The Senators host Erik Karlsson and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
From 2009-2017, the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins each won three Stanley Cups, which in today's NHL is about as close as you'll get to a dynasty. The Blackhawks bid farewell to their glory days by starting a rebuild a couple of years ago.
Now it appears to be the Pittsburgh Penguins' turn.
With Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang striding toward the sunset of their NHL careers, there was no cavalry coming to help them at last week's trade deadline. Instead, GM Kyle Dubas entered seller mode and traded away one of the club's top players in Jake Guentzel to bring in assets to help the future.
While it's hard to imagine any of the big three moving on, Penguin fans probably don't have the same sentimental feelings about defenceman Erik Karlsson. Karlsson is in his first year with the Penguins, and given the team's new reality, it's hard to believe there isn't at least some consideration about an off-season deal.
And that's where the Senators enter the picture. With Karlsson and the Penguins in Ottawa on Tuesday night, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman again talked up the idea of Karlsson returning to Ottawa. When someone as plugged in as Friedman keeps revisiting a subject, it's hard not to listen.
-"If there's one team that you would think would consider it, it would be (Ottawa), with Daniel Alfredson there," Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast. "Ottawa, I think, did a lot of groundwork, had a lot of conversations, not only about, you know, they made some subtractions, but I also think they want to add people who are going to make them better right away.
"Ever since I wrote that about the possibility, just in my head, of Karlsson going back, there's been a lot of feedback to me about people who think it would be a good idea and people who think it wouldn't be a good idea. But if it's not Ottawa, and don't forget, Karlsson has a lot of control here, it's hard to see where it makes sense. I think the Senators are going to be a really busy team in the offseason. I think they had a lot of conversations that will kind of get punted into the summer."
It truly doesn't make much sense for Ottawa – at least not as things stand now. The Senators already have too many non-physical, puck-moving defencemen who aren't particularly dynamic in their own zone.
But what if they trade a couple of them away for pieces they need? What if they don't have to give up too much for Karlsson in the trade? What if the Pens retain some salary?
Then (and only then) a trade to bring Karlsson back to Ottawa begins to make sense.
The Sens could use another right shot D in their top four, and if you're going to employ a non-physical puck moving D, it might as well be the reigning Norris winner.
Like Vladimir Tarasenko, Karlsson has full control of where he might be traded, so if Dubas wants to move him, his options may be limited, which could help the Sens get a bargain. And we already know Karlsson likes Ottawa. Like Claude Giroux, Karlsson's wife is local and the family lives here in the summer.
But even if everything lined up, there's still some risk here. While Karlsson had 101 points last year, he's not even halfway to that total this season. And he'll be 34 next season. At that age, you never know when the decline might begin. There might be five good years left, or there might be one or two.
Is the juice here still worth the squeeze?