If this were a player put on waivers by any other organization, it likely wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
Players do get waived for a variety of reasons.
But when the Ottawa Senators put Zack Smith on waivers Tuesday it was viewed as a red flag.
Centre Matt Duchene, one of the few elite veterans left on the Senators roster, reacted with an uncharacteristically blunt comment: “I’ll be honest. It’s a kick in the balls for us. That’s how it feels.”
Keep in mind, there wasn’t a player in the Senators room who spoke out when superstar defenceman Erik Karlsson was traded to the San Jose Sharks last week. At least the Karlsson transaction was partly a hockey move – the Senators did pick up players and picks for Karlsson as he heads into his UFA season. There was consideration that a dressing room culture required change.
Yet Smith, a beloved figure in the room and a guy who would always stand up for his teammates on the ice, was clearly waived in a salary dump.
Whatever hope there was of signing Duchene and Mark Stone, both pending UFAs, could be gone as well. May the last recognizable player turn out the lights.
If Smith is claimed mid-day Wednesday, he will be the 11th player gone from the Ottawa roster that reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final about 16 months ago. Karlsson, Hoffman, Kyle Turris, Marc Methot, Dion Phaneuf, Clarke MacArthur, Derick Brassard, Viktor Stalberg, Chris Kelly and Fredrik Claesson are the others.
The Senators are often referred to as a tire fire, but this is more of a fire sale.
In the June 2017 expansion draft, the Senators protected many of these players and just last fall added Duchene via the Turris trade in what was said at the time to be a sign Ottawa was “going for it.”
Today it’s a massive rebuild, yet the Senators don’t have their first-round pick for 2019 because they dealt it along with Turris for Duchene. Duchene left Colorado because he wanted to be on a playoff team. That might be a long time coming in Ottawa.
Stone, too, just last week looked and sounded optimistic about working with some good young talent, such as fourth overall pick Brady Tkachuk. On Tuesday, Stone appeared wounded while he tried to speak bravely about coming into the rink every day with a good attitude. Can’t control the business side, etc…
Mark Borowiecki, owner Eugene Melnyk’s unfortunate video sidekick, said he was disappointed at seeing his “really, really, really good friend” go on waivers.
“He’s universally loved and respected in this room,” Borowiecki told reporters. “Now, our job as friends and teammates is to be there for him in kind of a tough situation.”
The problem for players and fans in Ottawa is that the ‘business’ side – ie. saving money on contracts – always seems to trump the hockey side. Fans in the nation’s capital are savvy enough to hang in for a rebuild, if they can trust it is a legitimate one, where commitment to a competitive payroll kicks in eventually.
There is no such trust in Ottawa at the moment.
Even head coach Guy Boucher, the paid-as-pauper head coach of the Senators seemed publicly displeased at potentially losing a player he had pencilled in as his No. 2 centre behind Duchene. Boucher said that if Smith clears waivers by Wednesday, he will go right back on the board in the same position.
Some have speculated that this could be Dorion’s way of forcing Boucher to play the kids. If Smith goes, it will be left to the likes of young Colin White and Filip Chlapik to move up. Ottawa did acquire centre Chris Tierney, 24, from the Sharks as part of the Karlsson trade.
Boucher has already lost the leadership and experience of centre Jean-Gabriel Pageau, out with a torn Achilles.
Now he could lose the longest-serving Senator in the lineup. A gritty forward, Smith joined the Senators in 2008-09, a third-round pick from the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos. Smith grew up in Maple Creek, Sask.
The 30-year-old has three years left on a contract that carries a cap hit of $3.25 million. Though his production tailed off last season to five goals and 14 assists in 68 games, Smith is just two seasons past a 25-goal campaign, along with 11 assists in 81 games in 2015-16.
Dorion tried to move Smith at the deadline and beyond but balked at taking any salary back in return.
As a waiver pickup with no strings attached, Smith could be attractive, although the $3.25 million tag will limit interest.
The human side of the story is unsettling. Smith has never been an issue for the organization, the consummate foot soldier. He and his wife, Brittany, just had their first child, a girl they named Rae Siena Smith, in mid-August.
One week before the regular season starts, he has no idea where he is playing or where the family will be living.
One week before the season, fans of the team still don’t know what the plan is.
They do know that after the most bizarre off-season in franchise history – the Karlsson-Hoffman affair, Karlsson and Hoffman both traded away, an assistant GM resigning — the pre-season includes a beloved veteran on waivers.
The sideshow is already underway before the first drop of the puck.
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