Ottawa Senators Team Toughness

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Swagger. This team needs an attitude adjustment. Play hard, skate hard, finish your checks, and get your nose dirty.

Problem I see, is guys like Smith and Pageau got their 'big' contracts, and now they think they don't have to hustle anymore. They need to get back to the style that gave them an NHL career.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The fall of the Roman empire is viewed by many as the beginning of the Dark ages
Is it a coincidence that happened when we went from

to

I like the O but to me it looks an awful lot like a zero

This team needs a lot .. some toughness is good. Look at the Jets and the Lightning and the Preds ,, we are years and a very good architect away,

 

[aragorn]

The fall of the Roman empire is viewed by many as the beginning of the Dark ages
Is it a coincidence that happened when we went from

to

I like the O but to me it looks an awful lot like a zero

This team needs a lot .. some toughness is good. Look at the Jets and the Lightning and the Preds ,, we are years and a very good architect away,

I disliked that "ZERO" logo from day 1 & at the arena it looks a lot like the Carolina Hurricane logo at centre ice. They should go back to the Senator logo, it's unique & fitting to Ottawa. They seem to have a number of very good prospects who bring a lot of the elements we think this team needs but how long it takes for these prospects to be on the roster & then start to make a difference could take a few yrs. And I expect they should get two more good prospects at this draft & I expect them to make another big trade that should also bring in a good prospect or two. They need to continue to remove the "old" & insert the "new", if just for our entertainment.

The Jets have a lot of size, toughness, speed & skill on that roster, while I doubt they win it all although I hope so, the Preds experience could be the difference. Ottawa should look to build their team similar to the Jets. I'm picking Jets to win it all anyway.

 

[SensEnforcer]

We need to be tougher, I hope we draft brady if we land 4th because thats what the team needs, I ain't gonna lie I'm biased because I love tough hockey but a player Simmonds is exactly who we should target

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Maybe I am not being honest in my evaluation of him but Rick Nash has been painfully mediocre so far in the playoffs.

Everytime I see him on the ice I am dumb-founded as to how a competent group like the Bruins' management could give up so much for so little.

I guess extra depth is always nice, can't deny that. But he looks as disengaged as I ever seen Rick Nash be disengaged, which means he looks like he don't give any kind of ****.

To steal from a posters quote on another board Rick Nash’s tombstone will read “He played really well he should have had more goals” that’s always the defense of him.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Brent Burns isn't tough at all. That's been a big knock on him for awhile. Simmonds was a total no show in the playoffs for the Flyers against one of the least tough teams by your standard in the NHL that are looking for a 3peat. Tiny Vegas absolutely man handled the big tough LA Kings.

Guys like Marchand and Neal I would value for their skill. IMO when they are "tough" they're a huge detriment to their teams. They fly off the handle take horrible penalties and get suspended for cheap shots. They're much better when they're focused on scoring and not hurting the opposition.

I just want good hockey players who play with speed and skill. How hard they hit or chirp is so far down the list of my priorities when looking for players.

Like I said, the way the Sens have prioritized this idea of toughness and size is a huge reason why they are where they are. We've been trying to build a roster for the early 90s while the rest of the league movies ahead. If they continue to do so, we're going to be in basement for a long long time.

I want size speed and skill. I want it all! Even if the Jets don’t win the cup I love how that team is built. NHL is a copycat league let’s try to somehow copycat that.

 

[WadeRedden]

He will cost way, way too much based on his name, but Rick Nash would be a great addition. He's a perfect middle-6 winger. Good for 25 goals and 45 pts per 82 and a very good defensive player. Not physical but big and fast. Too bad he will likely get a contract similar to Marleau's.

Rick Nash hasn't hit the 40 point plateau in three years, and he's had trouble staying healthy lately. He's also notoriously absent in the playoffs every year. I'd love him for a year but I wouldn't commit more than two years to him. I really think he'll be out of the league by the 2020 season, which would still be a great career for him. He'll probably get an Eric Staal type of deal from someone.

 

[Cosmix]

Rick Nash hasn't hit the 40 point plateau in three years, and he's had trouble staying healthy lately. He's also notoriously absent in the playoffs every year. I'd love him for a year but I wouldn't commit more than two years to him. I really think he'll be out of the league by the 2020 season, which would still be a great career for him. He'll probably get an Eric Staal type of deal from someone.

Nash is not the type of player that the Senators need as he is an expensive UFA. Simmonds is the same.

This team needs more top draft picks, young prospects and good players on Lower cost ELCs.

Unfortunately our GM traded several of our top picks away. He also signed over-the-hill vets like Thompson, Burrows and AHL level players.

We need more toughness in our top 6 forwards and top 4 defensemen. Just Watch the Jet games and see what the Senators are missing.

For our first round pick, we need to focus on skill players who can score, make other players better (playmaking and passing skills), and if possible be tough to play against.

 

[WadeRedden]

Nash is not the type of player that the Senators need as he is an expensive UFA. Simmonds is the same.

This team needs more top draft picks, young prospects and good players on Lower cost ELCs.

Unfortunately our GM traded several of our top picks away. He also signed over-the-hill vets like Thompson, Burrows and AHL level players.

We need more toughness in our top 6 forwards and top 4 defensemen. Just Watch the Jet games and see what the Senators are missing.

For our first round pick, we need to focus on skill players who can score, make other players better (playmaking and passing skills), and if possible be tough to play against.

Indeed, our team needs more draft picks. But, if Nash were to come to Ottawa it'd be as a UFA so it's not like it would cost us draft capital to acquire him. But frankly, I wouldn't want him anyway since he's a shadow of his former self.

As for your comment about the Jets and toughness: I guess it all depends on what you mean by toughness. Do you mean guys who physically intimidate the opponent? Or guys who are extraordinarily competitive? Because with Winnipeg, I see mostly the latter.

 

[JD1]

Swagger. This team needs an attitude adjustment. Play hard, skate hard, finish your checks, and get your nose dirty.

Problem I see, is guys like Smith and Pageau got their 'big' contracts, and now they think they don't have to hustle anymore. They need to get back to the style that gave them an NHL career.

Smith definitely

Pageau I am a bit inclined to give a pass and call it an off year and hope for a bounce back

 

[Micklebot]

The fall of the Roman empire is viewed by many as the beginning of the Dark ages
Is it a coincidence that happened when we went from

to

I like the O but to me it looks an awful lot like a zero

This team needs a lot .. some toughness is good. Look at the Jets and the Lightning and the Preds ,, we are years and a very good architect away,

Wasn't that 3d logo introduced in 2007-08 season, which some might say was the beginning of the team's downfall.

Certainly though, we need a tougher logo.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Wasn't that 3d logo introduced in 2007-08 season, which some might say was the beginning of the team's downfall.

Certainly though, we need a tougher logo.

I'm no logo expert, but if you think it will work, who am I to argue.

 

[Sun God Nika]

2d centurion is the best logo

 

[Zorf]

Personally, I think toughness is fading out of the NHL in favour of speed and skill. Look at what to skill teams in Vegas and San Jose did to two defensively minded tough teams in LA and Anaheim? It was a joke.

That being said, what I really want is this team to develop an identity. I don't see one right now and it bothers me. What are the Sens? A defensive team? A feisty team? A speedy team? A tough team? What are they?

In my mind, the core of the team should dictate what the team identity is, and then the GM should build around that to maximize the talents. With what should be a core of EK, Chabot, Duchene, Stone and Hoffman for at least the next 5 years, that just screams speed and skill. So surround them with speed, skill and possession players.

Sadly though, I fear that this team's identity is Budget Team, and we'll lose a few of those core players over the course of this summer.

f*** you Melnyk.

 

[aragorn]

Personally, I think toughness is fading out of the NHL in favour of speed and skill. Look at what to skill teams in Vegas and San Jose did to two defensively minded tough teams in LA and Anaheim? It was a joke.

That being said, what I really want is this team to develop an identity. I don't see one right now and it bothers me. What are the Sens? A defensive team? A feisty team? A speedy team? A tough team? What are they?

In my mind, the core of the team should dictate what the team identity is, and then the GM should build around that to maximize the talents. With what should be a core of EK, Chabot, Duchene, Stone and Hoffman for at least the next 5 years, that just screams speed and skill. So surround them with speed, skill and possession players. The Jets IMO are the team to emulate these days.

Sadly though, I fear that this team's identity is Budget Team, and we'll lose a few of those core players over the course of this summer.

**** you Melnyk.

Ann & LA are two teams getting very long in the tooth & should be rebuilding very soon. But we can also have skill & speed in a bigger body with some added toughness. Brady Tkachuk is an example of a prospect who has everything Ottawa could use in a player on their roster. Formenton & Batherson have good size, speed & skill & Ottawa could use more players like that & less perimeter players who are so soft. Hopefully they can have a little bit of everything they need but they clearly have a lot of holes to fill in their lineup.

 

[Icelevel]

Physical intimidation. We have none

 

[Sensung]

Brady Tkachuk would be a great pick in the 10 -15 range. Can't waste a top 5 pick on a player with that limited a skill set just to add toughness.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Brady Tkachuk would be a great pick in the 10 -15 range. Can't waste a top 5 pick on a player with that limited a skill set just to add toughness.

How is his skill set limited in your mind?

Lets say someone has limited viewings of a player .. a couple of games maybe when they were paying attention, but not to that player particularly.. Then a bunch of hip vocal posters say ,,, glorified grinder, the next Virtanen etc., I want someone with more skill in a top 5 pick and that someone makes up their mind that the player is not worthy of a top 5 pick and should go lower even though their familiarity with the players that would go in front of him is pretty scant.

Even if I did not pay any attention to these players at all and just had a cursory interest in prospects, I would regard what some hf posters basing their likes and dislikes on varying degrees of emotion and knowledge as having close to zero bearing compared to what NHL scouts think and also what real professional scouting people think and what people that are paid to watch and evaluate these players think. These guys watch hundreds of games and have some expertise in evaluating players.

Bob MacKenzie's January draft list , where he polled 10 NHL scouts to formulate a ranking had Tkachuk at #4. Incidently not one scout out of the 10 surveyed had Tkachuk out of the top 5. Craig Button had Tkachuk #2 in his March Rankings and the NHL Central Scouting had Tkachuk #2 in their final end of year rankings for NA skaters. So I am going follow my advice above and refer to these sources for what I believe is a more legitimate source from which to base my uneducated opinion... If you have better reasons to rank Tkachuk 10-15 I'd like to hear them.

 

[JungleBeat]

Team toughness is not an issue.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Team toughness is not an issue.

Team toughness is a huge issue.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Jordan Nolan
Matt Hendricks
Jared Boll
Lance Bouma
Ryan Reaves


Any interest in any of these guys? They are all free agents this summer.

 

[JungleBeat]

Team toughness is a huge issue.

How so

 

[saskriders]

Jordan Nolan
Matt Hendricks
Jared Boll
Lance Bouma
Ryan Reaves


Any interest in any of these guys? They are all free agents this summer.

I liked Bouma as a Flame. Not sure how good he was in Chicago though.

 

[JD1]

Personally, I think toughness is fading out of the NHL in favour of speed and skill. Look at what to skill teams in Vegas and San Jose did to two defensively minded tough teams in LA and Anaheim? It was a joke.

That being said, what I really want is this team to develop an identity. I don't see one right now and it bothers me. What are the Sens? A defensive team? A feisty team? A speedy team? A tough team? What are they?

In my mind, the core of the team should dictate what the team identity is, and then the GM should build around that to maximize the talents. With what should be a core of EK, Chabot, Duchene, Stone and Hoffman for at least the next 5 years, that just screams speed and skill. So surround them with speed, skill and possession players.

Sadly though, I fear that this team's identity is Budget Team, and we'll lose a few of those core players over the course of this summer.

**** you Melnyk.

I think the 3 of them will be signed this summer but Hoffman will be gone as part of the youth movement

 

[Sensung]

How is his skill set limited in your mind?

Lets say someone has limited viewings of a player .. a couple of games maybe when they were paying attention, but not to that player particularly.. Then a bunch of hip vocal posters say ,,, glorified grinder, the next Virtanen etc., I want someone with more skill in a top 5 pick and that someone makes up their mind that the player is not worthy of a top 5 pick and should go lower even though their familiarity with the players that would go in front of him is pretty scant.

Even if I did not pay any attention to these players at all and just had a cursory interest in prospects, I would regard what some hf posters basing their likes and dislikes on varying degrees of emotion and knowledge as having close to zero bearing compared to what NHL scouts think and also what real professional scouting people think and what people that are paid to watch and evaluate these players think. These guys watch hundreds of games and have some expertise in evaluating players.

Bob MacKenzie's January draft list , where he polled 10 NHL scouts to formulate a ranking had Tkachuk at #4. Incidently not one scout out of the 10 surveyed had Tkachuk out of the top 5. Craig Button had Tkachuk #2 in his March Rankings and the NHL Central Scouting had Tkachuk #2 in their final end of year rankings for NA skaters. So I am going follow my advice above and refer to these sources for what I believe is a more legitimate source from which to base my uneducated opinion... If you have better reasons to rank Tkachuk 10-15 I'd like to hear them.

Zero ELITE level skills.
Great overall pavkage of skills, but no one area where he will be able to use to dominate. You want dominate with a top 5 pick.