Bruce G: Melynk Speaks

[PaGEEsBack]

Has there been anything to spend smart on (sans Alfie)?

MacArthur and Ryan were nice.

 

[Qward]

Has there been anything to spend smart on (sans Alfie)?

MacArthur and Ryan where nice.

We dont know. Murray said he turned down a couple deals because salaries coming back were too much.

 

[BankStreetParade]

Some of my favourite parts of this "debate":

1. We signed a new TV deal that doesn't kick in until next year.
#hflogic: Let's spend the money we don't get until next year this year.
2. We don't know what the Sens are doing trade wise or what they will do when UFA comes around this summer.
#hflogic: This team's owner is a bum and the "budget" is keeping us from acquiring players.
3. League-wide gridlock on movement of upper echelon players (re: players of note/players who will make an impact) as evidenced by almost complete lack of trades this year.
#hflogic: "budget" is preventing us from getting players.
4. Patience and smart deals required. Only upgrade players when you're certain the price you're paying and the player you're bringing in are worth it. Tough to make these types of deals.
#hflogic: Sign pretty much anyone just to prove that we can spend money. (No one knows who these mystery players are who will suddenly just elevate this team. And no one knows whether they want to come here. And no one knows what other GMs are asking for from Murray. And no one knows how active the trade talks have been. And no one knows pretty much anything about the workings of the upper management team. YET all this seems to somehow indicate that the GM is an old fool, Melnyk is an oblivious owner who is pocketing money - despite the fact that no one knows what the numbers are - that this team is on a perilous tightrope budget and that we'll never contend because our young core that needs to gain experience should be replaced by splashy high priced free agents and veteran talent (who no one knows who they are or how/if they can be attained) because every team wins the Cup by being a top spending team (note only 1 team that's been in the top 10 for cumulative spending over the last 5 years has won a Cup)).

You argue all these points and then someone comes in and says "Yeah but Melnyk is pocketing the money/we have a new tv deal so we should spend money/there's plenty of players out there to trade for/etc." and the whole thing starts all over again.

Pure. Insanity.

 

[PaGEEsBack]

We dont know. Murray said he turned down a couple deals because salaries coming back were too much.

That is true - the budget definitely is going to be a grey cloud hanging over us for a bit. Hopefully all this power forward business from the OP article is more than just empty words.

 

[BonkTastic]

Can you provide evidence of him spending a good chunk of that money on the team? Me neither. Therefore I come to the conclusion that him not spending money on the team then he must be keeping it, or spending it somewhere else.

This is completely facetious reasoning. Just because you don't personally see where he's spending the money, it means he's keeping all the money?

If he's not spending it on the team, where is he spending it?

Well, the team is leveraged to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. I imagine a lot of it is going towards the debt.

I don't think its far fetched to say "not spending extra revenue on the team=pocketing the money".

What would you call it,honestly? (I want you to answer this)

Your assumption that he is not spending extra revenue on the ice = not spending the extra revenue on the team is a poor hypothesis.

I can tell you, from having worked for the team before, that many Sens employees (outside Hockey Ops especially) make jack squat compared to other Canadian teams. The org is a revolving door of employees on a logistics level. A lot of departments run on bare-bones staff. Maybe he's increasing non-hockey operations budgets? Maybe he's going to pout more money into scouting? Maybe more money is being earmarked for future building development? Some of it might be going to Bingo? There are literally dozens of things that an NHL hockey team can spend MILLIONS of dollars on that doesn't add to their salary cap total.

Like I said, I'm angry at Melnyk too. I'm pissed at the "he said/she said" crap, and the vague threats about holding the team hostage for a casino, and making bad decisions with his money which has an effect on the on-ice product and brand as a whole... but you say things like you're "connecting the dots", based nothing more on hypothetical dots, and you're ignoring a hell of a lot of those dots. You are "selectively choosing" which dots you want to connect, while ignoring others.

"If I can't personally see where the money is going, then it must not be going anywhere good" is a poor argument. That is my point.

 

[HavlatMach9]

Maybe he's increasing non-hockey operations budgets? Maybe he's going to pout more money into scouting?

sorry for doing this to a long post but

 

[BonkTastic]

sorry for doing this to a long post but

Haha, nice catch. Damn auto-correct.

I'll leave it as it is, because I love that gif.

 

[Tundraman]

Dear Mr Melnyk,
Canadian law gives you the right to be silent. As Sens fans we insist you exercise that right.

 

[Xspyrit]

Québec would be glad to take this problem out of Melnyk's hands

 

[Golden_Jet]

well it should be 10% of all the revenue generated, so weak dollar does take away a lot.

it doesn't matter, we have an owner who is not willing to spend. i wish he would stop shaming us, like we need to make round x, or we lose x much, but either way, we have an owner who won't spend.

That's correct. So almost 6 million on salary.
Where teams spend their money is to huge to list. air travel, hotels, AHL, sticks, equipment, over a $100 a day for per diem, pension plans, spousal airfares ...

Things I didn't know if traded.....car rentals, mortgage payments for up to a year if traded, plus many more.

 

[alfierulestheworld]

So why did he say we were losing 9 million and why did the article say we were getting at least 20 million from sportnet alone. I'm usually pretty good at math. That's not including ESPN money or tsn money.

Tsn is giving us more then Sportsnet did for regional.
Sportsnet is giving us more then tsn did for national.
ESPN is giving us money that we didn't get period.

The reported increase in revenue is 2-3 times that of melnyks reported losses.

When can we use math and common sense to fill the holes. I got blasted for coming to a conclusion that i thought everyone did the math and came to as well.

You do realize these deals all start next season right?

 

[Spezza]

You do realize these deals all start next season right?

Sure - but why are we a budget team next season then?

 

[alfierulestheworld]

Sure - but why are we a budget team next season then?

We dont know anything, until it happens. 12 months from now this debate can be restarted.

 

[83DIZ65]

You just gotta shake your head. I know it's more complex than this, but it boggles my mind that we are what, bottom 3 in spending, with mostly packed buildings every night, versus what we see in other small market/southern teams while they spend millions more than us.

Thanks for saving us back in the day Euge, but if you can't afford a competitive team, GTFO.

This. over and over again.....

 

[Golden_Jet]

Is being less then 8 million from the cap MAX really that bad. It leaves flexibility, but I guess its better to outbid on some bad FA contract.

My ideal case would be about 3-4 million under cap.

 

[DueDiligence]

and I will continue to not purchase anything related to the Sens.

Why stop there? stop watching them on TV and reading and posting about them on the internet. Doing that would show a real commitment otherwise you are just being cheap.

 

[jbeck5]

We dont know anything, until it happens. 12 months from now this debate can be restarted.

Because when we see were going from losing 9 million a year to making 20 million a year according to reports we expect our owner to say something like "now we have the financial backing to spend to the cap when were ready to be contenders. When a player who can make us better becomes available, we can afford him. This helps us break through our rebuild stage as we go forward to bring the cup to Ottawa."

But we get something along the lines of "were still a budget team and can't afford to spend to the cap. The senators are struggling financially."

Someone mentioned paying back the loans. That's a good point. But even then, he should have paid them off earlier. He decided to let it linger and now that he doesn't have as much money it's busting his balls. Dumb move.

 

[Spezza]

We dont know anything, until it happens. 12 months from now this debate can be restarted.

Melynk said in the Bruce G article we're still a budget team.