Speculation: Armchair GM Thread: Long long journey through the darkness, where is our goalie?

[Ace Rimmer]

Because being bothered to show up to Senators games is a real, actual, significant bother given where the arena is. It's tough to condemn the fans for not going to Kanata to watch the games.

And no, the Senators were not really spending a ton of money. They've been a budget team for as long as I can remember. The problem is when they do spend, it's not smart.

Yeah, no kidding. It'd be like if the Flames put their arena in Balzac or Langdon, and being surprised that selling tickets was difficult.

I can't defend not selling out all of their conference finals games. That's simply ridiculous, and that's on the fans IMO.

 

[SKRusty]

I think people crap on Melnyk too much, Hes absolutely right. The senators were spending a ton of money on their players and on ice product, and people can’t even be bothered to show up to the conference finals. Now he shouldn’t have gone public and said anything, but a new owner isn’t going to make fans show up to games. Owning a sports team does not mean you should be forced to bleed millions.

This is in part Melnyk's doing.

First the Kanata rink is like putting the Saddledome in Balzac... Melnyk is the owner and should have pushed long ago for a better rink location. He has only had since 2003 to try and get the team out of one of the worst arena locations in the league. The only one that maybe worse is Glendale in Arizona.

Melnyk is the one who hired Bryan Murray and Dorion. So in essence he gave them the green light to sign some outrageous contracts.

So yes it is Melnyk's doing and he should not expect the fans to make up for his short comings as an owner.

 

[The Gnome]

Honestly, having been there, that rink location is horrendous and likely one of the larger problems. Pretty sure if I lived in Ottawa, I'd rarely venture to see a game...and I'm a Sens fan.

 

[Mobiandi]

The only one that maybe worse is Glendale in Arizona

The Panthers arena is in a terrible location as well.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

This is in part Melnyk's doing.

First the Kanata rink is like putting the Saddledome in Balzac... Melnyk is the owner and should have pushed long ago for a better rink location. He has only had since 2003 to try and get the team out of one of the worst arena locations in the league. The only one that maybe worse is Glendale in Arizona.

Melnyk is the one who hired Bryan Murray and Dorion. So in essence he gave them the green light to sign some outrageous contracts.

So yes it is Melnyk's doing and he should not expect the fans to make up for his short comings as an owner.

Murray was a great GM and managed to give the Sens one of the best prospect pools earlier this decade. He had a calder cup winning Bingo Sens that eventually added prospects like Silfverberg, Stone, Zibanejad, etc. to the mix.

 

[SKRusty]

Murray was a great GM and managed to give the Sens one of the best prospect pools earlier this decade. He had a calder cup winning Bingo Sens that eventually added prospects like Silfverberg, Stone, Zibanejad, etc. to the mix.

Bryan was amazing at spotting, developing and acquiring young talent. He did sign and trade for some bad contracts though.

 

[MDCSL]

I could be mistaken, but did the sens not have that arena before he was owner? So yes, they need a new arena desperately but when you factor in the contract already in place for the kanata arena and the Ottawa taxpayers willingness to pay for a new arena a large portion of that issue is out of his control.

And yes Ottawa spent some dumb money on dumb contracts, but it’s still real dollars out of his pocket.

 

[Lunatik]

I could be mistaken, but did the sens not have that arena before he was owner? So yes, they need a new arena desperately but when you factor in the contract already in place for the kanata arena and the Ottawa taxpayers willingness to pay for a new arena a large portion of that issue is out of his control.

And yes Ottawa spent some dumb money on dumb contracts, but it’s still real dollars out of his pocket.

Even with the bad contracts it's not like the Sens spent to the Cap. Melnyk has been cheap for a long time, he's just stepped his game up even more.

 

[MDCSL]

Even with the bad contracts it's not like the Sens spent to the Cap. Melnyk has been cheap for a long time, he's just stepped his game up even more.

I believe they spent 68 mil on salaries last year; 73 so far for this year it may not be cap max but it is far from the floor

 

[Mobiandi]

Someone on reddit with supposed credibility has said that Treliving is in the market for a goalie and that Saros is a target

 

[MonyontheMoney]

I don’t see it as a move for a starter this year. Probably more along the lines of a young backup who can take over for Smith next year, if anything.

But I do like Saros.

 

[Anglesmith]

I can't even imagine what the price would be for Juuse Saros.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I can’t imagine that reddit has legitimately credible sources. Who knew.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Saros will be a 1b guy. Guys that small just aren’t starters in this league.

Trading assets for him makes no sense.

 

[Baxterman]

I can’t see why Nashville would move him unless it is a big over pay and we certainly can’t afford to over pay for him, we might not even be able to give up even a fair price for him

 

[super6646]

Really want Hanifin to be signed... come on Tre!

 

[Volica]

f***. This team eats so much shit on this board.
I'd love to have a big season, like right out of the gate; really shut some people up. Essentially almost everything that could have gone wrong last year, did, and we still managed 84 points.

We do really need a 1B, IMO. I know Saros' name was bouncing around; who are some of the other potentially available guys who could push Mike Smith and give the AHL guys someone to chase?

 

[super6646]

****. This team eats so much **** on this board.
I'd love to have a big season, like right out of the gate; really shut some people up. Essentially almost everything that could have gone wrong last year, did, and we still managed 84 points.

We do really need a 1B, IMO. I know Saros' name was bouncing around; who are some of the other potentially available guys who could push Mike Smith and give the AHL guys someone to chase?

Yeah, but you could argue that the flames first half went perfect with vezina caliber goalie and the hottest top line in the league. In the end, 84 points seem about right for last years team.

 

[Anglesmith]

Yeah, but you could argue that the flames first half went perfect with vezina caliber goalie and the hottest top line in the league. In the end, 84 points seem about right for last years team.

I don't think at any point the Flames' season was going perfectly. Smith and our first line were great out of the gate, but our organization and ability to prevent high-quality chances was nightmarish from start to finish during the season, and there was no point where we had consistent depth scoring or a dangerous powerplay.

Even the year before there was the second half of the season where for weeks on end, the Flames played a brand of hockey where they always looked like they had things under control. I don't think that really happened for more than a game at a time last season.

I think going into a new season you try to balance out bad things that could improve vs. good things that could get worse. I don't think Gaudreau or Monahan are due to get worse, really, and there's no reason to believe Smith will suddenly nose-dive either. But all of those big issues from last year are fixable.

 

[Volica]

Yeah, but you could argue that the flames first half went perfect with vezina caliber goalie and the hottest top line in the league. In the end, 84 points seem about right for last years team.

Good goaltending, and one line was as good as it got last season.

 

[super6646]

I don't think at any point the Flames' season was going perfectly. Smith and our first line were great out of the gate, but our organization and ability to prevent high-quality chances was nightmarish from start to finish during the season, and there was no point where we had consistent depth scoring or a dangerous powerplay.

Even the year before there was the second half of the season where for weeks on end, the Flames played a brand of hockey where they always looked like they had things under control. I don't think that really happened for more than a game at a time last season.

So they weren't capable, thats different than not going perfectly. Our depth was pretty awful, and I believe Smith's injury was entirely due to being overplayed for his age. I think coaching was pretty bad, but that forward group wasn't playoff caliber.

 

[Anglesmith]

So they weren't capable, thats different than not going perfectly. Our depth was pretty awful, and I believe Smith's injury was entirely due to being overplayed for his age.

If they weren't capable last season, why were they capable the year before?

 

[Volica]

So they weren't capable, thats different than not going perfectly. Our depth was pretty awful, and I believe Smith's injury was entirely due to being overplayed for his age. I think coaching was pretty bad, but that forward group wasn't playoff caliber.

Their depth was awful, and it showed.
Their PP was awful and it cost them dearly.

That defensive group should have been good enough to at least give us a shot at the playoffs.

Having a 200 point 1st line, and a deep D is enough to get you into the show.

 

[super6646]

If they weren't capable last season, why were they capable the year before?

Better special teams and getting hot at the right moment. They were a 500 team until that 10 game win streak, and pretty much coasted along after it as well.

The fact that losing one depth player in Versteeg likely screwed our PP is pretty telling, and shows just how poor our depth was. We had no natural top 6 right handed shots, and the ones we did have in our bottom 6 were injured (Versteeg), or useless (Brouwer, Lazar, Hathaway).

 

[super6646]

Their depth was awful, and it showed.
Their PP was awful and it cost them dearly.

That defensive group should have been good enough to at least give us a shot at the playoffs.

Having a 200 point 1st line, and a deep D is enough to get you into the show.

No clue how the defensive group fell apart like that, even with slightly below average goaltending. I know advanced stats say the flames had a lot of high scoring chances, but they clearly had to be bleeding chances against too. Don't know how a 0.01SV% drop leads to 25 additional goals against us, but that defense needs to be better next year.