NHL Rumors: 2 Trade Partners for Senators

It is no secret the Ottawa Senators are a team looking for defensive help, per Elliotte Friedman. They just waived Nikita Zaitsev and are fairly weak on the back-end. Someone also told Friedman that the team may be looking for a centre too, but defence is what they are in more dire need of.

The Senators currently have a good amount of cap space to work with since Josh Norris is out long-term. If he wants to, Pierre Dorian has an extra $1.125 million to play with since Nikita Zaitsev was waived. "I think there's something out there they're looking for, and a little bit of extra cap space isn't going to hurt them," Friedman said.

Jeff Marek brings up a couple of the potential phone calls being to the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks. Dorian was in Winnipeg scouting and it was covered very closely. The problem with that is the Jets' season is going really well, so they may not want to break anything up as in trading a rostered defenceman.

It's been made public that Ville Heinola would like to go somewhere else if he's not going to play. He's NHL ready and there's no room in the lineup. Senators may be looking for someone better (more experienced) than Heinola, but he has a bright future and the talent is there.

In terms of the Canucks, Tyler Myers' name has been out there, but he has a 10-team No-Trade Clause. Friedman suggests that the teams that make up that list are the other Canadian teams and the usual few from the U.S. There's no guarantee that trade could happen even if both the Senators and Canucks want to. There are lots of options on Vancouver, but many may not be what the Senators are looking for.

We will see if the Senators try to look elsewhere for help, but something needs to be done and they're working on it.