Speculation: 2013 Offseason: UFAs, Trades, What's Next? | Part VII

[dingbatz]

That's why we didn't trade Zibanejad and Pageau's performance gives us good backup plan if we go crazy.

I ain't worried at all.

Let me ask you this, did Ottawa possess literally any real flaws last year before Spezza went down?

All we were missing really was a top 4 on our D since Cowen wasn't available.

The addition of Bobby Ryan makes us ten times stronger in the scoring department.

The speed and grit of McArthur and Ryan is what is overlooked here. Last year teams like Toronto and Tampa used speed against us to win but with those guys in our top 6 it changes the dynamic of our offense completely. Especially since we had molasses latendresse.

Molatendresses? Tender Molasses?

 

[The Fuhr*]

That's why we didn't trade Zibanejad and Pageau's performance gives us good backup plan if we go crazy.

I ain't worried at all.

Let me ask you this, did Ottawa possess literally any real flaws last year before Spezza went down?

All we were missing really was a top 4 on our D since Cowen wasn't available.

The addition of Bobby Ryan makes us ten times stronger in the scoring department.

The speed and grit of McArthur and Ryan is what is overlooked here. Last year teams like Toronto and Tampa used speed against us to win but with those guys in our top 6 it changes the dynamic of our offense completely. Especially since we had molasses latendresse.

Z and Pageu are nice players but we are really relying on a lot if youth... It's realistic to see Spezza go down to injury for 20-30 games... Back problems never go away.

I have watched hockey for a while now and as nice as the team looks, I have seen youth not being able to take the next step to many times now.

I worry about Anderson and Lehner not being able to maintain a .942sv% and a .936sv%... I see both around .920 this season.

I see not much vet leadership on the team... 82 game season, there will be tough times... After Alfie went to Detroit, so many Sens were saying the dynamic of the locker room has changed, they don't have the man they always turned to anymore... I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle the first losing streak... I hope the team does well.

I think trying to replace Gonchar with Wiercioch is setting ourselves up for disappointment... He could get destroyed in non sheltered minutes defensively.

There is concerns over Michalek and his 4G in 23GP this past season... As he was looking like injuries caught up with him.

Then if we get out of the gate slowly I worry management will mortgage more future because they moved the 1st for Ryan.

I don't see Ottawa as being a better hockey club then Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Tampa... Sure we will win our fair share of games, but those teams will too and will be right there with us.

I think at the end of the day this is a 7-10th seed team.

 

[benjiv1]

Z and Pageu are nice players but we are really relying on a lot if youth... It's realistic to see Spezza go down to injury for 20-30 games... Back problems never go away.

I have watched hockey for a while now and as nice as the team looks, I have seen youth not being able to take the next step to many times now.

I worry about Anderson and Lehner not being able to maintain a .942sv% and a .936sv%... I see both around .920 this season.

I see not much vet leadership on the team... 82 game season, there will be tough times... After Alfie went to Detroit, so many Sens were saying the dynamic of the locker room has changed, they don't have the man they always turned to anymore... I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle the first losing streak... I hope the team does well.

I think trying to replace Gonchar with Wiercioch is setting ourselves up for disappointment... He could get destroyed in non sheltered minutes defensively.

There is concerns over Michalek and his 4G in 23GP this past season... As he was looking like injuries caught up with him.

Then if we get out of the gate slowly I worry management will mortgage more future because they moved the 1st for Ryan.

I don't see Ottawa as being a better hockey club then Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Tampa... Sure we will win our fair share of games, but those teams will too and will be right there with us.

I think at the end of the day this is a 7-10th seed team.

We may not be better than Boston, Detroit and Toronto (debatable), but we're definitely better than Tampa.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

How the hell are we not better than Toronto.

We have Spezza and Turris. Both are their first line center.

We have Methot and Karlsson. Both their number 1 defenders. Heck, Karlsson is top 5 player in the game, you can't even associate him with anyone they have.

Doesn't matter what Anderson gets because I will wager everything that it is better than what Reimer will have, lol.

Our backup is better than their starter.

The only major benefit they have other us is wingers.

Ryan could post Kessel like numbers next year. It doesn't even matter if Michalek performs or not, we have players ready to come up and share time trying to contribute like Hoffman/Prince/Stone.

You keep talking about leadership but imo the leadership starts with MacLean. Also, I'm willing to wager the most verbal guys is Neil and Phillips.

The only thing we lost is leadership from a top player and that's Alfredsson. I have no doubt Spezza could take over and do more. Everyone on the team loves him and respects him.

Think about it like this:

We were 24th in the league in scoring last year, we lost top 5 player in the game, top 7 center in the game and top 4 defender in Cowen and we still made the second round of the playoffs even with a number 1 center who struggled most of the season and no one close to Ryan's ability to score on the wings.

For argument's sake I didn't even mention the loss of Michalek last year.

Guys like Greening and Condra had weaker years. We added more proven players in Ryan and McArthur too.

We are a solid team and what makes us a division fighting team is MacLean and our coaching staff, imo.

 

[The Fuhr*]

Kadri plays center and had 44Pts in 48GP last season... Is Turris better then him?

Lupul in 16GP had 11G 18Pts... Getting him healthy for the season is like us getting Spezza back.

JVR began to emerge as a 30G guy... Had 18G in 48GP

Franson emerged as a 40-50 point guy... Had 29Pts in 48GP last year... Phanuef is a 40-50 point guy...

Reimer had a .924sv% as the Leafs starter... That's pretty good

Ottawa is not the only team with good players

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Kadri played second fiddle minutes in terms of competition, regardless good production but do you honestly see him scoring the same?

You think Lupul will score over 90 points and 40 goals? Even PPG? Shoot at a ridiculous 26%?

You think Phaneuf-Franson are greater than Karlsson-Methot? Not even close. The rest of their D and our D is a toss up.

Reimer is good but Anderson is much better, not close.

As I said, their wingers are better but that's the only major thing they have against us.

I find it extremely funny how you think Ottawa won't do well with half our team missing and half our team underperforming while you hyping a Toronto team that was playing at their absolute best(Stats wise) and yet still only finished 5th.

Toronto is good but we are better on paper.

When's the last time a team won the cup with a borderline second line center/3rd line center. Bozak? LOL.

The whole team was shooting at a very unrealistic shooting percentage. Tops in the league.

Remember that the Leafs were dead last 5on5 scoring last year.

How many times in the past couple years have we seen Toronto come stormming out of the gate looking playoff bound half way through the season only to slow down miserably at the end.

Lol, that's nice, but their good players aren't the best.

 

[The Fuhr*]

Kadri played second fiddle minutes in terms of competition, regardless good production but do you honestly see him scoring the same?

I could only imagine the threads here is Zibanejad was almost PPG through 48GP only playing a little over two minutes a game on the PP.

The hype for him would be crazy

You think Lupul will score over 90 points and 40 goals? Even PPG? Shoot at a ridiculous 26%?

In 11/12 he had 67Pts in 66GP... If he is healthy I don't think 75Pts is unreasonable

You think Phaneuf-Franson are greater than Karlsson-Methot? Not even close. The rest of their D and our D is a toss up.

We have a better top pair... but I would take the Leafs 3-6... they have better depth.

Reimer is good but Anderson is much better, not close.

Anderson is a more proven goalie.
___

I'm nowhere near as confident in the Sens as a lot of people I am reading... I hope I'm wrong but I don't see the Sens blowing away the competition... I think they will be fighting for the last two seeds... I see them as a bubble team, with the way parity is in the NHL.
I see Toronto and Tampa Bay as bubble teams too... I can't argue Ottawa to be flat out better then them... I can argue that we are on there level, but I just don't see flat out better.

 

[YouGotAStuGoing]

Z and Pageu are nice players but we are really relying on a lot if youth... It's realistic to see Spezza go down to injury for 20-30 games... Back problems never go away.

I have watched hockey for a while now and as nice as the team looks, I have seen youth not being able to take the next step to many times now.

I worry about Anderson and Lehner not being able to maintain a .942sv% and a .936sv%... I see both around .920 this season.

I see not much vet leadership on the team... 82 game season, there will be tough times... After Alfie went to Detroit, so many Sens were saying the dynamic of the locker room has changed, they don't have the man they always turned to anymore... I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle the first losing streak... I hope the team does well.

I think trying to replace Gonchar with Wiercioch is setting ourselves up for disappointment... He could get destroyed in non sheltered minutes defensively.

There is concerns over Michalek and his 4G in 23GP this past season... As he was looking like injuries caught up with him.

Then if we get out of the gate slowly I worry management will mortgage more future because they moved the 1st for Ryan.

I don't see Ottawa as being a better hockey club then Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Tampa... Sure we will win our fair share of games, but those teams will too and will be right there with us.

I think at the end of the day this is a 7-10th seed team.

Kadri plays center and had 44Pts in 48GP last season... Is Turris better then him?

Lupul in 16GP had 11G 18Pts... Getting him healthy for the season is like us getting Spezza back.

JVR began to emerge as a 30G guy... Had 18G in 48GP

Franson emerged as a 40-50 point guy... Had 29Pts in 48GP last year... Phanuef is a 40-50 point guy...

Reimer had a .924sv% as the Leafs starter... That's pretty good

Ottawa is not the only team with good players

It seems to me like you're simultaneously projecting the worst-case scenarios for Ottawa and the best-case scenarios for Toronto... and I'm STILL not convinced that Toronto is better.

 

[Jonathan81]

How the hell are we not better than Toronto.

We have Spezza and Turris. Both are their first line center.

We have Methot and Karlsson. Both their number 1 defenders. Heck, Karlsson is top 5 player in the game, you can't even associate him with anyone they have.

Doesn't matter what Anderson gets because I will wager everything that it is better than what Reimer will have, lol.

Our backup is better than their starter.

The only major benefit they have other us is wingers.

Ryan could post Kessel like numbers next year. It doesn't even matter if Michalek performs or not, we have players ready to come up and share time trying to contribute like Hoffman/Prince/Stone.

You keep talking about leadership but imo the leadership starts with MacLean. Also, I'm willing to wager the most verbal guys is Neil and Phillips.

The only thing we lost is leadership from a top player and that's Alfredsson. I have no doubt Spezza could take over and do more. Everyone on the team loves him and respects him.

Think about it like this:

We were 24th in the league in scoring last year, we lost top 5 player in the game, top 7 center in the game and top 4 defender in Cowen and we still made the second round of the playoffs even with a number 1 center who struggled most of the season and no one close to Ryan's ability to score on the wings.

For argument's sake I didn't even mention the loss of Michalek last year.

Guys like Greening and Condra had weaker years. We added more proven players in Ryan and McArthur too.

We are a solid team and what makes us a division fighting team is MacLean and our coaching staff, imo.

Agreed on all this plus, i want to add to those facts, even if we did loose Alfie and Gonchar, it was obvious last year, after all our top guns went down, that their leadership wasn't enough to carry the team. It tooks them half the season to really have their legs moving at full speed and they perform accordingly to what you can expect from old warriors. What really keep us competitive was are Stellar Goaltending and Mr.Jack Adams. Also, i think the fact our rookies had to learn the hard way, instead of let say Mtl rookies who perform in very insulated minutes, really help to forge their competitivness since they learned to play when trailing behind on the score sheet.

 

[aragorn]

And it could be argued that with the addition of Clarkson that Toronto is a lot tougher & much more intimidating than Ottawa especially if we dress Pageau, Conacher & Condra in games against them. I assume that Kassian will replace one of them when Ottawa plays TML.

 

[BrawlFan]

And it could be argued that with the addition of Clarkson that Toronto is a lot tougher & much more intimidating than Ottawa especially if we dress Pageau, Conacher & Condra in games against them. I assume that Kassian will replace one of them when Ottawa plays TML.

If Clarkson gets paid 5.75 million a year to beat the living crap out of Condra every game I give Condra a big raise and tell him to go get beat up.

That takes him out of the game for at least 5 minutes not counting potential misconducts.

Where you dont want Clarkson is in front of the net manhandling Karlsson.

 

[Tampacuseforever]

And it could be argued that with the addition of Clarkson that Toronto is a lot tougher & much more intimidating than Ottawa especially if we dress Pageau, Conacher & Condra in games against them. I assume that Kassian will replace one of them when Ottawa plays TML.

We have a big team certainly not worried about Clarkson and who on our team is intimidated ?

 

[Stonewall]

Any chance we sign one of the leftover forwards (Brunner, Grabovski, Prospal, etc.) or d-men (Gilbert, Hainsey, Whitney, etc.) ?

 

[Lundmark17]

I think it is fair to say that Detriot and Boston will be better than us. If we catch some breaks we can be right up there with them though. Realistically we are in the same tier as Montreal and Toronto. Playoff contenders but anything could happen. Personally I do like the Sens the most out of the three.

I don't think Tampa Bay deserves to be in the discussion with those five teams until they prove it. It seems that every year people love Tampa Bay and every year other than when they went to the conference final against Boston they are a let down. So until we see real results from them I peg them around 6 in the division.

 

[God Says No]

Any chance we sign one of the leftover forwards (Brunner, Grabovski, Prospal, etc.) or d-men (Gilbert, Hainsey, Whitney, etc.) ?

Why? No space and no need. I prefer giving our young guys a chance over any left over FA.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Z and Pageu are nice players but we are really relying on a lot if youth... It's realistic to see Spezza go down to injury for 20-30 games... Back problems never go away.

I have watched hockey for a while now and as nice as the team looks, I have seen youth not being able to take the next step to many times now.

I worry about Anderson and Lehner not being able to maintain a .942sv% and a .936sv%... I see both around .920 this season.

I see not much vet leadership on the team... 82 game season, there will be tough times... After Alfie went to Detroit, so many Sens were saying the dynamic of the locker room has changed, they don't have the man they always turned to anymore... I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle the first losing streak... I hope the team does well.

I think trying to replace Gonchar with Wiercioch is setting ourselves up for disappointment... He could get destroyed in non sheltered minutes defensively.

There is concerns over Michalek and his 4G in 23GP this past season... As he was looking like injuries caught up with him.

Then if we get out of the gate slowly I worry management will mortgage more future because they moved the 1st for Ryan.

I don't see Ottawa as being a better hockey club then Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Tampa... Sure we will win our fair share of games, but those teams will too and will be right there with us.

I think at the end of the day this is a 7-10th seed team.

Kadri plays center and had 44Pts in 48GP last season... Is Turris better then him?

Lupul in 16GP had 11G 18Pts... Getting him healthy for the season is like us getting Spezza back.

JVR began to emerge as a 30G guy... Had 18G in 48GP

Franson emerged as a 40-50 point guy... Had 29Pts in 48GP last year... Phanuef is a 40-50 point guy...

Reimer had a .924sv% as the Leafs starter... That's pretty good

Ottawa is not the only team with good players

Its interesting that Kadri's 44 pts while being extremely sheltered aren't a factor but Wiercioch's is allegedly replacing Gonchar and going to get destroyed when he isn't sheltered.

Also interesting that Lupul's history of injuries doesn't become a factor but Spezza's does and Toronto's players can have breakout seasons and keep their paces but Ottawa's can't!

Reimer's .924 is 'pretty good' but we're screwed with .920.

Where's Toronto's veteran leadership by the way? Surely it can't be Phaneuf and Clarkson, because you've dismissed Neil, Phillips, Spezza and Methot for Ottawa. They certainly haven't proved anything more than our veteran group. You can even add Macarthur for us, he wore a letter in Toronto. I guess Dave Bolland may be their heroic white night ready to launch them into greatness.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

I'm not sure Clarkson ever intimidated anybody. He hits and fights low-medium weights occasionally. He is Zack Smith class. I don't think anyone really cares about Smith, don't see why they would care about Clarkson.

 

[Stonewall]

Why? No space and no need. I prefer giving our young guys a chance over any left over FA.

For a 1 year deal, why not? Just adds more skill. Especially on the defensive end since that is more of a question mark.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

I'm not sure Clarkson ever intimidated anybody. He hits and fights low-medium weights occasionally. He is Zack Smith class. I don't think anyone really cares about Smith, don't see why they would care about Clarkson.

You better watch yourself! That's the next Gary Roberts you're talking about. You might get stared down extra hard if you say something mean about him.

 

[Super Cake]

Too bad we cannot clone people. I would just clone karlsson so that he could fill our top 4 d needs.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Btw, for anyone looking for a good read on the Leafs' offseason moves, this is one of the greatest blog entries ever. Even the Leafs fans in the comments are jealous of what Ottawa has been able to do.

 

[God Says No]

For a 1 year deal, why not? Just adds more skill. Especially on the defensive end since that is more of a question mark.

Like I already said, no room. And the names mentioned are not that much of an upgrade over existing in house options.

 

[McManked]

Like I already said, no room. And the names mentioned are not that much of an upgrade over existing in house options.

^^^

This. Those defenceman are all pretty bad.

 

[Super Cake]

Btw, for anyone looking for a good read on the Leafs' offseason moves, this is one of the greatest blog entries ever. Even the Leafs fans in the comments are jealous of what Ottawa has been able to do.

lol at the potato.

 

[McManked]

Dat spelling.