The Ottawa Senators are looking to upgrade in order to help them reach the postseason in back-to-back seasons after they finally made the leap to playoff contender. The team has been looking around, and while they don’t have the cap space and need for an elite player or true top-6 talent, they could use some two-way and bottom-6 help.This is where the Calgary Flames come in. They are a bottom-feeder who have pieces to sell, even if they refuse to go into a rebuild. Bruce Garrioch said, “We do not doubt that Staios has held talks with (Flames) GM Craig Conroy. Is Blake Coleman, who is making $4.9 million on a contract that expires in 2027, a good fit for the Senators?”
The Senators have $3.3 million in cap space to work with, and since Coleman’s contract extends through to the end of next year, the team also has to think about the cap space that will be available to them later as well. That is less of an issue as players like Nick Jenson, David Perron, Lars Eller, and Claude Giroux are all UFAs. For now, there would have to be some money moving back or out somewhere else to complete the trade if Calgary doesn’t want to retain anything, which would be a harder sell.
Coleman, who’s 34 years old, has 10 goals and 17 points in 36 games this season. He has been a solid third liner, but plays much more than your typical third line player with 17 minutes per game. He also averages a minute per game on the power play and over two minutes per game on the penalty kill with an xGF% of 50% this season.
Coleman has received votes for the Selke Trophy twice in his career and is a +12 on a Flames team that has a -11 goal differential. He has 26 blocks and 84 hits on the season, further proving that he can impact the game at both ends of the ice. This is someone the Senators could really use, it’s just a matter of if they can strike the right deal with the Flames who continue to be reluctant to sell certain players just yet.
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