Sportsnet: Bryan Berard on his departure from Ottawa
- Thread starter Byron Bitz
- Start date
I thought Spezza just informed them that he wasn’t going to sign a new deal in Ottawa and they mutually agreed that a trade was best for both parties.
Fun with semantics: Did Jason Spezza request a trade? - TheHockeyNews
Murray said the Spezza situation isn’t, “quite as extreme as Dany Heatley. Dany came in and basically said, ‘I’m out of here and Jason hasn’t really done that. He’s come in and asked if we would consider (trading him).”
AchtzehnBaby
Global Matador
Fake news
Was a rumour... he was just sniffing around... maybe.
Can’t wait to see 41 in the rafters
Sensung
Registered User
- Oct 3, 2017
- 6,101
- 3,357
Keep dreamingFake news
Was a rumour... he was just sniffing around... maybe.
Can’t wait to see 41 in the rafters
BonHoonLayneCornell
Registered User
Laphroaig
Registered User
Micklebot
Moderator
- Apr 27, 2010
- 53,854
- 31,069
I'd say the more pertinent quote from that story is the one from sources close to Spezza: "He told Murray that if the Senators were intent on a quick rebuild and were in the acquisition mode in terms of bringing in top-end talent, he wanted to be a part of it. But if the plan was to tear down the roster and rebuild the team with young players and draft picks, it might be best for the organization to maximize his value now and that he would not stand in the way of a deal involving him, provided it was not to one of the 10 teams in his modified no-trade clause."
Sensung
Registered User
- Oct 3, 2017
- 6,101
- 3,357
mattihp
Registered User
Havlat was a mystery for me. He seemed like a guy who could score even more than 30 goals a season whilst giving pretty alright defensive play..
I get the impression Ottawa isn't the most desirable location for those players who have established themselves in the league.
Compounded by the fact that ownership is questionable to say the least. Berard had the credibility to shop elsewhere as a young player and the back story is telling.
Lets hope the times are a changin with the draft mother lode about to come our way!
Compounded by the fact that ownership is questionable to say the least. Berard had the credibility to shop elsewhere as a young player and the back story is telling.
Lets hope the times are a changin with the draft mother lode about to come our way!
bert
Registered User
Micklebot
Moderator
- Apr 27, 2010
- 53,854
- 31,069
We won the trade because Paul is currently a better player than Spezza
BonHoonLayneCornell
Registered User
IlTerrifico
Registered User
- Oct 24, 2016
- 615
- 432
The story at the time was the Sens medical staff didn't think Havlat's reconstructed shoulder would hold up, so they didn't want to risk the multi-year contract he wanted.
Sweatred
Erase me
- Jan 28, 2019
- 13,408
- 3,324
Agree, but more accurately the sens didn’t want to risk the price he was demanding with what ever risk they perceived . So in the end it came down to money.
Micklebot
Moderator
- Apr 27, 2010
- 53,854
- 31,069
The period when we traded Havlat was one of the few periods in the team's history where money wasn't the concern, instead it was cap hit. Season ticket sales were sky high, the canadian dollar was at par, those were good times...
Sweatred
Erase me
- Jan 28, 2019
- 13,408
- 3,324
That doesn’t mean we wanted to pay him (3RW) what he wanted and got.
Last edited:
Sensinitis
Registered User
- Aug 5, 2012
- 15,934
- 5,526
Damn, so true that Straka was part of that deal.
What an odd career he had. Sophomore year of 30G and 64 points, then multiple seasons of injuries and half seasons then put up 3 awesome peak seasons then got injured for a couple seasons again... And then hits 70 points 2 years in a row with the Rangers before retiring shortly after.
It’s too bad we had him when his injury problems just started and dumped him as an add-in to the Redden deal instead of getting better value.
Micklebot
Moderator
- Apr 27, 2010
- 53,854
- 31,069
I was just being nostalgic of better times,
But, having said that, of course we didn't want to pay him what he asked, that can be said for nearly every player that doesn't re-sign with a team.
I also think calling him a 3RW or suggesting that we would have been signing him as a 3RW a pretty misleading. His last season he was 4th in average icetime by over a min per game in the reg season and 5th in the post season. His linemates, Fisher and Schaefer were 5th and 6th in icetime with a significant gap over the next guy (Smolinski) in the reg season and 4th and 6th in the post season respectively. He was 4th in pts per game in the reg season, and 2nd in the post season.
He was our 3RW when we had Hossa and Alfie ahead of him, when we traded Hossa for a LW in Heatley, he became the defacto 2RW and that's what we would have been signing him to be. We just couldn't afford the luxury in a cap world of an injury prone elite 2nd line winger while paying big money for the Pizza line and Redden. We did do a lot of line juggling though, so number lines doesn't make a ton of sens, but Havlat was clearly the 4th best forward (I guess you could argue Fisher for his more well rounded game but he was a center so not really relevant), and the Pizza line had the 3 guys ahead of him.
Anyways, in the context of the team not re-signing guys, Havlat imo is in a different category than more recent decisions.
coladin
Registered User
- Sep 18, 2009
- 11,816
- 4,504
