Trade rumors sure can be fun sometimes. They happen all the time and they’re worth scoping out when they involve a player with some usefulness.
Entering the fray this time around is Ottawa center Mike Fisher. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun did his part to sniff around to see if there’s interest out there in the wildly underperforming pivot and as the rumor-friendly reporter was able to discover, there’s some talk out there that the Senators are dangling Fisher.The Senators are casting about to see what they can get for Mike Fisher.
But with the 30-year-old armed with a no-movement clause and two years left on his contract carrying a cap hit of $4.2 million, two league executives seriously doubt he’ll be going anywhere anytime soon.
“I know teams have called and I’m sure they’re just trying to shake things up a bit in Ottawa,” said a league executive. “But I don’t see it. He’s having a bad year. He’s not the only one on that team.”
While Fisher had a career year last season scoring 25 goals and 28 assists, he’s finding out that statistical regression to the mean is a real buzzkill scoring just 13 goals and eight assists good for 21 points in 49 games this year. That kind of poor production is reserved for third liners but on a bad Senators team perhaps he’s just reflecting the problems around him.
Fisher can be a capable second line center and luckily for him there are a couple of teams that could use a guy like that in Los Angeles and Washington. While those teams could certainly use a player like that, the asking price for him at the moment would likely not be be worth the hassle. The other problem with Fisher comes in the form of a $4.2 million cap hit that goes through until 2012-2013. Giving up the sort of package the Senators would be looking for for a player with poor production and a bloated cost doesn’t likely make sense for either of those teams unless a similarly bloated deal goes back in return.
Still, if it’s a change of scenery that Fisher needs to snap out of his funk, you couldn’t ask for a better situation than either L.A. or D.C. for both him and his superstar wife Carrie Underwood. If you don’t think they’d enjoy the spotlight of either of those cities then you’re not too familiar with how tabloids work. Whether or not shining a brighter spotlight on that celebrity couple would help Fisher’s game or not would make for one heck of a trial by fire.