Senators GM Bryan Murray made a somewhat bold move by calling up Bingo goalie Brian Elliott today and coach Craig Hartsburg has already indicated that he could play on Saturday night against the Rangers.
As of this writing, it was unclear whether another player has been put on waivers to make room for the roster addition.
A likely scenario, and one I fully endorse, would be that Murray puts Martin Gerber on waivers with the intention to send him down to Bingo.
This would solve a few problems:
Gerber's contract is up this summer and he is not going to be resigned, so there is no loyalty there.
His play is as bad as its ever been and there is no real reason to keep him on the roster other than to torture the fans who have had to put up with his legendarily disastrous "goaltending" which has plagued the Senators since John Muckler signed him (Talk about a bad summer. In 2006, Muckler let Zdeno Chara walk and signed Gerber. The rest is history).
There is a one in a million chance that Gerber gets picked up on waivers, either going down or coming back up. Even half of Gerber's salary, which is all another team would have to pay him on re-entry waivers, is still too large for what he provides.
If by miracle someone picks him, all the better for Ottawa.
The more likely scenario is that Gerber clears waivers and plays in Bingo until an injury or if Elliott gets lit up like a Christmas tree and his confidence starts to flutter.
Ray Emery was a guy who thrived in a situation similar to what Elliott is walking into right now and it's possible that Elliott could thrive as well. Getting some playing time this season is only going to help the young goalie for next year when he might have to be the number one by default.
Also, by getting Gerber off the books right now, there's some salary available which will make trade discussions a little easier on Murray's part.
Of course, this is all just speculation and Gerber might be here for the rest of the season. Or eternity. Who knows?
But something has to be done and if Murray won't pull the trigger on the coaching staff, the least he could do is finally put Gerber on the shelf, a place he should have been this past summer with a contract buyout.
13 comments:
waiving Gerber would make my day
woah, woah, what's this 'if murray won't pull the trigger on the coaching staff'?
i hope you're not suggesting hartsburg should be fired..
I think Gerber will be waived. There is not a snowball's chance that he's getting claimed by another team.
The Sens will still have to pay his salary, but at least they can clear the cap room.
More importantly, Melnyk needs to drop the hammer. Enough already!
Why not let the kid play a few games before waiving Gerbs? At least enough to ensure that he has the confidence to bounce back after the rest of the team lets him down once or twice.
I have high, well, higher hopes for Elliott, but at this stage it can't hurt to wait a little longer before making a drastic move, IMO.
OMG the forwards are doing nothing, and the defence is useless. Gerber has hardly played any games lately, yet you blame the world on him. He got the one win the Sens got on the road trip, may I remind you. This entire team is in the tank. You might as well put them all on waiver. Please don't pin it on one player. Now as for the coach and GM, begone!
even if we had no other goalies and putting schubert in net was the only option we should waive gerber. we should've waived gerber 2 years ago. If only the goalie that took us to the finals wasnt black in a whitewashed valley town,,,,
o i just read a column in the sun by bruce"the official gerber apologist, pr man and fanclub president as well as being the local grand wizard,morality police and number 1 spezza hater" Garricocks suggesting that now might be a good time to sign gerber to a long time contract extention before he hits the open market and perhaps pre-retire his jersey.
On another note as far as hartsburg goes his infatuation with gerber and pickard should be enough for him to be fired, or you could just say he is not an nhl coach. His past nhl coaching record is poor. Past preformance predicts future results. Stink, Stank, Stunk.
The Sens (& me) like Martin Gerber, he's been a front line soldier, but his time here is sooo.... over. No NHL team will give us anything for him. What about offering him in Europe for their stretch run, maybe Yorky's old Swiss team lookimg for a goalie would cough up 5-6 hundred K. Out of sight out of mind I think he would go gladly. Full pay and a trip home, it would be good for his and BM's piece of mind.
G, good comment about Garrioch being the morality police. I find that all the Sun guys and most of the 1200 guys are also guilty of this. Since when are a players off-ice activities anybody's business? I can remember Chris Chelios bragging about how good the Montreal nightlife was, back in the day. No one cared. Ask Mark Messier if he partied hard during his career. No one seemed to mind.
I wish these guys would stick to covering hockey and leave the fluff to Entertainment Tonight.
The Emery coverage last year was ridiculous.
Emery was a loser, a cocky immature embarassment. May he stay in Russia and get lost there.
its simple there is only one guy we need to really get rid of....murray, say what you want about muckler but we were never last in the conference under his rule.
anon @ 12:55am
Well said. I agree completely.
anon @ 11:21pm
Do you work for the Sun?
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