Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Senators' Bryan Murray Talks Senators Captaincy, Potential Trades

09/18/2013 at 11:25pm EDT

The Ottawa Senators' GM spoke with the Team 1200 Ottawa about the team's new (post-Alfredsson) leadership group, and in particular the 8th Captain in the modern history of the franchise, Jason Spezza.

Listen here

Murray revealed that he asked Spezza some important questions that he needed to get answers to before he was given the captaincy. No doubt this would include fishing for hints as to Spezza's long term commitment to the team, with the newly minted captain only under contract for the next two seasons. Of course, under the CBA, teams can only negotiate contract extensions with players in the final year of their current deal. Obviously it would be crushing for the Senators to lose another captain to free agency - particularly if Spezza decided he wanted to play in his native Toronto.

For his part, Spezza was asked today about the prospect of being boo'ed by fans of the Maple Leafs, just as his predecessor was. Alfredsson endured the boos from the Toronto faithful for years, even during Senators home games.

"I don't think so but maybe, you never know, (Alfredsson) provoked it a little bit with his (fake) stick throw (mimicking an incident involving then Leafs captain Mats Sundin), but I wouldn't be heartbroken if I did (get booed), that's for sure,"

(full story from Bruce Garrioch)

During the interview, Murray also addresses the fact that the Senators have more players on the roster on non-waiver exempt one way contracts (defenceman Eric Gryba and forwards Stephane da Costa, David Dziurzynski and Mike Hoffman) than they have open spots. He said that he'll address the organizations needs first, but if it appears one or more of them won't be on the team, he will start calling other GMs to see if he can 'get him placed where he gets a chance to play in the league'. The GM said he'd look to trade these guys for a 'soft pick' and look for teams that may have injuries, or where they may address a need.

Thanks to @carteciel for the link to the audio.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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