from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

The Senators are last in the 31-team NHL after two more losses this past weekend and, as has been discussed endlessly, they are without a first-round draft pick to ease their pain.

It’s nearly impossible to believe this is a hockey team that was one shot away from the Stanley Cup final just 19 months ago. But here is where the Sens are, awful and drawing fewer than 15,000 fans per game. So what to do with three weeks to go before the trade deadline?

Well, clean house of course. Ottawa could, and should, be the NHL’s busiest team over the next few weeks. This is not the time for the faint of heart.

Making it appear that you’re negotiating seriously with 27-year-old Matt Duchene and 26-year-old Mark Stone is good politics, particularly for an unpopular owner like Eugene Melnyk. But that’s the politics. The reality is Duchene and Stone need to move on because they are set to become unrestricted free agents and are precisely the players most capable of bringing back the kinds of assets Ottawa desperately needs.

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