It's hard to argue that contending teams holding onto their UFA for a last attempt at the cup is the same as a bubble team. The devils with Parise, LA with Lucic, Preds with Suter, all teams wanting to contend for the cup. Very different from Ottawa.
The truth, as you mention, is that Spezza had made it know going well back that he wasn't happy, and we opted to move him when his value was lowest for fear of it dipping even further or losing him for nothing. But make no mistake, the return was poor, and everyone agreed on that at the time. Many, many teams get better returns on UFA, so it's not like Spezza's return was guaranteed to be worse had we held onto him.
There aren't many moves by Murray I consider worse than his handling of Spezza. Cowen for sure, and perhaps Alfie (the last guy we lost for nothing btw). The fact is, Spezza should have been a valuable asset for us, but he allowed it to dwindle in value, and took the safe option rather than try and get the best option. Sometimes, safe is the right choice, but I'm not convinced safe was in the Sens best interest at the time. Remember when Ottawa would take the riskier path, locking out Yashin for a full year rather than re-negotiate his contract? Trading a star center in Yashin at the height of his career? Sometimes safe is death, and imo, the way we handled Spezza was safe, and we paid for it.
Hindsight is 20/20, and I fully acknowledge that there were risks of waiting to trade him, and that Chiasson could have turned out better (though the writing was on the wall that he wasn't going to be great), but I thought at the time it was worth the risk, and stand by that.
I am not saying that the return would have been worse guaranteed if we waited at the deadline, but like you said yourself, it could have been lower with an injury (which happened a lot with Spezza), impossible to know.
Cowen is a failed top prospect, injuries derailed his career. All that Murray could have done better is to give up on him earlier and get something of value. But in the end, he was part of the return for Phaneuf so not that dramatic. I feel like Cowen has both been unlucky and entitled because of early junior success. Sucks for him but they can't all succeed.
Alfie's situation was a mess and I would have been mad if he was younger and had more years left in him, but he was like 40 or 41 y/o and only played 1 more season... We were never sure in his last few seasons when he was going to retire, as I was prepared for his retirement so I really didn't see it as a big deal as most people here, even though Alfie is the reason I became a Sens fan from Montreal. Sucks that he didn't play 100% of his career with the Sens, but other than that, no big deal for me. Happens with most players who do not finish their career with "their" team, like Brodeur for example.
Spezza was a valuable asset for us but NOT as much as Sens would have hoped. 31 y/o center making big money, now producing around 60 pts per season, injury prone with back problems, good offensively but under average defensively, but most importantly 1 year before being UFA and made it known he was NOT re-signing in Ottawa and even asked for a trade... We did get GOOD value for him at first in the deal with Nashville, but it didn't went through so we had to settle with the best option among teams on Spezza list... Pretty sure nobody wanted to deal with that distraction all season. Melnyk probably gave the order to Murray to "trade Spezza before next season"
Based on those facts, I am not too disappointed with a return of Nick Paul, Gabriel Gagne and Alex Chiasson (although it's unfortunate that he didn't perform better for Ottawa). Now if Paul and Gagne both bust it would suck, but as the same time, it still wouldn't be that much of a big deal for me, as we only lost 1 YEAR of Spezza, who could have been injured for all season after a few games.
Note : Chiasson was a 8.0C prospect on HF. Not saying HF is gospel but he was seen as a quality prospect. He came into the league and scored 35 points, which was very good for a rookie. He then had 26 pts in 76 games in his sophomore season which was still decent but unfortunately, it went the wrong way last year. Conclusion : Chiasson was projecting to be at least a decent 3rd liner. I wouldn't be surprised if he finds a bit of 3rd line success in Calgary
To me, worse Murray moves are by far his coaching hirings and too much time fixing goaltending before Anderson. Other than that, people will say the Bishop trade, but forget conveniently that he acquired for just a 2nd round pick a bit before.
By the way, when was the last trade that Murray won? I just can't recall since the Turris vs rundblad.
Hey Yogi
Rundblad vs Turris yeah but what about :
Elliott vs Anderson? (trading a goalie done with the team for a quality #1 for several years)
Silfverberg vs Ryan? (trading a 3rd liner and 2 young assets (that are somewhat busting) for a 1st liner or at worst top-6 forward)
Foligno vs Methot? (trading a middle-sixer (means your 4th to 9th best forward, depending on the year) for a #3 D-man)
Lehner + Legwand vs 21st (White)? (trading a goalie not able to establish himself with the team and a cap dump for a 1st round pick in the deepest draft in a very long time)
Phaneuf deal (getting a #2 D-man for a prospect and a 2nd, while dumping 3 contracts)
Of course, I don't see trades as win or lose, as both teams are more trying to fix a position of need with a position of strenght in reality, but those are trades that benefited the Sens IMO.