Remember when you watch the Senators take the ice tonight that they used to feature Havlat, Hossa, Heatley, Chara, Vermette, Fisher, Corvo, Eaves, Kelly, Volchenkov, Meszaros, etc.

Not all at once, of course, but a lot of really good players passed through Ottawa not so long ago and what’s left standing is a barren shell of what once was. Jason Spezza signed his 7 year, $7M/year contract extension on November 2, 2007 and I’m guessing he wakes up some mornings is sort of bewildered stupor and wonders just what the hell happened. Im not sure why Murray insists on keeping Spezza through the rebuild, although it may just be the vultures look to swipe the 28-year old haven’t ponied up a worthwhile return. Yet.

The Flames could probably use Spezza, but also don’t have the sort of assets to land him. Or, at least, not the sort of assets they’d be willing to surrender given their current predicament. The asking price would porbbaly start with Backlund and/or Baertschi and go up from there. As nice as it would be to finally acquire the sort of talent who could anchor a true number one scoring line, the only things the organization most certainly cannot give up in a trade are the very things the Senators would be asking for.