All Alfredsson Discussion

[WhiteLight*]

So it was Alfredsson vs MacArthur.... if Alfredsson was willing to take MacArthur money or up to about 4 or so

They couldn't afford to give Ryan and Alfredsson 5+ each. They could only afford one + 3.5 or so for the other

Makes sense




Alfredsson really is a greedy ******* though. He asked for $6M, which is well over market value. He isn't a $6M player anymore.

He got 3.5 + bonuses in Detroit. I can't believe his reason for leaving was money.

If Alfredsson had asked for the Ryan trade and 4.5 for himself, I'd bet Melnyk would have bitten the bullet.


Whatever, he isn't 2M better than MacArthur. Hope this financial crap gets resolved, don't want to lose young core players.

 

[Ohhh Franco]

So it was Alfredsson vs MacArthur.... if Alfredsson was willing to take MacArthur money or up to about 4 or so

They couldn't afford to give Ryan and Alfredsson 5+ each. They could only afford one + 3.5 or so for the other

Makes sense




Alfredsson really is a greedy ******* though. He asked for $6M, which is well over market value. He isn't a $6M player anymore.

He got 3.5 + bonuses in Detroit. I can't believe his reason for leaving was money.

If Alfredsson had asked for the Ryan trade and 4.5 for himself, I'd bet Melnyk would have bitten the bullet.


Whatever, he isn't 2M better than MacArthur. Hope this financial crap gets resolved, don't want to lose young core players.

This pretty much sums up my feelings. Also, dont forget that he's uprooted his family. I still cant get over that. Oh yeah, also, dont forget that the Ottawa Senators had some serious mojo going last year and were a real fun and intriguing team to watch. I can only imagine it was a blast to be a part of that group. Remember those amazing playoff games versus Montreal? Remember the fight night? Remember the out of the blue Pageau chant/song? Remember that amazing win over Pittsburgh in Round Two? The building was going bonkers. It felt like the team and fan base had turned the corner and had something special building. Things were coming together. And then...he bails? Come on. Brutal. That Jim Rome interview will haunt me. Hopefully it haunts him too. It was amazing at the time. He said all the right things. In that specific interview, on the biggest sports talk radio show in the world, he further solidified himself as a great leader and citizen of Ottawa. I dont think I had ever been more proud of him. Just a few short weeks later........here we are.

http://jimrome.com/2013/05/21/daniel-alfredsson/

 

[benjiv1]

I'm over it.

The team isn't broke, Melnyk is. We're not going to relocate, I doubt many other market's would perform as well at the box office as Ottawa.

Melnyk may sell, but the team isn't going anywhere. Best case scenario is that Melnyk finds someone to partner up with.

Based on the reports that have been coming out, the organization would be making a huge profit on a regular basis, if it wasn't for the debt Melnyk is still paying off from the initial purchase.

 

[WhiteLight*]

This pretty much sums up my feelings. Also, dont forget that he's uprooted his family. I still cant get over that. Oh yeah, also, dont forget that the Ottawa Senators had some serious mojo going last year and were a real fun and intriguing team to watch. I can only imagine it was a blast to be a part of that group. Remember those amazing playoff games versus Montreal? Remember the fight night? Remember the out of the blue Pageau chant/song? Remember that amazing win over Pittsburgh in Round Two? The building was going bonkers. It felt like the team and fan base had turned the corner and had something special building. Things were coming together. And then...he bails? Come on. Brutal. That Jim Rome interview will haunt me. Hopefully it haunts him too. It was amazing at the time. He said all the right things. In that specific interview, on the biggest sports talk radio show in the world, he further solidified himself as a great leader and citizen of Ottawa. I dont think I had ever been more proud of him. Just a few short weeks later........here we are.

http://jimrome.com/2013/05/21/daniel-alfredsson/

This. Last year was amazing. I'm so shocked that he bailed like that, and threw everything away.

 

[TrueGrit]

This is exactly what I assumed took place the day it happened.

 

[Flamingo]

Maybe Alfie felt too much like the veteran leader amongst a new crop. He wanted to feel like he was amongst his peers. The Pageau chants, the Pesky Sens identity from the Bingo crew, these are all young players' identities. He might have felt like the vampire Lestat, lost in the tide of new team culture.

 

[HavlatMach9]

I don't think Murray has ever been afraid to throw around money (Gonchar & Kovalev here, Fedorov in Anaheim), so he was either a hockey decision (you may have been worth $x last year, but not next year) or a budget decision.

Although Alfie gave the Sens little time to react to deal with Alfie, he made his decision early enough that we could react during free agency from day 1.

I'm sure that doesn't exactly inspire confidence among the Ottawa players in terms of their own salary demands and career progression.

It does send a message that we're focused on winning. If I was a player on the team, I would not want the team to favour certain players just because they've had a history with the team.

The budget is concerning. Imo the Sens (& rest of the entertainment) are making money so Melnyk won't be selling the team anytime soon even if he is losing money in other businesses. We'll be stuck with Melnyk (and a budget) until he really starts going poor and sells the team/building for a nice sum.

 

[benjiv1]

Maybe Alfie felt too much like the veteran leader amongst a new crop. He wanted to feel like he was amongst his peers. The Pageau chants, the Pesky Sens identity from the Bingo crew, these are all young players' identities. He might have felt like the vampire Lestat, lost in the tide of new team culture.

Nice. Love Interview with the Vampire.

I said this a little while back, for better or worst, the Bingo boys ARE the core of this team going forward.

Smith
Condra
Greening
Cowen
Lehner
Weircioch
Borowiecki (eventually)
Hoffman (see above)

Spezza, Anderson, Karlsson, Ryan, and Michalek are our stars, but the guys above will be the heart of the team going forward.

 

[Silver Seven]

I'm over it.

The team isn't broke, Melnyk is. We're not going to relocate, I doubt many other market's would perform as well at the box office as Ottawa.

Melnyk may sell, but the team isn't going anywhere. Best case scenario is that Melnyk finds someone to partner up with.

Based on the reports that have been coming out, the organization would be making a huge profit on a regular basis, if it wasn't for the debt Melnyk is still paying off from the initial purchase.

This is absolutely correct. Melynk needs a partner with deep pockets to help him keep the young core together. Perhaps someone like those Calgary oilmen that bought the Coyotes and one who is apparently interested in buying the Devils. Surely Ottawa is a more attractive place to invest in a hockey market than Phoenix or New Jersey!!!

 

[bert]

Nice. Love Interview with the Vampire.

I said this a little while back, for better or worst, the Bingo boys ARE the core of this team going forward.

Smith
Condra
Greening
Cowen
Lehner
Weircioch
Borowiecki (eventually)
Hoffman (see above)

Spezza, Anderson, Karlsson, Ryan, and Michalek are our stars, but the guys above will be the heart of the team going forward.

Your stars are your core, I agree the bingo guys are important but out of the players you named only 2 are core. I think Wiercioch has the skillset to be core the rest are interchangeable parts. I doubt Hoffman ever even plays a regular shift on this team he is the 16th forward right now with younger players coming up.

Greening could be core but only if they lock him up long term this summer.

 

[JonnyMacSen]

They were in the mix for Clarkson aswell, was he ment to be a additional signing with Alfie or a replacement?

 

[Proust*]

The alfi sympathizers on this board are a disappointment at the least. I laugh at the article above, so now Murray lied when he told he tried to convince alfi to stay because they had Ricky bobby?
The posturing here makes me want to vomit. Simple fact is alfi is a millionaire that may have got his poor ego hurt for a second and ran to the next best thing.

Good riddance oh captain my captain. Now 17 years of losing makes sense. You're welcome back next year but Spezza is this teams new captain.

Did you not read the article?? It only helps Alfie's image and hurts Melnyk's.

Alfie wanted to get paid AND have the team go for it. Who can blame him? Melnyk made it clear that they are a 50 million dollar team, which is fine and all, but you don't mess around with the face of your franchise.

Melnyk is a cheap twit who likes to talk. He's really an idiot. I imagine that his management team at Biovail kept him insulated, because whenever he says something, it is stupid.

The Sens could add 10 million in salary this year and go for the cup. Alfie wanted them to do it, because it his last year. They said they wouldn't, so he moved on. What is the big issue here?

 

[John Holmes*]

I can't take anything that Melnyk says about money seriously.

Last month he was talking about blank checks, now he had to let the supposed heart & soul / face of the franchise walk over money, and by the way, I need that Casino like yesterday or it will get worse!

 

[M4TR1X]

Maybe some of you can turn this Alfie hate into Melnyk hate.

 

[Holdurbreathe]

This is absolutely correct. Melynk needs a partner with deep pockets to help him keep the young core together. Perhaps someone like those Calgary oilmen that bought the Coyotes and one who is apparently interested in buying the Devils. Surely Ottawa is a more attractive place to invest in a hockey market than Phoenix or New Jersey!!!

I'm sure Melnyk would love to have the City of Ottawa hand him $225 million over 15 years!!!

New Jersey's problems were purely bad financial and location decisions made by the owner.

Ottawa is a good market, but only at less than average Canadian market ticket prices.

 

[WhiteLight*]

Maybe some of you can turn this Alfie hate into Melnyk hate.

I'm annoyed with him. A little mad. He's been jerking us around. But:

1-He saved the Sens

2-We don't really know what his financial situation is and what his motives are

3-Can you blame him for not wanting to lose money anymore?




On the other hand, if Alfredsson was willing to take $4M, I believe both he and Ryan would be here. Therefore I hate Alfredsson more. $4M is a fair contract.

 

[Benjamin]

So basically Alfie greedy and Melnyk is cheap.

 

[BankStreetParade]

This is absolutely correct. Melynk needs a partner with deep pockets to help him keep the young core together. Perhaps someone like those Calgary oilmen that bought the Coyotes and one who is apparently interested in buying the Devils. Surely Ottawa is a more attractive place to invest in a hockey market than Phoenix or New Jersey!!!

Melnyk needs to not destroy the pay structure of his team by overpaying old players for past performance. Oh wait...he already did that. I guess now we don't have to worry about Spezza asking for $12 million per year, because he will be twice the player that Alfredsson is this coming season.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

So basically Alfie greedy and Melnyk is cheap.

Binary scale: 0

 

[Icelevel]

It doesn't look good having the owner and gm giving opposite explanations. That should stop. Melnyk really needs to talk less or be smarter with his choice of words sometimes. Protecting his own image is priority number 1 it seems, while making our captain heart and soul guy for 17 yrs and gm look bad.
That's not good

 

[Hossa18]

Well, as much as was liking Alfie, a 41 years old foward, averaging 45pts in the last three season (and this number will probably go down), worth 3,5mil/4,5mil max(exactly around what we give to MacArthur). But even that wasn't enough, Because Alfie also wanna play for a team that won't hesitate to spend to the roof if necessary, so he can have the cup (this is the selfish part).

The truth is that we now have a better and younger team to ice this year.

Why is it selfish when there is tons of room left on the cap? If they were spending to the cap and Alfredsson was told to take a discount to keep the team together and didn't, then that would be termed as selfish. Point is, do you think guys like Spezza, and Ryan are going to want to re-sign here if we aren't willing to spend to win. Why do you think Cowen is not signed yet? If Melnyk has no money then he should sell the team. Guaranteed Ottawa would not be relocated.

 

[StefanW]

The selfish part is because Alfie is at the end of his career he wanted the team to spend lots more now, which would put our ability to sign players who enter into UFA or RFA status over the next couple of year in jeopardy. Yeah, even he agrees this is selfish. On the other hand, teams do have to pick a moment to go for it before cap issues break apart a decent core.

 

[Hossa18]

The selfish part is because Alfie is at the end of his career he wanted the team to spend lots more now, which would put our ability to sign players who enter into UFA or RFA status over the next couple of year in jeopardy. Yeah, even he agrees this is selfish. On the other hand, teams do have to pick a moment to go for it before cap issues break apart a decent core.

Yes, but don't forget that Alfredsson's money would have been off the books next year as well as possibly Michalek's and this year would have definitely been the year to make a run and Melnyk couldn't guarantee the money for that. I just hope that this hasn't affected Karlsson's thoughts on the team and where he might want to play once his contract is over with. I doubt that he likes Alfredsson's name being run through the mud.

 

[Yak]

Melnyk has become the new Rod Bryden, crying and complaining about money, specialy his latest article in the citizen.

At the end of the day is obvious that he does not have the cash to run this franchise long term properly.He is gonna be a penny pincher and it is going to hurt this team long term.The warning signs are their and will only get worse.If you look over his past interviews he is giving a lot of hints to financial issues the team has.I would not be surprised if his situation is worse then is reported.

He should have given Alfie the cash he wanted for his last year and done the Ryan trade also and not bashed a eyelash.Maybe Alfie would have still gone with the Wings but we would have tried.Instead he tried to cheap out on him at the end of his career and save a few pennies when it did not really matter.Alfie deserved that cash for years of service and all the crap he put up with here with tight wad owners.

Mylnek days are numbered in this town, he either finds a rich partner or sells the team but him being the majority owner of this team is not going to last.

 

[Canadian Time]

What is it with this fanbase that goes out of it's way to look for worst-case scenarios or subscribes to conspiracy theories?

The team is younger, better and is set up nicely for years to come with a solid prospect pool.This isn't the year to go for it or to spend money foolishly. But it absolutely is a team that is going to keep getting better and maybe surprise with a deep run. Maybe at the deadline they add another impact player.

It's going to be an exciting team to watch. As for Melnyk, he can say these things about internal caps, etc because it's not the time to spend, nor should he. As it happens, those statements just align perfectly with his attempts to get a casino. Excellent timing.

Next year and the year after when the new contracts are up for renewal is is when he'll have to spend and he knows it. If you don't think this stuff is planned years in advance than I don't know what to say.

But hey, it must be way more fun to feign outrage and stamp your feet.