Elliotte Friedman has the best hockey column going and it's not even close really.

So like many I look forward to seeing a 30 Thoughts link dropped into my twitter timeline. This week's appeared at 3:26pm on Tuesday, which I quickly turned to check out. A few hours later I circled back to look over it again, except by this time the column had disappeared. No explanation given.

Until.. no comments

Having left town for a week shortly after Ottawa’s first round exit in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, I never really had an opportunity to pen a review of the 2011/12 Ottawa Senators season…

… until now. (What would you have me do? Write a one sentence blog post linking to Alfie’s Q&A session with the IIHF instead? Psssssh, come on.)

So grab yourself a banana daiquiri from Bert’s Bar and ‘buckle up because we’re going all the way’ through the unexpected success that accompanied this 2011/12 Senators season. All 5,000+ words of it...

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There have been no talks between the Senators and Matt Carkner. He will be a UFA on July 1. #Sens

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) May 15, 2012

As an impending free agent, it's not particularly surprising to learn from Bruce Garrioch that management has not had contractual negotiations with defenceman Matt Carkner's representatives.

In light of the knee injuries that limited Carks to 29 games this season, coupled with the assumed readiness of defensive prospects like Mark Borowiecki or even Eric Gryba, the Senators have a few inexpensive alternatives who project as bottom pairing guys.

This isn't to say that negotiatons between Carkner and the Senators won't take place. With the 2012 NHL Entry Draft five weeks away, it's likely that much of management's attention is being devoted to its draft preparation and exploring the trade market. no comments

Judging by Pierre Dorion's politically correct but lukewarm response to a question posed by Steve Lloyd during an interview last week, it's no surprise to learn that the likelihood of Nikita Filatov returning to Ottawa would essentially be limited to him posing as an Arya Stark doppleganger at next year's Ottawa Comiccon. no comments

Thursday, the Ottawa Senators officially confirmed the ill-kept secret of Fredrik Claesson signing his entry-level deal with the intention of playing in North America this fall. While the unspectacular stay-at-home defenseman might not be the most intriguing prospect in the Senators system, he might be a very useful one. Let me take you through all the reasons - A through Z.

A
AHL depth, or something like that. Really just tried to get something cheesy done with the Z. It’s probably “zzz” for most, but keep reading for a few more seconds if you’re one of those crazy people interested in even the prospects furthest down in the cellar of the metaphorical depth chart.

Drafted in the fifth round, you can’t say that Claesson has not developed well thus far. He established himself as an SEL defenseman. He got more comfortable as the year progressed. He was calmer, and made better decisions with the puck. He slowly got more ready for whatever the future might hold for a player of his ilk. While the talk about him being a go-to-guy on defense for Djurgården this year playing top-4 minutes are the words of a salesman; one trying to tell anyone who’s interested how good a job he’s done in finding this future superstar. Of course those invested are going to sweet talk the prospect they just signed, but fact is, Claesson was nothing but a depth defenseman on Djurgården, played on the penalty kill and averaged 16 minutes per game, good for 6^th on the team amongst defensemen.

Claesson projects to be a depth defenseman for the Binghamton Senators next season, as part of a young defence core infused with some new Blood (Get it, guys? Ben Blood! His name is Blood!). One has to figure Claesson will be afforded a somewhat similar role to that he played with Djurgården. Block the shots, hit the people (that reference never gets old), kill some penalties and defend and move the puck to those more capable of doing something with it, something he did very well this past season.

While not the most physical guy (despite the very quotable Vaclav Burda’s words), he does not shy away from that aspect of the game when he needs to. Claesson always tries to make the simple play, especially when he’s paired with a superior puck-handler. He understands that the other guy is more apt to handle the breakout, which shouldn’t suggest he lacks of confidence as much as a knowledge of his own limitations. He’s everything you’d want out of this type of player in terms of being a team guy, a committed competitor and all that. He could stand to be a lot better in some areas or a little bit better in every area to become a legit NHL prospect. There’s no doubt in my mind that the AHL route will serve him well, though, especially since Djurgården was relegated.

Z
Zibanejad’s future – as in whether or not he’ll make the big club – might be too early to speculate as we don’t know which day Zach Parise will arrive in Ottawa yet, but there’s no doubt a guy like Fredrik Claesson can be very helpful in Mika’s development. If Z-Bad fails to make the opening night roster, Claesson, a former teammate with both Djurgården’s junior and pro teams, would be another familiar face in the city that is (allegedly) so horrible we should avoid even googling it. Having Lehner, Petersson and Claesson around would certainly help with the initial disappointment of being demoted to Bingo, as well as making sure he’s having a good time for however long he’s in the minors.

Oh, and apparently Claesson has some kind of baseball hat fetish. For real. I don’t know what is up with that, but I’ve got to think that he’s saving up for a Nikita Filatov hattrick. no comments

When director of player personnel Pierre Dorion told the guys on Team 1200's Healthy Scratches program that assistant GM Tim Murray was working on some new contracts this week, he wasn't kidding around. 

For the second consecutive day, the Senators have announced another signing that will ultimately affect the minor league depth that is down in Ottawa's AHL affiliate in Binghamton. Impending restricted free agent forward Pat Cannone has signed a two-year extension with the Senators.

If you'll recall, Cannone was signed as an undrafted collegiate free agent out of Miami University (Ohio) in the latter stages of the 2010/11 season and remained with the organization on a one-year, two-way contract that had a NHL salary of $600,000 and an AHL salary of $65,000. While the terms of his two-year extension have not been revealed, in his first full professional season, Cannone did finish third on the Binghamton Senators in scoring with 19 goals and 43 points.

Welcome to the offseason folks... no comments

This is your obligatory Fredrik Claesson signed his entry level contract with the Ottawa Senators post. The Swedish defenceman was Ottawa's fifth round selection (126th overall) in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and a teammate of Mika Zibanejad's on Djurgardens SEL team... or should I say former Swedish Elite League team?

After 36 seasons of playing at the highest level of hockey in Sweden, Djurgardens was relegated to Sweden's second division after an underwhelming performance in the Kvalserien - an Eliteserien qualification tournament that features the top four teams from the HockeyAllsvenskan (Sweden's second highest division) and the last two teams from the SEL.'

Rather than spend another season in Sweden not playing against the country's best players, Claesson is going to cross the Atlantic and spend next season playing for Ottawa's AHL affiliate in Binghamton.

The Senators announced the news earlier this afternoon in an article on their official website and it featured this interesting quote from assistant GM Tim Murray:

"He wasn’t on a very good team in Djurgarden ... but I think it helped his game," Murray said of Claesson, the Senators' fifth-round pick (126th overall) in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. "It allowed him to play a lot of minutes in a lot of different situations. He played regular against the men and that’s a pretty good league.

"By him being on that team and not getting buried, it probably sped up his development and gave him the confidence to make this big move, come over here and start (next) year in Binghamton and get on with his pro life."

According to RDS' Renaud Lavoie, Claesson's two-way ELC is a three year pact that carries an average annual value of $550,000 with a $195,000 signing bonus.

Upon signing the deal, the accolades started pouring in for the defensive prospect.

Huge congrats to my boy @Classeman14 for signing with the Sens. One of the most dedicated and hard working guys I know. Well deserved buddy.

— Gabriel Landeskog (@GabeLandeskog92) May 10, 2012

The blue line in Binghamton is already looking pretty young next season. With Claesson likely joining the likes of Ben Blood, Eric Gryba, Patrick Wiercioch and Chris Wideman, there isn't that stabilizing veteran presence on their roster. Based on that fact, it would make a lot of sense for the Senators to revisit signing a familiar commodity like Andre Benoit - an intriguing suggestion put forth by Le Droit's Sylvain St-Laurent. (Note: the article is in french.)

Basically the gist of St-Laurent's article is that Benoit's looking to come back to North America because his daughter is starting school and he wants to overcome the language barrier by putting her in an English-speaking school. St-Laurent concludes by stating that if the Murrays truly want to add a veteran presence, all they have to do is submit an offer to Benoit.

Expect @steffeG to tackle Claesson's ELC in a post tomorrow or Saturday. In the meantime, carry on with whatever you were doing...
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If you’ve been a frequent visitor of The 6^th Sens over the past few months, you’ve assuredly come across a number of posts that casually mentioned the lack of some high ceilinged defensive prospects within the system now that Erik Karlsson and Jared Cowen are stalwarts amongst Ottawa’s top two pairings.

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I'm late getting to this but yesterday afternoon, Ottawa's director of player personnel, Pierre Dorion, made an appearance on the Team 1200's Healthy Scratches. With the NHL Entry Draft less than two months away, Dorion shared his thoughts on the draft and a variety of Ottawa's prospects and players.

The following is a transcript of some of the memorable topics, as always my thoughts are in bold. 

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After two seasons of coaching the Binghamton Senators and leading them to a Calder Cup championship in 2011, head coach Kurt Kleinedorst has confirmed that he will not be behind Ottawa's AHL affiliate's bench next season.

Via Joy Lindsay:

#BSens Coach Kurt Kleinendorst has confirmed he will not return next season. He has no further comment at this time. #BSens

— Joy Lindsay (@PSBJoyOnTheSens) May 8, 2012

Bruce Garrioch elaborated further:

I'm told Kurt Kleinendorst turned down more than one offer of a contract extension from Senators last season. #Sens

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) May 8, 2012

While Senators fans and its media continue to wax poetic over the job and manner in which in Kleinendorst conducted himself, the Senators are in an intriguing position. no comments