The Ottawa Senators have served notice to the Atlantic Division that they won’t be pushed around.
After taking it on the chin from the Montreal Canadiens in a 5-0 loss on Tuesday in Quebec City, the Senators served notice on Friday night that they won’t stand still by acquiring Kurtis MacDermid from the New Jersey Devils in a deal that sent rugged winger Zack MacEwen the other way.
Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, had been scouring the market for some toughness to take some of the pressure off captain Brady Tkachuk to be the club’s enforcer.
MacDermid, 31, who has two years left on a deal that will pay him $1.15 million US, should help play that role. He has amassed 391 penalty minutes in 288 career games in the National Hockey League and is a tougher customer than MacEwen, who was signed by previous management.
“He’s tough and he’s won during his career,” a league executive told Postmedia about MacDermid. “He will make that team play bigger.”
That will be music to the ears of Staios and coach Travis Green. MacDermid can be a presence if this club makes the playoffs in the spring.
While the Senators haven’t dressed a full lineup in the five exhibition games they’ve played this fall, the game against the Habs featured a combined 150 penalty minutes by both teams.
The Senators will never admit it, but part of this move was made to serve notice to the Montreal tough guys, Arber Xhekaj and his brother, Florian, that there won’t be any more nights like they had in Quebec City when they ran roughshod over the Senators.
Nobody wants to see a repeat of those kinds of antics during the regular season and the playoffs when the points are up for grabs. Pre-season games are meaningless, and this stuff is going to happen, but it can’t be a regular occurrence.
The Senators did their part to stand up to the Xhekaj brothers, and it didn’t help that the officials let the game get out of control, but coach Travis Green noted that this stuff is going to happen in the pre-season.
MacEwen, Jan Jenik and Hayden Hodgson, along with defenceman Donovan Sebrango, all dropped the gloves to try to make sure the Senators weren’t run over.
MacEwen tried to do what he could, but didn’t win many fights. He was only used sparingly when he did play.
He was a long shot to make the final roster, and MacDermid will give the Senators a player who knows his role and isn’t afraid to play it. He has suited up for only 39 games in the last two seasons with the Devils.
This is a big investment by the Senators because MacEwen was headed into the final year of a contract that paid him $750,000. This will give him a fresh start because he likely would have spent most of the season with the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville.
MacDermid made his NHL debut with the Los Angeles Kings during the 2017-18 campaign, and his career has also included a stop with the Colorado Avalanche.
A league executive told Postmedia on Friday afternoon that Staios had been “scouring the marketplace for toughness,” and he didn’t waste any time acting before the final rosters are set by Monday at 5 p.m. EDT.
“We have guys that will step up and fight,” Green said on Thursday. “Team toughness comes in many ways. It’s not just about fighting.”
This will take some of the pressure off Tkachuk. He has had to fight a lot of battles over the years. Green has cautioned Tkachuk about dropping the gloves so much, but doesn’t want him to change his game either.
“I stand by what I said last year. I’m not going to ask Brady not to be who he is,” Green said. “I love what he is, I love who he is, and our team really likes him the way he is, too. He’s a tough player and a good player.
“There aren’t a lot of guys in the league who play at the top of your lineup and are as tough as him. They usually play at the bottom of your lineup, and I think he’s gotten a lot better at having emotional control and picking his spots.”
Related