An Offseason in Review

[Bob Kudelski]

Favourite decision - trading Spezza for a decent return. I like the package they were able to get in return for a UFA injury prone player that wanted out.

Least favourite - not picking up a top 4 D.

 

[BankStreetParade]

I don't see any good for the present and future of this franchise.

They traded Spezza for a bunch of crap... prospects/picks who have a small chance of becoming average players if everything breaks right.

Otherwise, we locked up a bunch of average players... thus ensuring the long term mediocrity of this team.

We have 1 franchise player and no avenue to acquire others unless this team tanks bad this season. Not that our owner would spend money on franchise players if we were lucky enough to acquire one.

LOL @ this **** man. Wow. The sky is burning with the fire of 1000 suns while falling around you, apparently.

 

[Flamingo]

LOL @ this **** man. Wow. The sky is burning with the fire of 1000 suns while falling around you, apparently.

trent has definitely soured on this team over the past 18 months.

 

[trentmccleary]

trent has definitely soured on this team over the past 18 months.

Before the Senators existed and early into the franchise, I was a Blackhawks fan. I watched Dollar Bill Wirtz cut the payroll down to nothing, trade away my favorite players for cheap garbage in return, remove all hope that the team would ever be good again and drive fans away in droves.

What I see when I visit here now is people celebrating the same sorts of deals that destroyed the Hawks for a decade.

 

[Micklebot]

I don't see any good for the present and future of this franchise.

They traded Spezza for a bunch of crap... prospects/picks who have a small chance of becoming average players if everything breaks right.

Otherwise, we locked up a bunch of average players... thus ensuring the long term mediocrity of this team.

We have 1 franchise player and no avenue to acquire others unless this team tanks bad this season. Not that our owner would spend money on franchise players if we were lucky enough to acquire one.

Franchise players don't have to come from top 5 picks; See Karlsson, Alfredsson, Hossa, Weber, Subban, Bergeron, Chara, St.Louis, Lunqvist, McDonaugh, Getzlaf, Perry, Keith, Green (pre-injury), Letang (good health assumed), Datzyuk, Zetterberg, Kopitar, Rask..

It's certainly easier to get a top player with a top pick, but despite the odds, very good players come outside top picks too. Looking solely at Ottawa, we've had Alfredsson, Hossa, Yashin, Spezza, Chara, Karlsson, and arguably Redden and Demitra that could be termed as franchise level players, only Yashin, Spezza and Redden coming from picks inside the top 10. 6 top 3 picks and 2 of them become franchise (3 if you count Redden)

If you're going to tank, this is the year to do it, but as a rule, I'm not a fan. I get much gretter joy out of unearthing a gem (Alfredsson, Karlsson) that being gifted a sure thing (Crosby, Stamkos). I'd rather build a contender like St.Louis did (few high picks) even if it hasn't culminated in a cup yet.

 

[exv91]

My favourite move of this off season was the dumping of Spezza.

My least favourite move is Melnyk’s lack of response - Legwand can't be considered an adequate filler.

This season will be the true test of Melnyk’s “cheap market /cheap salary” philosophy. I really hope Eugene is a genius owner/gem in the making.

 

[BonkTastic]

I don't blame Trent, honestly.

I don't think we're as bad as the Dollar Bill Blackhawks, but we're far closer to them in spirit than I think a lot here would care to admit.

 

[Sensinitis]

Whats the point of spending when some of our core young players like Lehner, Zibanejad, Cowen, Stone, etc are still too young and inexperienced for us to really compete?

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I don't blame Trent, honestly.

I don't think we're as bad as the Dollar Bill Blackhawks, but we're far closer to them in spirit than I think a lot here would care to admit.

Until Melnyk blacks out Sens games that aren't sold out, we're not even close to Wirtz IMO.

 

[Tuna99]

Favorite decision was sticking with Coach Mac - I know this seems like a no brainer but he seemed to be on thin ice at the season end with some of the comments going around

Least Favorite would be how they have singled out Methot - doesn't seem to have done any good and at some point I just want to go a full off season without this team stepping on a potential land mine. Murray talks all the time about doing things right and this is something he and Dorion totally screwed up

 

[StefanW]

Until Melnyk blacks out Sens games that aren't sold out, we're not even close to Wirtz IMO.

I think blackouts for regional games are really a thing of the past. It is easy to stream things in now. Plus television deals make local games a part of the sports packages they sell to fans.

Speaking of which, add "not increasing payroll even though big television deal kicked in" to my list of gripes for this offseason.

 

[trentmccleary]

Franchise players don't have to come from top 5 picks; See Karlsson, Alfredsson, Hossa, Weber, Subban, Bergeron, Chara, St.Louis, Lunqvist, McDonaugh, Getzlaf, Perry, Keith, Green (pre-injury), Letang (good health assumed), Datzyuk, Zetterberg, Kopitar, Rask..

It's certainly easier to get a top player with a top pick, but despite the odds, very good players come outside top picks too. Looking solely at Ottawa, we've had Alfredsson, Hossa, Yashin, Spezza, Chara, Karlsson, and arguably Redden and Demitra that could be termed as franchise level players, only Yashin, Spezza and Redden coming from picks inside the top 10. 6 top 3 picks and 2 of them become franchise (3 if you count Redden)

If you're going to tank, this is the year to do it, but as a rule, I'm not a fan. I get much gretter joy out of unearthing a gem (Alfredsson, Karlsson) that being gifted a sure thing (Crosby, Stamkos). I'd rather build a contender like St.Louis did (few high picks) even if it hasn't culminated in a cup yet.

One forward drafted by the organization in the past 13 years who has cracked the 40 point mark (Nick Foligno... once).

Actually, if we're really honest with ourselves; our team has spent the past 13 years drafting depth players at best.

1st Line = N/A
2nd Line = Foligno

1st Pairing = Karlsson
2nd Pairing = Meszaros

Nobody else has proven enough to be labelled in those spots and it's not like these players have been consistently at those levels throughout their careers either.

I don't blame Trent, honestly.

I don't think we're as bad as the Dollar Bill Blackhawks, but we're far closer to them in spirit than I think a lot here would care to admit.

This team's revenue should be somewhere between 10th-15th in the league based primarily on attendance and ticket prices (as well as other benefits this team has over others).

Why is the payroll in the bottom 4 between tankers like Buffalo and Calgary?

Whats the point of spending when some of our core young players like Lehner, Zibanejad, Cowen, Stone, etc are still too young and inexperienced for us to really compete?

You spend precisely if you expect those players to break out. You spend so that you can benefit from their low cap hits in the early years of their career. If the salary cap is $70M, you want your team to give you better value than $70M by having breakout youngsters. E.Staal, Getzlaf/Perry, Malkin/J.Staal, Toews/Kane... all were on ELC's during their first Cup wins.

Until Melnyk blacks out Sens games that aren't sold out, we're not even close to Wirtz IMO.

That's nothing compared to watching the horrific dismantling of your team. Roenick, Chelios and Belfour traded for Zhamnov, Eriksson and Terreri. The prospects? ... Ty Jones, Craig Mills, Michal Sykora, Steve McCarthy, Adam Munro. Three of them were 1st rounders and they wound up amounting to a whole lot of nothing.

 

[StefanW]

That's nothing compared to watching the horrific dismantling of your team. Roenick, Chelios and Belfour traded for Zhamnov, Eriksson and Terreri. The prospects? ... Ty Jones, Craig Mills, Michal Sykora, Steve McCarthy, Adam Munro. Three of them were 1st rounders and they wound up amounting to a whole lot of nothing.

This is my biggest fear for the franchise, to be honest. There is nothing worse that essentially being a farm team for the serious teams in the league.

This summer we had 5 big UFAs. My guess about 6 months ago was the team could afford three and still keep the team's near budget floor status intact.

So far:
Spezza: gone via trade (2 ELCs and a 2nd round pick)
MacArthur: signed to a great deal
Anderson: signed
Methot: unsigned, rumors swirling about a possible trade
Ryan: unsigned.

We'll see how it all plays out, and what happens during the season.

 

[M4TR1X]

Good:
Signing MacArthur, Lehner, Anderson, and Legwand.

Bad:
Spezza return,
Not being able to lock up Methot or Ryan, yet,
No change to the defense,
(Having Eugene Melnyk as owner.)

Not good but not bad:
Signing Michalek.

 

[aragorn]

Before the Senators existed and early into the franchise, I was a Blackhawks fan. I watched Dollar Bill Wirtz cut the payroll down to nothing, trade away my favorite players for cheap garbage in return, remove all hope that the team would ever be good again and drive fans away in droves.

What I see when I visit here now is people celebrating the same sorts of deals that destroyed the Hawks for a decade.

I liked the Blackhawks too, Al Secord was one of my favourite players.

I'm not sure what can be expected. First, Ottawa had a pretty good team for a decade & because of that they consistently were picking 15th or higher. They have gotten lucky under BM at the draft with some picks in Karlsson, Ceci, Stone & hopefully Zibanejad. I believe they also have more drafted players in the lineup than any other team. While they don't have that ELITE player they have signed or traded for some players that are pretty good like Turris, MacArthur, Michalek, Ryan, Legwand & Methot. Let's not forget they are competing against 29 other teams who are also hunting for the best players.

It's a process & when you are dealing with people you never know what can happen. Muckler hurt this organization by drafting all those Russians that never came over to play in NA & making some lousy trades like Laich for Bondra. Yashin hurt this team with his demands, Daigle, Chara, Heatley, JM & others also hurt the team one way or another. They had their own ideas which didn't always turn out in Ottawa's favour. C'est la vie. It's a game, entertainment, I've tried not to take it too seriously, there are much bigger issues on this planet.

But I like Ottawa's team right now, they are big, they are tough, they are fast & hopefully will be a good two way defensively responsible team that will also put up some numbers. I don't miss Spezza at all & think they will be a better team without him quite frankly. I think they will score by committee. In fact, if BM could add one more top 6 forward (I like Stewart) they would have 6 forwards (MacAthur, Turris, Ryan, Legwand, Michalek & Stewart) who have scored 50 pts before in the NHL & 3 forwards with 50 pt potential in Zbanejad, Chiasson & Stone although I don't think it will be this yr. Their defence is young but big & has some potential but could & should be an area that can be improved. Goaltending needs to be better & it was two yrs ago, it needs to get back to that. The problem with sports is that **** happens from yr to yr, injuries occur & you never know what you'll get in any given yr,it's the nature of the beast. There are so many factors, from what management does, to injuries, to trades to drafting, to coaching, to bad calls, to softmore slumps, to schedule ... the list of excuses is endless. Until more generational players like Toews or Crosby fall into our lap, we have to do with what we have but we don't quit & we never give up.

 

[Micklebot]

One forward drafted by the organization in the past 13 years who has cracked the 40 point mark (Nick Foligno... once).

Actually, if we're really honest with ourselves; our team has spent the past 13 years drafting depth players at best.

1st Line = N/A
2nd Line = Foligno

1st Pairing = Karlsson
2nd Pairing = Meszaros

Nobody else has proven enough to be labelled in those spots and it's not like these players have been consistently at those levels throughout their careers either.

So your point is Muckler sucked at drafting and Murrays picks are just getting enough experience to potential transition from depth players to top 6 Fwd / top 4 D?

At the end of the day, our recent drafting netted us the assets to acquire Ryan, and we have a couple roster players looking ready to step into those roles right now in Zibanejad and Stone. Cowen and Wiercioch may or may not pan out, but they certainly still have the potential, and Lazar looks to be a real gem by all accounts.

The franchise might not be in the best shape, but its far from Bill Wirtz territory.

 

[BonkTastic]

Until Melnyk blacks out Sens games that aren't sold out, we're not even close to Wirtz IMO.

My point specifically is that we're closer to Bill Wirtz than we are to Rocky Wirtz. That doesn't mean that we're in the same ballpark, but we live closer to that ballpark than some might want to acknowledge. We might not be within walking distance, but it's not a very long cab ride.


Here, I made a quick graph in MSPaint:

I specifically went out of my way to say that we aren't as bad as the Dollar Bill era. We have far better management at the hockey-ops level than the Blackhawks did at that time, for instance.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Yeah I don't disagree but that graph, has it ever been different on that scale for our entire existence? Maybe for two years under Melnyk it was, but for the most part that's where we lie and have always lied.

Nothing new as a Sens fan.

 

[BonkTastic]

Yeah I don't disagree but that graph, has it ever been different on that scale for our entire existence? Maybe for two years under Melnyk it was, but for the most part that's where we lie and have always lied.

Nothing new as a Sens fan.

I think we're getting closer to the "Bill" end of that graph for exactly the reason you suggest: we are roughly where we've always been... despite the cap ceiling going up by a whopping $19mil since 2008. I'd say we were a lot closer to the "Rocky" end of it for a while, when the post-lockout CBA artificially kept the cap ceiling low and created a hell of a lot of economic parity.

We're never going to be as actively miserly as Bill Wirtz was, but most of the rest of the league is starting to outspend us at an exponential rate, not logarithmical one... and even then, it's not an issue of us spending less. We're spending roughly the same as we ever have been. It's just that now, most of everyone else are spending 15-20% more.

I'm just saying: if you grew up a Blackhawks fan, I can totally see why you might be getting some PTSD flashbacks with the rate at which we are falling behind the rest of the league on a budgetary basis.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

I don't blame Trent, honestly.

I don't think we're as bad as the Dollar Bill Blackhawks, but we're far closer to them in spirit than I think a lot here would care to admit.

Can't argue with that. THe Spezza trade hurts, and barring some of those relative unknowns or the second turning into something special, its going to go down as one of the worst moves in the history of the team.

Who knows though, shrewd drafting and a decent free agent signing here and there could do wonders

 

[Busboy]

I think blackouts for regional games are really a thing of the past. It is easy to stream things in now. Plus television deals make local games a part of the sports packages they sell to fans.

Speaking of which, add "not increasing payroll even though big television deal kicked in" to my list of gripes for this offseason.

If you received a bonus at work would you spend it all right away? Or would you hold on to it a bit knowing that your mortgage rates are about to go up next year?

We have a logjam up front and on D. Even if we had money to spend it then puts us in a position where we're forced to lose assets that we've spent time and money developing.

This season will be a chance to find out where we are as a team and see who we can count on from the kids. We spend enough on them that it makes sense to give them a chance before giving away their roster spots to older and more expensive players from outside the organization.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

I think we're getting closer to the "Bill" end of that graph for exactly the reason you suggest: we are roughly where we've always been... despite the cap ceiling going up by a whopping $19mil since 2008. I'd say we were a lot closer to the "Rocky" end of it for a while, when the post-lockout CBA artificially kept the cap ceiling low and created a hell of a lot of economic parity.

We're never going to be as actively miserly as Bill Wirtz was, but most of the rest of the league is starting to outspend us at an exponential rate, not logarithmical one... and even then, it's not an issue of us spending less. We're spending roughly the same as we ever have been. It's just that now, most of everyone else are spending 15-20% more.

I'm just saying: if you grew up a Blackhawks fan, I can totally see why you might be getting some PTSD flashbacks with the rate at which we are falling behind the rest of the league on a budgetary basis.

The bolded is the baffling part.

There is no way in hell anyone can say our revenues haven't increased in the last 15 years, and if we're spending the same, that means expenses haven't increased (overall). So, there has to be more cashflow now than ever before.

Where the flying fig newtons is that extra money going?

 

[BonkTastic]

There is no way in hell anyone can say our revenues haven't increased in the last 15 years, and if we're spending the same, that means expenses haven't increased (overall).

Well, for the sake of a balanced argument, our payroll has actually increased significantly in the last 15 years. You have to remember, our payroll in 1999-2000 was about ~$22mil. "15 years" is too wide a net to cast if you want to be accurate. The Sens really only started spending ~$50mil+ in the 2007/08 season.

The payroll has only been stagnant over roughly the past 7 or so years. Problem is, that's the period where other teams have been able to add almost $20mil/yr in contracts.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Well, for the sake of a balanced argument, our payroll has actually increased significantly in the last 15 years. You have to remember, our payroll in 1999-2000 was about ~$22mil. "15 years" is too wide a net to cast if you want to be accurate. The Sens really only started spending ~$50mil+ in the 2007/08 season.

The payroll has only been stagnant over roughly the past 7 or so years. Problem is, that's the period where other teams have been able to add almost $20mil/yr in contracts.

lol, that's true. But you know what I mean...we've spent the same over the last 7 years, but revenues have definitely increased over that time. While I can understand holding back a bit on spending so there's more cap room and funds when the kids get off the cheap ELCs....but spending is being held way beyond what we need to worry about to keep our kids.

There's definitely more money floating out there somewhere in the accounting books.

 

[BonkTastic]

Fun Fact:
a) The Detroit Red Wings spent $77.8mil in salaries in the 2003/04 season, while the New York Rangers spent $76.5mil.

b) The Nashville Predators, on the other hand, spent $21.9mil in the same season.

c) The Salary Cap ceiling, 11 years later, is $69mil.