from Travis Yost of TSN,

As the Ottawa Senators continue to plod through a multi-year rebuild, one of the key focus areas for the organization will be in net.

Only one team gave up more goals than Ottawa (243) last season, and that was with goaltenders Craig Anderson, Anders Nilsson, and Marcus Hogberg playing reasonably well.

Anderson, a veteran who spent 10-years in the nation’s capital, was not extended by the organization and remains an unsigned free agent. This part of the transition was expected – Anderson, now 39, was showing signs of performance decline and was blocking a couple of goaltending prospects from an increase in workload.

But interestingly, the team chose not to hand the reins over to a Nilsson and Hogberg tandem. Hogberg, still just 25-years old, showed he was capable during 24 starts last season. But when presented with the opportunity to keep Hogberg in the development queue by adding an established NHL goaltender, Ottawa jumped on the opportunity, acquiring Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray for a second-round pick and prospect Jonathan Gruden.

It’s an interesting gamble for Ottawa – it’s hard to think of another goaltender whose performance at the highest professional level has been more volatile than Murray.

continued