Sens Trade Age for Youth!

The Ottawa Senators made a trade today that will hopefully help the future of the franchise.
The trade saw Ottawa move veteran leader Petr Nedved and Florida's 5th round draft choice this year for young Right Winger Justin Kelly.

Nedved has been with the Senators for several seasons in CLUTCH but his productivity has slowed due to age and he hasn't been fitting in well at all. Nedved has played in 36 of the Sens 39 games so far this year and has scored 8 goals and 10 assists. However, his minus 3 rating has proven him uneffective defensively and being 36 years old, 37 at seasons end, Nedved was on a downward slope. His OV rating dropped 3 full points last offseason and it doesn't look like he will be getting any better.

Schmucky is excited about newly acquired Justin Kelly who will take Petr's place. Kelly is young and holds a lot of promise being a 25 year old in CLUTCH. Kelly's stats are similar to those of NEdved landing 8 goals and 6 assists for 14 points so far in Calgary. However, 2nd line duties as opposed to the 3rd and 4th line duties he was used to in Calgary, could make those stats jump drastically in Ottawa.

Schmucky is happy to have found a young winger to join Bouchard on the 2nd line and hopefully Ryder's intense passing will lead to big scoring success for Kelly and Pierre-Marc. Moreover, Kelly's DF rating is much better than Nedved's as is his SP and ST. This should help that 2nd line defensively.

The only concern with Kelly is his discipline. He has 78 pim's compared to NEdved's 2 pim's and this could prove costly for the Sens who are a very disciplined team and cannot afford to be on the PK more than is absolutely necessary. This could be the deciding factor in whether or not he plays on the 2nd or 3rd line.

Nedved will play his last game as a Senator tonight vs. the Thrashers before he ships out to Calgary for their playoff run.