Faceoff Factor

Meszaros Signs Offer Sheet

Matt Bodenschatz | National Hockey League

Aug 28, 06:46 PM | Hype this story!

In breaking news this evening, the Ottawa Senators’ freefall appears to be an ongoing process, as Adam Proteau of The Hockey News is reporting that defenseman Andrej Meszaros has taken the first steps to leaving town.

Proteau wrote that, while details remain sketchy, he has confirmed that Meszaros has signed an offer sheet worth more than $5 million per year, which likely would have put him somewhere in Mike Adams’ SuperZeroes Tournament for overpaid players.

Apparently Meszaros and Senators general manager Bryan Murray earlier today came to an impasse as they failed to negotiate a new contract for the restricted free agent.

Murray’s response to the offer sheet news: “I’ve heard rumors that that’s happening, but there’s no confirmation of that at this point.”

He goes on to evaluate Mezsaros, saying he’s not worth anything near what he was seeking.

“I think Mez is a potentially good young defenseman who had a bit of an off-year this past year…”

What Murray, apparently, is missing, is that his defense — assuming Meszaros has indeed signed an offer sheet — now consists of four NHL-caliber defensemen, and a handful of depth players who would be healthy scratches or minor leaguers on most rosters.

Murray also must have missed that Meszaros, who “had a bit of an off-year,” actually improved upon his statistics from the previous season, and has not missed a game in his three-year NHL career.

• 2005-06: 39 points, plus-34 rating, 61 penalty minutes
• 2006-07: 35 points, minus-15 rating, 102 penalty minutes
• 2007-08: 36 points, plus-5 rating, 50 penalty minutes

Comparatively speaking, it would seem that Meszaros had his best season as a rookie in 2005-06, then had a bit of a sophomore slump that was followed up nicely by a solid third season.

Is Meszaros worth $5 million or more? Heck no, but when the Senators roll out a defense with Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenkov, Christoph Schubert, Jason Smith, and a few minor leaguers, Murray very well may regret not negotiating with his only offensive blueliner in better faith.

And, let’s not forget, this comes just a few months after Murray traded offensive defenseman Joe Corvo to the Carolina Hurricanes in a package deal with Ben Eaves in return for Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore.

Commodore never found his groove in Ottawa and Corvo tallied 21 points in 23 games for the Hurricanes, bringing his season total to 48 points.

I wonder if, now that Meszaros and Wade Redden are gone, Murray is scratching his head a bit wondering why he made such a boneheaded deal last season?

Oh yeah, there’s also this: both Corvo and Eaves are under contract and will remain with the Hurricanes for at least one more season, while both Commodore and Stillman departed Ottawa via free agency.

Clearly, the freefall is in full swing.