Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators organization suffered a huge loss Tuesday as assistant coach Mark Reeds died at the age of 55 after a battle with cancer.  

The Bayshore News Broadcasting Centre first reported the tragic news:

Former #NHL'er & coach of the @AttackOHL Mark Reeds has passed away http://t.co/UXFMXrXXEj pic.twitter.com/eEqxd3x5Uu

— Bayshore News (@NewsBayshore) April 14, 2015

Sens owner Eugene Melnyk released a statement after Reeds' untimely death, courtesy of Senators.com:

It is with very heavy hearts that all of us within the Senators family remember Mark who was truly a wonderful father, husband, player, coach and friend. Mark's charismatic fighting spirit was present right until the end. We are all better for having had the opportunity to work so closely with Mark whose passion for life, hockey and his family will leave an indelible mark on our organization. The entire Ottawa Senators organization sends its deepest condolences to the Reeds family.

In addition to his role as an assistant coach with the Senators, Reeds also previously served as head coach of the OHL's Owen Sound Attack. His former team tweeted out a heartfelt message following his death:

The thoughts of everyone with the Attack are with the family of Mark Reeds. Thanks for everything you did for us in Owen Sound, Mark. #RIP

— Owen Sound Attack (@AttackOHL) April 14, 2015

The kind words regarding the former St. Louis Blues and Hartford Whalers forward didn't end there, though, as many within the hockey community expressed their condolences on Twitter.

One of Ottawa's chief rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, tipped their cap in the Senators' direction in a classy gesture:

Our thoughts are with the @Senators organization after the passing of assistant coach Mark Reeds. Condolences to his family & friends.

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 14, 2015

Also, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun had some very kind words about Reeds as a person:

Very sad news about Senators assistant Mark Reeds this morning. A really good person and great storyteller. #Sens

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) April 14, 2015

TSN's Gord Miller described his fondness for Reeds as well:

https://twitter.com/GMillerTSN/status/587962901467701249

The Senators will undoubtedly mourn the loss of their fallen coach, but they are also in preparation for their playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens after qualifying for the postseason against all odds.

Reeds was certainly an inspirational figure for the players, and one can only assume that they will give it everything they have in his memory.

He left an indelible mark on the NHL as a player and a coach, and the impression he left on the Senators organization will be obvious when they take the ice against the Habs.

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Ottawa Senators goaltender Andrew Hammond led his team to a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, making him the fifth goalie in NHL history to pick up at least one point in each of the first 14 starts of his career, per Sportsnet Stats.

The 27-year-old rookie sensation has gotten the starting nod in 14 of his 15 games this season after making one appearance off the bench in 2013-14.

Hammond owns a sterling 13-0-1 record along with a .947 save percentage and a 1.65 goals-against average (GAA). If he had played enough games to qualify, Hammond would lead the NHL in save percentage and GAA—categories that are currently topped by Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, who is an overwhelming favorite to win the Vezina Trophy.

Widely known as The Hamburglar, Hammond remarkably allowed two or fewer goals in each of his first 12 starts, tying a record set by Frank Brimsek for the Boston Bruins in 1938-39, per NHL.com.

Hammond looked a bit vulnerable in his last two outings, allowing four goals in Thursday's 6-4 win over the Bruins and then letting in another three during Saturday's 5-3 win over the Leafs.

But the Senators were able to run their winning streak to six games heading into Monday's matchup with the San Jose Sharks.

Ottawa now sits just one point behind the Bruins for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with a pair of games in hand—not to mention a torrid hot streak—making the Senators the favorites to claim that spot.

The Florida Panthers are also in the mix, but they trail the Senators by three points and have played one more game.

Regardless of how things ultimately shake out, The Hamburglar's remarkable run has etched its place in Senators lore.

Ottawa Senators goalie Andrew Hammond has started his career in remarkable fashion, becoming just the second goaltender ever to surrender two or fewer goals in each of his first 11 NHL starts, per Elias Sports Bureau (h/t ESPN Stats & Info).

The 27-year-old Canadian was never a hyped prospect, going undrafted out of Bowling Green State University back in 2013.

He signed on with the Senators in March of that year and then provided some uninspiring numbers with Binghamton in the AHL.

Hammond did manage to log one NHL appearance in February last season, playing in relief of Robin Lehner during a blowout loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

There was little to portend Hammond's recent run of dominance, as his numbers in the AHL this season are actually worse than last year's.

Even his first NHL appearance of the season didn't go well, with Hammond replacing Lehner for the final period against the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 16 and allowing two goals on five shots in a 6-3 loss.

Hammond got his first career start just two days later, and he now owns a 10-0-1 record, .955 save percentage and 1.39 goals-against average for the season.

He has somehow dragged the Senators back to the fringe of playoff contention, with the team now sitting just five points behind the Boston Bruins for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference entering Monday's action.

The Senators have a game in hand, but the Bruins will still be tough to catch, as Boston has played nearly as well as Ottawa over the past few weeks.

Ottawa Senators management was at a crossroads. Sitting on the outside of the NHL’s playoff picture, some fans suggested that the Senators should be heading into full rebuild mode and blow up the roster at the deadline.

However, after a road trip that pushed the Senators back into the playoff conversation from a season-low 28th place in the NHL, the conversation switched.

Coming into the March 2 deadline, the Sens had won five straight games, defeating teams like the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks in the process.

As a result, the Senators' brass switched motives, taking and disconnecting the phone line on Monday.

A few years ago, general manager Bryan Murray and owner Eugene Melnyk announced a rebuilding plan for the Sens. While it appeared to be fast-tracked under the collected leadership of then-head coach Paul MacLean, a burst of reality sent Ottawa into a nosedive toward lottery territory.

Isn’t this where we all thought the team would be?

It wasn’t long ago when The Hockey Writers' Esten McLaren discussed the Senators’ need for Connor McDavid. Many also thought that Murray’s squad had a decent chance at the Erie Otters phenom just a short time ago.

Ottawa media frequently brings McDavid up in conversations, even with Senators players. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch chatted with rookie Curtis Lazar about the top prospect. It’s obvious that lots of hype surrounds McDavid.

In addition, CBC.ca polled its viewers looking to know if the Sens needed McDavid more than other stuggling Canadian teams, grouping Ottawa with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers.

All this tells you is that Sens fans like to jump the gun on spurts of good or bad play—just like the fans of any other team in the NHL. The slow start for the Senators is reflective of fans hitting the panic button too early.

It just so happens that this winning streak comes at a time that is a crucial decision-making moment for the upper brass of the Senators.

Recent success on a Western Conference road trip has propelled the Senators within four points of the playoffs, shifting the mindset of the club.

Murray received calls inquiring about Senators players as the clock ticked toward 3 p.m. on March 2. However, the eighth-year Senators GM decided to stay the course, electing not to make any moves.

“I talked about it (Sunday) with our professional scouts. I told them to get ready to do your lists, your ratings of players, because we’re probably not going to do much, if anything, and that’s sort of the way it worked out,” Murray told reporters.

However, Murray wasn’t always singing this tune. The Senators were considering a seller’s mindset at the deadline before their recent surge, according to the Ottawa Sun’s Don Brennan:

GM Bryan Murray suggested he would deal Condra at the deadline back when the Senators were well back of the playoff race. But now he needs to keep the veteran winger, even if he has to let him walk come summer time. If nothing else, Condra could be the Senators rental.

Additionally, ESPN (h/t Hockey Tracker) reported on twitter that Ottawa may have been willing to part ways with some assets:

ESPN reports the Ottawa #Senators will be sellers at the deadline and will look to trade two or three players

— Hockey Tracker (@Hockey_tracker) February 17, 2015

It’s essential to note that the Senators only began a rebuild four years ago and the length of rebuilds varies. While two playoff appearances under a Jack Adams Award-winning coach in MacLean did give fans hope that the rebuild had fast-tracked, it’s naive to avoid the facts.

Ottawa is still the fifth-youngest team in the NHL, according to NHL Numbers.

There are still some questionable playing habits in the game of some Senators players, but their level of experience is often forgotten.

For example, local defenseman Cody Ceci is just 21 years old. At this young age, he is already logging nearly 20 minutes of time on ice per game. This amount of ice time is abnormal for a young player and has led to some breakdowns.

That doesn’t mean that Ceci won’t be an effective player and a potential No. 2 defenseman for the Senators in his prime.

If history has shown us anything, it’s that a streak doesn’t spell anything about the end result for a team. The Senators are a young group which has had playoff success in the past. It’s important not to forget about the players' age.

Stocking up with assets might come at a cost—the Senators can’t afford to lose draft picks when their rebuild hasn’t been completed.

Not only that, but young pieces who haven’t fully developed may be undervalued in deals.

While he may have shown other ideas earlier in the season, Murray and the Senators' brass elected to keep the group together in the end. This is the best decision for the group going forward, and it’s imperative that the hockey operations department shows patience in the future.

Yesterday’s 7-2 drubbing of the Arizona Coyotes gave the Ottawa Senators lots to build off. Not only did it show the upside of the Senators’ game, but it also let the spotlight shine on returning defenseman Marc Methot. 

The Ottawa native is coming off a lengthy stretch on the injured reserve and had his biggest game since being inserted into the lineup. He had three assists and was awarded the game's first star.

Additionally, Methot’s game away from the net attracted all kinds of attention as he launched Arizona’s Lucas Lessio with one of his trademark hip checks. The check flipped Lessio and was impressive enough to be covered by Deadspin.

Methot’s leadership has not been seen very often this season, mainly due to his time off. However, as a result, his name has come up in trade talks as of late.

The Ottawa Citizen reported last week that his name has been an active proponent of Senators trade talks.

What critics fail to realize is the gem that is currently under their nose and how essential Methot is to the Senators.

Extraordinary plus-minus numbers have proved Methot’s strong defensive ability in his career. Usually coming on non-playoff teams, these numbers have flown under the radar through his career.

In his first full NHL season, Methot put up impressive numbers.

While the 2008-09 Columbus Blue Jackets did make the playoffs, it was Methot’s play as a supplemental defensive player that helped the Jackets get there. He put up 17 points primarily as a shutdown man while posting a plus-seven rating. 

With the Senators, Methot has never finished a season as a minus player.

This includes the 2013-14 campaign, where Senators fans began to question his ability as a reliable player in the long term. Methot’s plus-one rating was the second best among defensemen on the team.

He ranked second among Senators for time on ice that season and still posted positive numbers on a team that allowed many more goals than they scored. This includes Erik Karlsson’s minus-16.

While Methot continues to post respectable numbers, the pundits continue to critique his play, and trade rumours surface.

SenShot’s Charlie Arsenault has an opinion that most Senators fans are guilty of:

While I was on the “trade Methot” train up until recently, my opinion has changed dramatically. They say you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it, but in this case I didn’t appreciate what the team had until they got it. If you ask me, the team should sign Methot ASAP. Of course this is only if he stops asking for “Brooks Orpik money” (that term is nearly as bad as when Karlsson was getting an extension and the term “Dennis Wideman money” was a thing).

What exactly is Brooks Orpik money?

Orpik was signed by the Washington Capitals this past offseason at five years, $27.5 million. While this is a hefty price tag for the Capitals defenseman, I think it’s apparent that Methot is in a much better position than Orpik was when he was in line for a new deal.

At 29 years old, Methot’s best years are ahead of him. Since his return to the lineup this season, we have seen the game of Karlsson pick up, as The Hockey Writers’ Callum Fraser analyzes.

Fraser’s article shows that the Senators average 3.39 goals for and 1.45 goals against when Methot and Karlsson are on the ice. These numbers show that not only is Methot worthy of a No. 2 defense slot, but that “Brooks Orpik money” isn’t too much of a stretch.

Methot’s essential place as Karlsson’s defense partner shows that he is an essential piece in the Senators’ jigsaw to success. General manager Bryan Murray, or his successor, would be wise to lock him up.

Paul MacLean was but a rookie head coach for the Ottawa Senators in 2011-12 when came on the scene that offseason after Cory Clouston was fired and took a downtrodden squad to the playoffs.

One season later, MacLean was named Coach of the Year.

Less than two seasons after that, MacLean was fired.

Breaking: The Ottawa Senators have dismissed head coach Paul MacLean. #Sens

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 8, 2014

It was during the 2012 playoffs when I spoke to a few players about why MacLean was able to engineer such a quick turnaround, how he transformed a 74-point team in 2010-11 into a 92-point team in 2011-12 despite little roster turnover.

The general consensus can be summarized in these quotes from Jason Spezza and Nick Foligno.

"Just his general understanding from being a player, because he's played the game," Spezza said. "He knows the ups and downs that go with it and knows we can get frustrated at times and we know he can get frustrated. It sounds corny, but we've been all on the same page and together all year and I think that's what's made it successful for us."

Clouston, whose playing career ended at the University of Alberta in 1993, never played the game at the professional level, was the inference there. 

"He puts it on the leadership group to make sure that they're pushing us as well," Foligno said. "It's been a really good year with that give-and-take kind of thing with the guys."

So what changed between then and now? Did MacLean suddenly forget how to coach?

Part of the answer likely lies not only in those quotes but the players who delivered them.

The leadership group that existed in 2011-12 has all but disintegrated. Spezza was traded to the Dallas Stars over the summer and Daniel Alfredsson left for Detroit before the 2013-14 season after a messy divorce, leaving the team with Chris Phillips and Chris Neil as the only leadership holdovers from that era.

Coaches lean on their leaders in order to achieve accountability in the locker room. Perhaps the combination of new captain Erik Karlsson, Neil and Phillips wasn't serving that purpose as well as the previous group. Just how effective Karlsson, a first-time captain, and Phillips, who may be bitter after being passed over for the 'C' not once but twice, were as leaders is something only they and the players in that locker room know.

Intangible facets aside, this season's team was a fringe playoff contender at best no matter which players were cracking the whip in the locker room.

Not only are Spezza and Alfredsson gone from that 2011-12, but so is Foligno. 

There has been a lot of standard roster turnover since 2011-12 and even 2013, but very little of it has served to make the Senators a better team.

Consider the 2013 roster for a moment and how it became what it is today.

MacLean did a masterful coaching job that season, guiding his team to a playoff spot despite Spezza missing 43 games with a back issue and Karlsson missing 31 games with a sliced Achilles' tendon. They came up short against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the second round of the playoffs, but it was a level of success few could have expected during the injury-riddled season.

After that, everything changed.

Alfredsson and owner Eugene Melnyk butted heads before the Senators legend signed elsewhere. That led to Jakob Silfverberg being included in a package to acquire Bobby Ryan from the Anaheim Ducks. Sergei Gonchar was allowed to leave, hardly the biggest loss, but have you seen the Senators blue line today? 

Before the end of the 2013 season, general manager Bryan Murray used his surplus goaltending to acquire Cory Conacher from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Ben Bishop. Conacher was waived the following season, while Bishop is among the top goaltenders in the NHL for a second season in a row.

With Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner, the Senators have one of the best goaltending duos in the league, but the Bishop/Conacher boondoggle highlights how poorly the team, one that counts every penny, has managed assets in recent seasons.

Could the decline during the past two seasons have something to do with a declining payroll? Here's a look at the Senators' spending the past four seasons.

Season	Record	Payroll	Rank	Salary cap
2011-12	41-31-10	$51,653,379	26th	$64.3M
2013	25-17-6	$53,806,372	25th	$60M
2013-14	37-31-14	$56,498,998	26th	$64.3M
2014-15	11-11-5	$56,280,726	30th	$69M

It's nearly impossible to win if the team isn't willing to spend the money to do so.

MacLean isn't without fault, however.

Mika Zibanejad, perhaps the team's most gifted forward, has been a healthy scratch on two occasions this season. When he does play, it's usually about a minute or two fewer than David Legwand, the franchise's laughable response to the departure of Spezza. Heck, there were even times when MacLean felt with his team down a goal late, it was smart to put Neil and his 2,265 career penalty minutes on the ice.

Even with those questionable moves, it's like getting mad at a guy for losing at poker while playing against a guy dealing from the bottom of the deck. MacLean didn't have much of a chance with this roster this season.

The Senators ranked 12th, 10th and 12th, respectively, in Fenwick close during MacLean's first three seasons in Ottawa; this season, the Senators dipped to 29th.

Is that a result of MacLean's coaching ability leaving him, or the result of the culmination of poor management decisions and ownership's unwillingness to spend money?

Of course it's the latter, but the next time a coach fires a GM and an owner will be the first time.

All statistics via NHL.com and stats.hockeyanalysis.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.

The Ottawa Senators dismissed head coach Paul MacLean from his position on Monday, according to the team’s official Twitter account:

Breaking: The Ottawa Senators have dismissed head coach Paul MacLean. #Sens

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 8, 2014

According to Mike Kelly of the NHL Network, a replacement head coach has already been named:

https://twitter.com/MikeKellyNHL/status/542039554317123585

Wayne Scanlan of the Ottawa Citizen also revealed some contract information on the fired MacLean and his reaction to the move:

MacLean has just entered the first year of a 3yr extension. Wild.

— Wayne Scanlan (@HockeyScanner) December 8, 2014

MacLean had spent three-plus seasons as the Ottawa head coach, amassing a career 114-90-35 record. The Senators made the postseason in the first two years of MacLean’s tenure, going 8-9 and never advancing past the second round.

After missing the playoffs last season, Ottawa has fallen to 11-11-5 so far in 2014-15 and has struggled in the offensive zone, ranking 20th in goals per game and 15th in power-play percentage.

Cameron has no head coaching experience in the NHL but is a highly touted junior hockey head coach, spending 15 years coaching at that level. Making the transition to the NHL is a much different experience, but his time as an assistant under MacLean should have him prepared.

The hope from the Senators is that the team sees this firing as a wake-up call and starts to bring the effort needed to win games every night.

*Stats via NHL.com.

Daniel Alfredsson will officially announce his retirement Thursday, ending an illustrious career that was spent almost entirely with the Ottawa Senators, save for his final season in 2013-14 with the Detroit Red Wings.

Alfredsson finishes with 447 goals and 1,157 points in 1,246 regular-season games, putting him right in the thick of Hall of Fame conversation. Those numbers should be plenty good enough to guarantee his enshrinement when first eligible in 2017.

Right?

For some reason, support for Alfredsson in the Hall of Fame ranges anywhere from tepid to chilly. Sean McIndoe of Grantland determined Alfredsson to be Hall-worthy last month but not without plenty of consternation. The Hockey News came to a similar conclusion last year, saying he would get in but not on the first try. The Hockey Writers decided Alfredsson wasn't Hall-worthy, and the word "probably" appears in this report from The Score about Alfredsson's retirement.

There's no "probably" or debate about it: Alfredsson should be an open-net tap-in for the Hall of Fame when he's first eligible in 2017.

Player	Goals	Assists	Points
Jaromir Jagr	551	828	1,379
Teemu Selanne	561	662	1.223
Joe Thornton	349	865	1,214
Jarome Iginla	563	618	1,181
Daniel Alfredsson	444	713	1,157

Alfredsson is 51st all-time in points; of the 50 players ahead of him, 37 have been enshrined. Of the 13 players who are not in the Hall of Fame, five are sure to one day receive the call—Jaromir Jagr, Mark Recchi, Teemu Selanne, Jarome Iginla and Joe Thornton—while the other eight are in that borderline/Hall of Very Good category.

Of the 10 players directly behind Alfredsson in career points, seven are in the Hall of Fame, while one other, Nicklas Lidstrom, will be a slam dunk next year, although the standards are understandably different for a defenseman.

Different positions, different eras, but Alfredsson’s overall body of work relative to some of the greatest to ever play the game is very impressive.

Alfredsson’s career is difficult to judge in relation to his modern-day peers, as he played through wildly different times in the NHL. In Alfredsson’s 1995-96 rookie season, Mario Lemieux led the league in points with 161; eight years later, scoring declined to the point where Martin St. Louis’ 94 points led the league in 2004-05.

So what’s the best way to view Alfredsson’s career?

There are several, but let’s start with his 1994 draft class.

Alfredsson, a sixth-round pick, is by far the leading scorer of anyone selected that year, with the New Jersey Devils’ Patrik Elias posting the second-most points at 994. Other luminaries from that class include Ryan Smyth (842 points), Milan Hejduk (805 points) and Steve Sullivan (747 points).

Of all the human beings on the surface of the Earth eligible to be drafted in 1994, none was better than Alfredsson.

When we widen the net for comparison with contemporaries, Alfredsson’s career still looks exceptional.

Including all players drafted between 1989-93 and 1995-99, only four (Jagr, Iginla, Thornton, Mats Sundin) have more career points than Alfredsson, while two others (Patrick Marleau, Marian Hossa) have a chance of surpassing Alfredsson before their careers expire.

That’s 10 years of hockey players entering the league, and only four were more productive than Alfredsson in their careers.

There are two players from that time period (Peter Forsberg, Pavel Bure) who had fewer points than Alfredsson but received enshrinement because their careers were cut short by injury. A third player, Eric Lindros, will also receive strong consideration in the coming years under the same reasoning.

Alfredsson was able to play until he was 40 years old, which means you can see that as a positive (durability, longevity) or a negative (compiler).

Considering he averaged 0.86 points per game in his seven seasons aged 35 or older, he certainly wasn’t clinging to a career he should have exited long before Thursday.

Player	Ages	PPG
24. John Tavares	19-24	0.90
25. Marian Hossa	29-36	0.89
26. Mike Ribeiro	27-34	0.87
27. Alex Semin	23-30	0.87
28. Daniel Alfredsson	35-41	0.86
29. Brad Richards	27-34	0.86
30. Rick Nash	23-30	0.85

It’s clear Alfredsson was in a special class when compared to those who entered the league within a five-year radius on either side of 1994, but what about his numbers when compared to everyone in the league during his career?

Between 1995-96 and 2009-10, Alfredsson’s 992 points are fourth, trailing only Jagr, Selanne and Joe Sakic; one spot behind Alfredsson is Sundin.

Those numbers look a little less impressive when examining them through a points-per-game lens; at 0.99 per game, Alfredsson ranks 13th, which trails a lot of Hall of Famers but also the likes of Dany Heatley and Zigmund Palffy.

But that’s over a 14-year period, which allows for players like Heatley and Palffy to post more impressive numbers in shorter windows. Heatley averaged 1.06 points per game from 2001 to 2010 while Palffy was at 1.08 points per game from 1995 to 2006.

What do Alfredsson’s numbers look like when we slice out the prime cut of his career, from 2000-2010, when he had 723 points in 674 games?

Over that decade’s worth of seasons, Alfredsson ranks third in points behind Thornton and Iginla. Alfredsson’s 1.07 points per game also look a lot better, ranking him 10th behind nine surefire Hall of Fame players. The issue here is the players behind Alfredsson, excluding Iginla and Sundin, are the who’s who of Hall of Very Good candidates.

In a way, Alfredsson is the cutoff on this list, and you have to decide if he belongs with the players above or behind him. Are you more impressed by him being just 0.03 points per game behind Sakic and 0.05 points per game ahead of Iginla, or are you more turned off by his proximity to Heatley?

We'll revisit the Heatley connection later because comparables and perception are important.

Perhaps Alfredsson’s career in the postseason will clarify matters.

Before we look at his numbers, let’s get something out of the way: A player never winning the Stanley Cup isn’t a reason to exclude him from the Hall of Fame. Ask any player, coach, executive and most media folks, and he or she will tell you hockey is the ultimate team game. A player is only as good as his linemates, and that line is only as good as the other line combinations, which are only as good as the defensemen, which are only as good as the goaltender and right back on through the list. Teams win and lose games, everyone will tell you, not individual players.

Yet when it comes time to judge a player’s game, it’s about whether he won a Stanley Cup, not whether his teams won a Stanley Cup. Unless there’s video of Alfredsson intentionally shooting pucks into his own net during the 2007 Stanley Cup Final, that’s not part of the debate.

Overall in the playoffs, Alfredsson was a terrific player.

In 124 career postseason games, Alfredsson had 100 points, which ranks 85th all time. That’s not going to blow you off your porch, but a player can only play in the postseason if his team is good enough to get there. The problem for Alfredsson is his 0.81 points per game ranks 104th all time among those with at least 50 playoff games, which actually puts him behind Heatley (0.82) on the list.

If we shorten the list to those who played in at least 100 playoff games, Alfredsson ranks 53rd all time in points per game, which gives you a better idea of how consistently excellent he was in the postseason.

If we boil it down even further to compare him to his contemporaries, which is what the Hall of Fame is all about, Alfredsson’s 0.81 points per game are ninth among those to play in at least 100 playoff games between 1996 and 2014.

In his 15 trips to the postseason, Alfredsson averaged at least a point per game six times. When the Senators reached the Final in 2007, Alfredsson led everyone in goals (14) and points (22) and scored four goals in the five-game Final loss.

Perception is part of the issue when debating a player’s Hall of Fame candidacy, so what would the perception of Alfredsson be if he won a Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup in 2007 instead of finishing just short of hockey’s ultimate prize?

If that’s enough to sway your negative or lukewarm feelings about Alfredsson, then he should be a no doubt for enshrinement in 2017.

Not only does Alfredsson have a Hall of Fame resume strictly based on his NHL bona fides, but he had quite the international career as well.

It’s the Hockey Hall of Fame, not the NHL Hall of Fame.

Alfredsson had 13 goals and 27 points in 26 Olympic games and won gold with Sweden in 2006. He represented his country at seven World Championships, a tournament you can probably take or leave considering it’s not against the top players in the world, and had 19 goals and 46 points in 58 games.

The final consideration: Who will Alfredsson be up against when he becomes eligible in 2017?

It’s hard to say. Looking at players who also called 2013-14 their final NHL season, Selanne is at a death-and-taxes level of certainty for enshrine men. But no one else matches Alfredsson in career accomplishments, either individually or team-wise.

Martin Brodeur was a surefire lock for 2017 before joining the St. Louis Blues instead of opting for retirement, which means he won't be eligible until 2018 at the earliest. With Brodeur out of the way, it’s clear Alfredsson is the next-most viable candidate behind Selanne.

There could be stragglers in 2017, but certain players could get the Hall call before then, players like Recchi, Lindros and Sergei Fedorov. Recchi would've moonwalked into the Hall of Fame this year if not for it being such an overwhelmingly strong class and should get in next year along with Lidstrom and Chris Pronger.

And even if Lindros and Fedorov are still eligible in 2017, Alfredsson has just as strong of a case, if not stronger, than both players.

The Hall of Fame can induct as many as four players in a given year, which has been the case in all but two years since 2007. If that trend continues, it’s hard to imagine a scenario that includes Alfredsson being left out in 2017.

It’s easy to see why Alfredsson’s career may get lost in the shuffle. He never finished higher than fifth in Hart Trophy voting and only received enough votes to be in the top 20 four times. In his best statistical season, 2005-06, he finished tied for fourth in points with 103 points.

Who did Alfredsson finish tied with that season? You guessed it: Heatley.

Yes, it’s funny how often Alfredsson’s name winds up side-by-side with Heatley’s, considering Heatley has collapsed since turning 30. But it’s important to remember Alfredsson mirrors Heatley when the latter was dominating the NHL in his 20s with 50-goal and 100-point seasons.

It’s also notable that a lot of that Heatley domination occurred when the two were teammates and frequent linemates in Ottawa and that Heatley’s sharp decline occurred not long after he left the Senators while Alfredsson continued to produce at a high level in his 30s. If Heatley didn't fall off a cliff in his 30s, the perception of being so closely tied to him wouldn't even be an issue, if it even is at all, for Alfredsson.

Alfredsson was better than a point-per-game player for a decade, excelled in the playoffs and internationally and was only surpassed in his career by the likes of Jagr, Selanne, Sundin and Sakic.

If you don’t see Alfredsson as a Hall of Fame slam dunk, should you be allowed a vote on such a thing?

Probably not.

All statistics via NHL.com and Hockey-Reference.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.