The present is bright and so is the future.

[Anidalife]

Every team left "could" win the cup this year I guess, but that's really stretching the meaning. I would say the '07 team could win the cup, but probably not the '17 team. Of course I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.

And I really find it interesting that fans of every team in the world think their prospects are gonna be amazing. I'm sure the Oilers started saying that 7 years ago starting with drafting Hall. Now they finally made the playoffs for once. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Lineups on paper is almost always useless. This whole year our lineup does not look good on paper, yet we're in the second round.

 

[JD1]

Zibanejad is a young 2nd line center, and Dahlen just had one of the most impressive seasons of all-time by an U20 prospect in the Allsvenskan. They aren't superstars, but let's not pretend they aren't good players.

I spend a good amount of time comparing the futures of different teams, so I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about on this subject. As it stands right now, the Sens have an average/mediocre future compared to the rest of the league. I'd put them somewhere in the 10-20 range. If Sens management didn't trade away so much quality youth in recent years we'd easily be in the top 10, arguably top 5.

It's obvious that I have a longer-term outlook than most of this board. Winning one playoff series doesn't change the fact that Sens management has done a number on this team's present and future. I'm not about to let that slide because we beat the worst team in the playoffs in a 7 game series.

my but you have a high opinion of your opinions.

I spend a good amount of time reading these boards so I know what I am talking about and with respect to anything related to this franchise you are one of this boards more negative posters.

# realism

 

[lancepitlick]

I don't see it. Karlsson is amazing and Chabot looks great, but otherwise? Are there any real all-stars let alone all time greats?

I see a lot of good but not great forwards, some salary albatrosses (Phaneuf, Ryan), an old goalie and some middling defenseman. So a team that makes the playoffs, nothing more, and probably doesn't even do that well in 5 years time due to short term mentality.

 

[Real Smart Sens Fan]

I swear if we waste one more year of Karlsson's prime...time to win is now.

So we've wasted Karlsson's prime this year?

 

[aragorn]

I don't see it. Karlsson is amazing and Chabot looks great, but otherwise? Are there any real all-stars let alone all time greats?

I see a lot of good but not great forwards, some salary albatrosses (Phaneuf, Ryan), an old goalie and some middling defenseman. So a team that makes the playoffs, nothing more, and probably doesn't even do that well in 5 years time due to short term mentality.

I disagree as I usually do. Ottawa has a few goaltenders that could turn into decent NHL goalies but Hogberg IMO has the most potential to be a #1 goalie in the NHL we will see next season in Bellville how he does & I haven't quite given up on MOC yet either.

On defence, Ottawa has a young superstar in the making in Thomas Chabot with at least two others who could turn out to be very good defencemen in Ben Harpur who is playing now in the playoffs as well as Andreas Englund who could be a Methot type of defenceman. Frederick Claesson is also playing defence in the playoffs & has already shown to be a decent NHL defenceman & should only get better & Christian Jaros is a player who I think can also be a good NHL defenceman, we'll see if he comes over to play in Bellville next season.

At forward, Ottawa has a prospect in Logan Brown who has top line potential & whether he reaches it or not remains to be seen. Colin White has 2nd line centre potential & has shown he could be a Turris clone, so I expect him to be a good pro. Filip Chlapik has had a great junior season & I expect him to have a good yr in Bellville next season. I also think Nick Paul will turn into a very good bottom six player for Ottawa & Perron could turn into a goal scoring winger, who knows. They also have a couple of projects at forward & who knows how they will turn out in Gagné, Ahl, Nurmi & Burgess.

I assume they should also draft two good forwards in this yr's draft in the first & 2nd rds. If nothing else they can also turn some of their assets into NHL players at the trade deadline or pick up a player or two through free agency. This team is in great shape & can continue to add where necessary through the draft or through trades or signings. You don't need a team of superstars as long as you have a lot of good players that play well together, play their system effectively & play hard for each other as this team is doing now with only one superstar on it.

 

[Samsquanch]

Yeah...the future is so damn bleak. If only we could surround Karlsson with a solid, deep lineup full of guys who want to win for our 4th or 5th best prospect and a 3rd round pick. Should have never traded our top pick from the 2011 draft either, because clearly there's no one else that we took in that same draft that can fill the void he will leave in the next coming years...

Life is rough for us Sens fans.

 

[playasRus]

To get:

Brassard, Ryan, Phaneuf, Burrows, Stalberg, Condon, Wingels

...Sens management gave up:

Zibanejad, Silfverberg, Ritchie, Noesen, Dahlen, Lindberg, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 5th (+ 20M in cap space)

That's a heck of a lot more than one prospect.

Ritchie was a late 1st. Typically, draft picks take quite a while to develop, and probably wouldn't contribute until after Karlsson is past his prime in his 30s. so we essentially traded Zibanejad, Silfverberg, Noesen, Dahlen, Lindberg and post-Karlsson era futures.

Zibanejad was a sideways trade for a playoff vet
Noesen was a wash
Lindberg doesn't seem to be anything that would help this team right now over Phaneuf
Dahlen is a possible future gem again end of Karlsson era most likely

Silfverberg for Ryan right now (which includes that Ritchie pick) is the only one I may want back...but Ryan is basically 1/3 of why we made it through round 1.

I'd be open in trading Turris/Brassard, Brown/White, 1st, 2nd, and a D prospect not named Chabot and whatever sweetener for Tavares. People look at his playoff record, but forget he has almost no supporting cast (see: Karlsson's and Phaneufs lack of past success) and **** management. Put a good cast together and all of a sudden, you have a team that can do damage. Tavares for 6-7 years with EK, Andy, Phaneuf, Turris, Stone, Hoffman, Brassard, Pageau is a constant playoff team that can do damage. Be hard to swallow losing Turris, but I imagine he's going to get a pay raise close to Tavares' anyways as he's a 1C, but Tavares is to me a franchise clear cut 1C.

 

[saskriders]

Not making those trades and using the 20M in cap space in free agency would have made us more of a contender than we are now:

Hoffman - Zibanejad - Stone
MacArthur - Turris - Silfverberg
Smith - Pageau - ??????
Ritchie - White - Dzingel
Pyatt, Noesen

Methot - Karlsson
??????? - Ceci
Harpur - Wideman
Claesson, Borowiecki

Anderson
??????

Roughly 23M in cap space to fill the holes.

And I'm not of the belief that trading almost all of Karlsson's countrymen contributes positively to the likelihood he stays here long-term. Would have preferred to keep guys like Zib, Silf, Dahlen, even Lehner, and create a Swedish stable like in Detroit and Nashville.

That is a massive hole on defense, not to mention much worse depth.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

That is a massive hole on defense, not to mention much worse depth.

And betting on free agency to be the difference maker is laughable.

Especially when the contract everybody hates is the one big UFA contract we have: Bobby Ryan.

But reality is not a currency those people deal in.

 

[WadeRedden]

I absolutely think the Sens could win a cup this year if Andy can maintain his A game. As fans, we rip on our D a lot but if you look at the other teams left most of them have mediocre D corps as well. Anaheim is the only team with a legitimately impressive group, and their best player (Fowler) is out for the rest of the PO's.

 

[JD1]

And betting on free agency to be the difference maker is laughable.

Especially when the contract everybody hates is the one big UFA contract we have: Bobby Ryan.

But reality is not a currency those people deal in.

but but but those people spend a good amount of time studying the future of other teams. that's gotta be good for something no?

 

[Stylizer1]

Draisaitl is exactly the type of centre we need. Would love him on this team.

Too bad management didn't package Lazar to try and get Draisaitl When Lazar was still a hot commodity in the beginning.

 

[Hutz]

Wow... we're up 2-0 in round 2 and discussing why our team sucks and how badly management screwed up to get us into this position. Can we not just enjoy this for now? Honestly, some of you must get no joy out of life at all.

 

[BondraTime]

Too bad management didn't package Lazar to try and get Draisaitl When Lazar was still a hot commodity in the beginning.

And too bad the Oilers weren't run by a 4th grade kid who wouldn't understand anything, as your suggestion clearly relies on.

 

[Sensinitis]

I absolutely think the Sens could win a cup this year if Andy can maintain his A game. As fans, we rip on our D a lot but if you look at the other teams left most of them have mediocre D corps as well. Anaheim is the only team with a legitimately impressive group, and their best player (Fowler) is out for the rest of the PO's.

Um, Nashville?

They probably have the best top 4 in the league.

And too bad the Oilers weren't run by a 4th grade kid who wouldn't understand anything, as your suggestion clearly relies on.

 

[Samsquanch]

Wow... we're up 2-0 in round 2 and discussing why our team sucks and how badly management screwed up to get us into this position.

Yup...yup we are...sad, I know.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

So we've wasted Karlsson's prime this year?

Pretty sure he meant for us not to regress off this year but rather build on it.

 

[Hale The Villain]

And betting on free agency to be the difference maker is laughable.

Especially when the contract everybody hates is the one big UFA contract we have: Bobby Ryan.

But reality is not a currency those people deal in.

Because of terrible cap management we haven't had the money to be able to attract free agents to Ottawa. 23 MILLION in cap space would garner a good player or two on July 1st. Pretending otherwise is asinine. If we wanted to we could have DOUBLED the salaries of Vanek (2.6M), Vermette (1.75M), Stalberg (1.5M), Marchessault (0.75M), and Seidenberg (1M), and still had a ton of cap space left over.

And Ryan's contract wasn't through free agency, it was a re-signing. Might as well have been a UFA given how much Murray gave him though.

That is a massive hole on defense, not to mention much worse depth.

Like I said, we'd have 23 MILLION in cap space to fill in those holes. Nothing would have stopped us from making the Phaneuf trade again. Hell we probably could have saved Lindberg and/or the 2017 2nd, cause we wouldn't have had to dump Michalek and Greening with the ridiculous cap space we'd have.

You know what 23M in cap space on July 1st, 2016 gets you?

Okposo (6M)
Staal (3.5M)
Russell (3.1M)
Vanek (2.6M)
Vermette (1.75M)
Grabner (1.65M)
Stalberg (1.5M)
Seidenberg (1M)
Eaves (1M)
Marchessault (0.75M)

Now that's some depth.

Obviously we don't need 8 more good forwards and 2 more good defensemen, and obviously we could not sign a lot of these guys at the salaries they went for, as we'd have to up their salaries to convince them to come to Ottawa, but it does illustrate that having cap space come free agency is a valuable asset.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Too bad management didn't package Lazar to try and get Draisaitl When Lazar was still a hot commodity in the beginning.

At the time I thought a package of Lehner, Lazar, and the 18th overall pick would have gotten them thinking about moving Draisaitl, but there's no way of knowing for sure.

After watching Turris get physically dominated all over the ice, damn it would be nice to have a big #1 center right about now.

 

[tony d]

I really like our team and am enjoying this run we're having this spring. That said this summer let's go all in and acquire the players we need to become a Cup contender for 2017-2018. Anderson's 36 so the time to win is now.

 

[Hale The Villain]

I really like our team and am enjoying this run we're having this spring. That said this summer let's go all in and acquire the players we need to become a Cup contender for 2017-2018. Anderson's 36 so the time to win is now.

Frankly I question whether Anderson is a good enough goalie at 35 to backstop this team to a cup. Can't imagine he'll be better as he ages.

Best move in free agency for this team's present and future might be to go all in on a true #1 goaltender like Bishop.

Not sure he'd want to come back to a team that traded him though.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

Very happy with the Senators season, they've played a very great season. Even if they lose to the Rangers, I still won't be mad, they played way above everyone's expectations going into the season.

 

[Back in Black]

I disagree as I usually do.

Agreed!!

Wow... we're up 2-0 in round 2 and discussing why our team sucks and how badly management screwed up to get us into this position. Can we not just enjoy this for now? Honestly, some of you must get no joy out of life at all.

Agreed!

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Very happy with the Senators season, they've played a very great season. Even if they lose to the Rangers, I still won't be mad, they played way above everyone's expectations going into the season.

True and also not true if you think about it.

Last year was an abysmal year on almost all fronts. We regressed a lot. We can't use that as the year to evaluate our progression for this year. I think a better indication is 2014-2015. We made the playoffs and almost cameback down 3-0 against the Habs. This year, we won first round and could even win second round.

Next year.... we must try to be contenders. AT WORST we have to make (and possibly win) 2nd round again. Karlsson is 27 now. His time is now. We are done being bubble playoff material, we have to be legit playoff team on the verge of contender status.

Chabot and White will be enormous adds for next year (whether its from September or January) and if we add one more top line player then, IMO, we can contend from the East. IMO, at worst, we will be adding legit top 4 and top 9 threats to the existing roster. That's big depth boost.

 

[SixthSens]

I would give up A LOT to get Draisaitl in a Sens uniform, unfortunately I don't see Edmonton parting with him. Drai would be a beast of a number one centre here.