Senators trade Gryba to Oilers to clear space on blue line for Cowen

SUNRISE, Fla. - With extra defencemen to spare, Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray let his colleagues he was open for business.

The Senators got down to business Saturday in unclogging their blue line, trading Eric Gryba to the Edmonton Oilers for prospect Travis Ewanyk and the 107th pick in the draft.

Ottawa was interested in trading someone and is left with a defence corps of Erik Karlsson, Marc Methot, Jared Cowan, Chris Phillips, Patrick Wiercioch, Mark Borowiecki and Cody Ceci.

On Friday after dealing goaltender Robin Lehner and centre David Legwand to the Buffalo Sabres for a first-round pick, Murray said he would still like to find a taker for forward Colin Greening, who has two years left on his contract.

Gryba has one year left at a cap hit of US$1.25 million.

With their second-day picks, the Senators drafted right-winger Gabriel Gagne at No. 36, centre Filip Chlapik at No. 48, defenceman Christian Wolanin at No. 107, left-winger Filip Ahl at No. 109 and defenceman Christian Jaros at No. 139.

They took QMJHL defenceman Thomas Chabot and U.S. National Team Development program centre Colin White with picks 18 and 21 in the first round.