At the beginning of the season, it looked like the acquisition of Pascal Leclaire was the crowning jewel of the Senators' summer trades. It was certainly touted as such. Leclaire, injury prone though he was, had had an amazing season in 2007-08, the last time he was healthy. The Senators' goaltender woes, after such "luminaries" as Ray Emery, and Martin Gerber, seemed to be over.



Hindsight being 20-20, we now know differently. A thing that is still hard to get used to in the "new" NHL (i.e. post-lockout), is that the farm teams and scouts have taken on a much larger role, and that you can only keep players for a certain amout of time. Most of the time, teams are only "renting"  talent for a short while, until the salary cap precludes keeping all the accumulated talent on board.

In retrospect, Leclaire now seems to have been a hedged bet more than anything else. The hope was that either Brian Elliott, or farm team goalies Mike Brodeur or Chris Holt (Andy Chiodo having been taken off the Bingo roster) would season enough to move up to the bigs. And this is largerly what has happened, Elliott has taken advantage of the opening he was given by Leclaire's untimely injuries to step in as number one, and Brodeur showed on his own starts that he can perform at NHL levels. Both are technically sound goaltenders. Not stellar, but solid.

The Senators know that they'll need some big time goaltending to even repeat the feat of making it to the Stanley Cup finals, much less winning the Cup. There are only a handful of really stratospheric goaltenders in the league, and they are either not moving, or they will command top dollar. The question remains whether the Senators current goalie roster is good enough tio make it all the way. Leclaire has turned out to be what  his stats indicate he is, a good goaltender who had one stellar season.

Only one option is on the table right now that could attract GM Bryan Murray: Tomas Vokoun. The excellent Florida goalie still maintains a low GAA and save percentage but loses games because of the dismal offense in front of him. His salary is a cool $5.7 million, and Panthers GM Randy Sexton's comments of late seem to indicate that the shop is open for business. With $1.9 million in cap room, Leclaire's $3.8 million salary would have to be taken off the Senators' books to make room for Vokoun (barely), and Vokoun would have to be willing to waive his no-trade clause.

Murray is unlikely to make any moves before the Olympic break and the agreed-upon freeze on trading during the Games. We'll likely see Murray assume a "wait-and-see" atttitude, especially since moving Leclaire may be more difficult considering his season performance so far. But the acquisition of Vokoun, even as a rental player, may increase the chances fo the Senators making a big move in the post-season.