldn't find a taker for Kuba at the deadline -- and it sure sounds like he tried -- what are his options this summer?
Buying him out seems unlikely, considering the organization has spent millions of dollars on similar buyouts for Ray Emery and Jonathan Cheechoo. Going with that option would put more than $1 million on the cap in each of the next two seasons.
But I'm going to make a bold prediction: I think that Murray will find a taker for Kuba around the NHL draft. He has one more year on a contract that will have a cap hit of approximately $3.7 million next season. Yes, Kuba had an off season for the Sens in 2010-11. But his entire season was de-railed by a broken leg suffered on the first day of training camp. That came on the heels of surgery to repair a disc in his back and resulted in Kuba showing little or no confidence this season.
But another GM might be willing to take a gamble on the defenceman. Especially a general manager who is looking to spend wisely this summer to shore up his back end, rather than open up his wallet.
The free agent crop of defencemen includes the likes of Ed Jovanovski, Andrei Markov, Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle. All of those defencemen will command salaries and term that are well beyond the $3.7 million left on Kuba's deal. And before you start saying that Kuba doesn't belong in their class, consider the following statistic.
In his first two seasons with the Sens, Kuba ranked amongst the top 10 NHL defencemen in assists per game. The list is as follows:
Assist-Per-Game, defencemen (2008-2010)
Mike Green - 0.69
Andrei Markov - 0.65
Duncan Keith - 0.57
Dan Boyle - 0.55
Brian Rafalski - 0.53
Nicklas Lidstrom - 0.52
Scott Niedermayer - 0.51
Brian Campbell - 0.51
Tomas Kaberle - 0.50
Filip Kuba - 0.50
A healthy Kuba just might be worth a gamble next season. When healthy, he has proven he can generate offence on a fairly consistent basis. Murray might have to take some salary back to get this deal done, but I think it's more plausible than we think right now.
In Ottawa, we have become conditioned to think that Kuba is an overrated and overpaid defenceman. And I am the first to put myself in that category. But we tend to forget that he was actually an extremely productive defenceman in his first two years in Ottawa. Granted, his 2010-11 season has been an unmitigated disaster. But that statement could apply to pretty much any player on the Sens roster.
In his first two seasons with Ottawa, Kuba logged more ice time than any other player on the team. He was an integral part of this team, playing in all situations. He saw the ice more often than Phillips and Anton Volchenkov, because he was more versatile. He was Ottawa's No. 1 defenceman without any of the hype or fanfare.
You don't need 29 other general managers who want him. You just need one. And I'm predicting that one of them is willing to look at Filip Kuba's big picture and take a gamble on him for just one season.
