The Ottawa Senators Attempt To Extinguish The Tire Fire, Trade Mike Hoffman To The Sharks
And there it finally is. People have known for a while now that Mike Hoffman most likely wasn’t going to start next season with the Ottawa Senators despite still being under contract through 2019-2020. In the beginning of the offseason there were rumors about him being on his way out of Ottawa but everybody kind of just assumed it was an issue with Hoffman. But what we found out the other week is that it wasn’t necessarily a Mike Hoffman issue, but his bat shit crazy fiance has *allegedly* been harassing Erik Karlsson and his wife, Melinda, online for the past few months and especially over their stillborn child. Just some sick, sadistic shit that should keep her away from every single locker room/group of hockey WAGs for the rest of Hoffman’s career if it’s proven to be true. And, I mean, just take a look for yourself. This picture alone screams “more likely than not”.
So when you’ve got one of the girlfriend/wives coming after the captain of the team and his wife over the death of their child, chances are that player and the captain can no longer co-exist in the same locker room. There was just no possible way that the Ottawa Senators could go into next season with Mike Hoffman on the same roster as Erik Karlsson. But here’s the thing–Hoffman was one of the Senators’ top point scorers last season. He had 56 points last year on an absolute dog shit dumpster fire of a team. He had 61 points two seasons ago and had a couple of big time goals in the playoffs that saw the Senators be just 1 win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final. And he had 59 points in 2015-16. So he’s been a 50-60 point scorer in the last 3 years. A guy like that, on his own, shouldn’t be very difficult to trade. You should get a pretty decent haul for a player of that caliber. But when you attach his crazy bitch fiance to the trade?
Well that’s how you end up bringing back Mikkel Boedker, Julius Bergman and a 6th round pick. Now don’t get me wrong. I think that Boedker is a decently fine player. He’s the same age as Hoffman but has had a longer career than Hoffman so far. He made his debut in 08-09, when Hoffman didn’t make his debut really until 2013-14. So Boedker has played almost twice as many NHL games as Hoffman yet Hoffman has 107 career goals, Boedker has 109. I know that career goals isn’t necessarily the best way to break down a trade but Mikkel Boedker hasn’t had a season with anything more than 40 points since 2013-14 with Phoenix and that was the only time in his career that he’s done that. So the Ottawa Senators are trading off one of their best offensive producers for a guy who will most likely be jumping around somewhere in the middle 6 of their lineup.
I think the San Jose Sharks and the Ottawa Senators both knew the amount of baggage that was attached to this trade and that let the Sharks buy super low, and forced the Senators to see this package as their best possible return. But Pierre Dorion still had to pull the trigger on the trade because the Ottawa Senators have to focus on getting Erik Karlsson to sign an extension this summer. Which still seems like a long shot at this point. I’m sure that trading Hoffman will certainly bring Karlsson to the table to at least talk about an extension. But it still wouldn’t shock me to see Karlsson dealt at the draft. From everything it sounds like, Karlsson has had enough of the circus show in Ottawa and wants a change of scenery. And I mean, you can’t blame the guy. He’s gone through so much shit the past year and all of it has been handled terribly. The assistant GM is a pervert, the owner has been threatening to relocate, and the Senators just became a little worse today than they were yesterday, despite the fact that they got Monika Caryk out of there. So there’s not really a ton of upside for Karlsson to stay in Ottawa unless he really, really appreciates the loyalty of the organization to get rid of Hoffman for essentially nothing besides saving some cap money.
Either way. It should be a helluva few days coming up and watching the rest of the pieces start to fall in place. By the way–Mike Hoffman, buddy. Ditch the chick. I know you’ve been with her forever. I’m sure you love her more than anything. But if you want anybody in that San Jose locker room to trust you, you need to cut her loose. You’re moving to California. I’m sure you’ll be able to find yourself another girl there.