Craig Anderson, Bobby Ryan, Milan Michalek, Robin Lehner, Clarke MacArthur and Marc Methot all have two things in common. First, being a member of the Ottawa Senators and second, all of them received a contract extension well before the 2015 NHL trade deadline. With all of these “core” players locked up for the Senators, it only leaves one odd man out who is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2014-15 season, Erik Condra.
Condra began his NHL career in 2010-11 but wasn’t a full time player with the big club until the season after. His defensive play is what kept him up and on the radar for the Senators. He does lack on the offensive side of things but more often than not, he’s the one who’s relied on for killing penalties. His play in the defensive and neutral zones is almost impeccable, as he rarely coughs up turnovers with his great puck possession. Add in the fact that he comes in cheap (cap hit of $1.25 million) along with his handiness for the special teams, and I would rather take Condra over the likes of the veteran Chris Neil, who has been in the mix of trade rumors. Though it was unfortunate former head coach Paul MacLean didn’t see it this way.
MacLean didn’t seem to understand what he had in Condra, as he had the Michigan native winger in the press box on several occasions. Since Dave Cameron took over for MacLean as the head honcho behind the bench on December 9th, 2014, Condra has found himself always in the lineup and he’s become a much more effective and consistent player. It’s looking like Condra will come off of one of his best seasons this year in both scoring (which is limited because of he’s a defensive forward) and his puck possession (his takeaways totally overrule his giveaways).
Sure he doesn’t dazzle, sparkle, and shine, or even come close in that matter to a Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris or Erik Karlsson, but he’s got great hockey sense, is a quality role player and could be something Ottawa would lack next season if they choose not to bother with a new contract. If it was up to me, I’d go against Neil’s wishes and trade him off while offering Condra a contract extension.
Condra has expressed that he would like to stay and continue to play hockey in Ottawa but with all the young talent coming up and being exposed – Shane Prince, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Curtis Lazar, and Matt Puempel, to name a few – there isn’t a whole lot of room for forwards. To me, the Pageau-Lazar-Condra trio has picked up well as the fourth line since Neil has been injured and part of the reason is because Condra is a far more effective hockey player than Neil. Also for Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and his internal cap’s sake, he’s cheaper than Neil’s $1.9 million cap hit. So go ahead Bryan Murray, give this man an extension already, otherwise come this summer, he’ll have no trouble finding work elsewhere in the league and that could cost the team.
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