Cody Ceci

Cody Ceci (affectionately known as Caca Peepee), was an defensemen for the Ottawa Senators for seven grueling years (2012 to 2019). Originally a top prospect beloved by Sens fans, Cody Ceci's play as an Ottawa Senator drew monumental criticism throughout his time in the nation's capital. He effectively went from an exciting young offensive defenseman to one of the worst defensemen in the league (at least according to analytics nerds and people with eyes).

A Bright Future?
Cody Ceci was drafted in the first round, at 15th overall, in the 2012 NHL entry draft. He played for the Ottawa 67's and was hence already a familiar name within the Ottawa hockey community. He played his first game on December 12th, 2013 in a 2-1 Sens win vs. the Buffalo Sabres. He scored his first NHL goal just four days later on December 16th; an overtime winner wrist shot from the blue line against the St. Louis Blues. Everything looked to be working out even better than expected.

We Were So Naive
Things quickly began to deteriorate after the Hamburglar run and the 2014-15 NHL season. Ceci signed a two year 5.6 million dollar contract extension in August of 2016. By this time Sens fans had already put two and two together and realized that the Ottawa Senators had largely botched the development of young Ceci, with coach Dave Cameron essentially (attempting to) turn Ceci, once described as an offensive defeneman, into a shut-down guy. This strategy only worsened under notoriously defensive minded coach Guy Boucher. By the 2016-17 season, Cody Ceci was clocking 20-25 minutes of ice time almost every night, and subsequently being berated by Sens twitter after each and every game. His inability to carry the puck past the offensive blue line was already an issue of the past, however the fact that this defensive defenseman was really struggling with defending was becoming more and more apparent.

Top Pairing Defenseman
After the 2017 Senators playoff run, things began to take a turn for the absolute worst for both the team and Cody Ceci. Marc Methot, the teams resident stay at home, tough as nails defenseman was taken by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 Expansion Draft. As a result, Cody Ceci began playing top line minutes with the Senators captain and all star offensive defenseman Erik Karlsson. With Karlsson driving the play from the blueline, Ceci was expected to take the reigns as Methot's replacement, and bail out Karlsson's offensive-minded tactics. This went about as well as expected.

Erik Karlsson was traded to the San Jose Sharks in September 2018, solidifying in stone both the implosion of the Ottawa Senators and Cody Ceci's de facto title of number one defenseman for the Sens. After re-signing one year for about four million dollars, Ceci began to play 25 to 30 minutes a night against the games top offensive threats. Ceci finished the 2017-18 and 2018-19 season a combined -49.

It is also worth noting that some point around this time there was apparently a deal in place to send Cody Ceci to Edmonton in exchange for future Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall,  one for one , but the deal was nixed by Eugene Melnyk.

Trojan Horse Mission
After constant ridicule from twitter and Senators fans, Ottawa Senators management seemed to finally get the message, and decide to move on from Cody Ceci, and traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs the summer of 2019, in exchange for his Russian twin Nikita Zaitsev. Ceci now had a new mission: to sabotage the Leafs already laughable defense corps.

Cody Ceci scored his first goal as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Columbus Blue Jackets in his first game, filling Leafs fans around the globe with hope and relief only to smash that hope into little pieces over the course of the season. Learning apparently nothing from their provincial rivals, the Maple Leafs also played Ceci 20 to 30 minutes every night, especially under Babcock. "Ceci" began to trend in Ontario (sometimes Canada) on twitter after almost every loss the Leafs (deservedly) suffered. After seeing legions of angry fans fuming over every embarrassing play, Leafs GM Kyle Dubas felt the need to defend his new number one defenseman multiple times, often hinting at the "fact" that Ceci was actually a good player, and that you have to have a degree in sports psychology and nuclear physics to really see how he positively affects the outcome of each game.

Mission Success and Future
Ceci was not re-signed by Toronto Maple Leafs after they failed to make the playoffs in the 2019-20 season. Ceci was signed by his next victim the Pittsburgh Penguins in October 2020 for around one million dollars.

Cody Ceci's Greatest Misses

 * "Highlight" reel
 * Cody Ceci turnover to a player with no stick
 * Ceci shoots at least three metres wide (as a Leaf)
 * Travis Yost's analytical analysis of Ceci