In another salary-based move, Bryan Murray has sent Alex Kovalev to Pittsburgh. That clears another $5 million dollars off the salaries for the Senators.



The move was totally expected. Kovalev had been acting like trade bait of late, scoring 9 points in his last 10 games, and showing more of the talent that garnered him the nickname "l'Artiste" in Montréal. I do think that trading Kovie for a conditional 7th round pick is rather cheap, but AK-27 was holding all the cards with his no-trade clause.

In other moves, Murray was seen talking to Chris Phillips at practice on Wednesday. As a rule, Murray doesn;t talk to players. So it's possible a potential offer was being floated to Phillips. One would think that agents and back office handle all these details, but it depends on GM style and Murray is a hand-on type of guy.

The Senators also acquired Marek Svatos off waivers. Although he hasn't seen much action of late, Svatos was a 40-point a season man with the Avalanche from 2005-06 to last season when he was sidelined by chest and groin injuries. He hasn't seen much action since, but the depleted Senators could use the potential offensive boost. He costs only $800K and is a UFA at the end of the season if he doesn't work out.