Now that the sale of the Ottawa Senators is about to be completed, they can get back to the business of getting the team back to the playoffs. They can also get back to making up for a brutal mistake in judgment from a year ago.
Last summer, Ottawa traded prospect goalie Filip Gustavsson to Minnesota for veteran netminder Cam Talbot. In a vacuum, the logic was sound. Talbot had a solid season for the Wild until they acquired Marc-André Fleury around the deadline to give them reassurance in goal for the playoffs.
This move didn't sit well with Talbot, and the Wild didn't get too far in the playoffs with Fleury in charge.
The Senators traded for Talbot and gave up Gustavsson, 24 at the time, who went 10-13-3 with a .905 in 27 games over two seasons with the Sens. He was coming off a season in which he went 5-12-1 with .895 in his last year there, and the trade signaled they didn't believe in him and waiting for him to maybe become a quality No. 1 might take longer than they wanted. The Swede went on to have the second-best save percentage in the NHL this past season among goalies with 30 games or more.
Now, Talbot is an unrestricted free agent and didn't have a great season in Ottawa (17-14-2, .898) as he battled injuries, and the rest of the Sens' goaltending coffers are in rough shape with Anton Forsberg injuring the MCL in both knees during a game in February.
The team needs more quality in goal, and Hart is as good a choice as any to join and grow with this relatively youthful roster.
Making the right deal starts with 2024 draft picks because the Sens don't have a selection in each of the first three rounds this year, thanks to three different trades that got progressively more head-scratching.
Ottawa does have intriguing talent on the roster as well, and a "hockey trade" for Hart would be a lot more fun.
