Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Could Hemsky fit in Ottawa?

Ales Hemsky

Edmonton Oilers right wing Ales Hemsky (83), of the Czech Republic, waits for a face-off in the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators on Monday, March 25, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

AP

It seems like Ales Hemsky has been dangled in trade rumors forever in Edmonton. Now that he’s got one year left in his contract (with a $5 million cap hit) and the Oilers have less than $2 million in cap space, it seems he’s more popular than ever with rumormongers.

Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal spitballed a few ideas for teams who might be interested in the 29 year-old winger and thinks Ottawa makes the most sense.

The Ottawa Senators would seem the most likely to reach out to MacTavish on Hemsky because they lost right-winger/captain,soul of the franchise Daniel Alfredsson to Detroit when free-agency opened. They also traded Swede Jakob Silfverberg to get Bobby Ryan from Anaheim and might move him to right side from his usual left. After Ryan it’s third-liner Chris Neil, Eric Condra and J. Pageau, and they do have more than $11 million in cap room. But, maybe Sens’ owner Eugene Melnyk wants to save money not spend more.

Intriguing thought here and Matheson says Colin Greening is a guy who could go back to Edmonton in return. After all, the Oilers could use a guy with some grit.

There’s that money issue, however, and if that is a problem for the Sens, that makes it a little trickier as Hemsky is owed $5.5 million this season. If the Oilers want to free up their cap worries, Ottawa’s cash worries (if they exist) would be a big sticking point.

Related: MacTavish ‘comfortable’ with Hemsky remaining an Oiler