When NHL head coaches and general managers are directly asked to evaluate a specific player in the organization, they’ll almost always give a glowing review. But in some cases, it might be nothing more than a sales job. Why offend the player, affect confidence, or diminish the player’s value as an asset around the league?
But there are other ways to find out.
Head coaches will tell you what they think of a player by how much ice time they’re given, and GMs will tell you what they think of a player by the contract they offer. Most of the time, at least.
Back in June, Senators GM Steve Staios announced that the team had signed 23-year-old defenceman Max Guenette to a one-year, two-way contract extension. It’s worth $775,000 in the NHL and $120,000 in the AHL.
That’s about the smallest commitment a team can make to an NHL player, and it often speaks volumes. But not always. GMs frequently sign younger players to inexpensive deals just because they can. In a cap world, that’s just good business. And frankly, Guenette hasn’t done anything yet to deserve more.
But in a recent podcast appearance (Coming in Hot), Staios did something very interesting that showed exactly how much he likes Guenette. In poker terms, it was a “tell,” something a gambler does or says that inadvertently tips off what they’re up to.
When asked about the bottom-pairing options on the blue line, Staios mentioned the usual three suspects that everyone talks about.
“Travis Hamonic had knee surgery last year, and it was a bit of a down year for him,” Staios said. “JBD was showing signs of moving in the right direction. He’s a young defenceman.
“Tyler Kleven was a player that I kept down in Belleville last year. He probably could have come up and played more games, and that comes from the experience of not rushing a player along. And when he did come up and play, he played well enough to stay.”
Based on that, Staios sounds like he favours Kleven, at least out of that group. But then, with absolutely no prompting, Staios volunteered a fourth name.
“You’ve got to remember we have Max Guenette, who was an American Hockey League all-star last year and moving in the right direction. There is some competition down there for those spots, and I’m looking forward to training camp.”
This wasn’t a fan or a media guy who basically said, “Don’t forget about Max Guenette,” this was the GM of the Ottawa Senators.
Staios shoehorned Guenette’s name into an NHL roster conversation right after providing a lukewarm description of the two right-shot defencemen he’ll be competing with in September. Most people probably thought JBD and Hamonic would be much higher in Staios’s batting order than Guenette.
Upon further review, maybe they’re not.
