Buyers or Sellers?
Either. Ottawa has a plethora of talented young players, so it doesn't need to trade assets in order to build for the future. But this also is not quite a playoff team, and after acquiring a big contract in Dion Phaneuf, the Senators might want to clear up some cap space at the deadline.
Team needs
Defense. The Senators are the worst team in the NHL in shots-against-per-game (33.0) and allow the third-most goals-against-per-game. The Senators tried to address this already by trading for Dion Phaneuf, and while the defense has looked better in its last few games, it still is not a solid enough group to be a real competitor in the league.
Key Players
Alex Chiasson
The pending free agent has not performed at the level Senators fans were expecting, and he is rarely a vital component of this group's offense. His contract situation also makes it easy to look to include him in a deadline deal in order to get something for him now rather than letting him walk in the offseason when he becomes a free agent. Chiasson is still young enough that potential buyers could look at him and think in terms of potential rather than actual performance, and that might make him a decent trade chip.
Patrick Wiercioch
The 25-year-old defenseman is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season, and the Sens would likely have to pay a significant price in order to keep him. Wiercioch has also had a pretty underwhelming season this year, but because he put up better performances in his past three years and tends to boast the flashy advanced statistics that analytics geeks love to see, he could be a draw for opposing general managers.
Arielle Aronson covers the NHL and special features for FOX Sports. You can follow her on Twitter @aharonson28.
