Just three weeks after winning the Masterton Trophy over Philadelphia Flyers cancer survivor Oskar Lindblom and mentioning that very possibility with the press afterwards, Bobby Ryan was bought out by the Ottawa Senators earlier today.
I had featured him when he scored a hat trick in his first game back from rehab, and even then tried to find a balance in all the truths, talent and tragedy of his life story.
The fact that the team did this so soon after the Masterton win means it's something they had already set their minds to, that they'd weighed the Cinderella story against his age, cap hit, production and leadership capabilities and still went for it, despite the possibility that with his mind in the right place, he might become a 25- or 30-goal scorer again, that his experience could help steer the team's young players in the right direction, that the team could have used his cap hit to reach the cap floor.
There were more positives in letting him go than keeping him.
As a regular Sens observer for the past 15 years and a hockey fan for most of the past 42, I am not certain I would agree with that; unless there is information we were not provided, had I been GM, I may have gambled on giving him an extra year and bought him out of his final $7.5M season next off-season.
I'm also the kind of guy who'd want to bring former captain Jason Spezza back for his final season so he can retire in the "right" uniform, so maybe I'm just too much of a romantic.
There no denying he looked right wearing Ottawa's black "O" uniform, though, as seen on card #604 from the 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee set manufactured by Upper Deck:
He signed it in thick black sharpie during the 2018-19 season, if I remember correctly.
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