It was fascinating hearing Darren Dreger last night mention that Ottawa management sees Cowen as too 'offensive minded' to be paired with Karlsson any longer. They now prefer pairing Karlsson with a player on his final NHL contract, or a marginal NHLer in Phillips and Borowiecki respectively.
For an 'offensive minded' defenseman, Cowen averages 16 points per 82. He's over two full seasons in, and has spent half of that time paired with the best offensive minded defenseman on the planet.
Career stay at home defenseman Chris Phillips has averaged 20 points per 82 over 1100+ games, roughly maintaining that pace give or take 5 points since the beginning, and certainly not playing alongside a partner of Erik Karlsson's ilk.
Cowen was never a legitimate offensive defensemen, as he never once put up a point a game in junior. His junior stats are very similar to Phillips', in fact. To expect him to flourish offensively in the NHL is foolish and unprecedented.
Should Marc Methot recover and prove worth extending, I'd take a good hard look at moving Cowen. The excuse against doing so when his play had bottomed out was that his value had also bottomed out. Now that it is starting to trend up, and given that Garrioch mentioned that several teams have been interested in Cowen all along, the return could be enticing enough to seriously consider it. Think of the pieces that could be pried from an Edmonton or Colorado.
After all, with Gryba playing excellent shut down defense, and with Borowiecki playing well defensively and excellent physically, Cowen could become management's ace up the sleeve in negotiations if he continues to play consistent defensively.
