Speculation: Buyers? Sellers? Stay the Course?

[Legend Killer]

Trade Gryba for Gilroy.

Mac needs PMD in his system

 

[operasen]

Trade Gryba for Gilroy.

Mac needs PMD in his system

Wow

 

[SixthSens]

Stay the course until trade deadline and we have a better sense of where we're headed- if we start slipping, then start shopping Gonchar, Latendresse, etc. for picks/prospects.

 

[Legend Killer]

Wow

Ha. Was not serious

 

[Larionov]

Brian Burke can be an annoying blowhard, but he always made a good point about the trade deadline - more bad trades get made that day than any other day of the year. I always cringe when I think of some of the bad deadline deals this organization made in the past, bringing in guys like Cullen and Commodore as short term rentals in exchange for picks we could have used. (In fairness to the GM, I think he was under pressure from a slightly delusional Melnyk, who always thinks we are only one piece away from winning a Cup.)

I am a huge "stay the course" advocate - panic stricken trades either way on deadline day make no sense. The organization has a long term plan, and they should stick to it.

 

[tony d]

Stay the course.

 

[Xspyrit]

Brian Burke can be an annoying blowhard, but he always made a good point about the trade deadline - more bad trades get made that day than any other day of the year. I always cringe when I think of some of the bad deadline deals this organization made in the past, bringing in guys like Cullen and Commodore as short term rentals in exchange for picks we could have used. (In fairness to the GM, I think he was under pressure from a slightly delusional Melnyk, who always thinks we are only one piece away from winning a Cup.)

I am a huge "stay the course" advocate - panic stricken trades either way on deadline day make no sense. The organization has a long term plan, and they should stick to it.

There's a lot of wrong in this post but just quickly, at some point you can't have all the prospects in the world (we have the deepest prospect in the NHL, by far deeper compared to most teams). There's also a 50 contracts limit per season... If you have too many prospects, you are forced to let some go for nothing every year.

Sometimes you have to get actual assets and try to improve your (playoff) team (or just get some insurance in case of injuries, as you can witness this year, injuries can hurt) instead of only "maybes down the road"...

Cullen was a great acquistion. I don't care if we sacrifice a few picks there and there, we have WAY enough prospects. Also, that Murray guy always signs guys like Da Costa, Butler, DD, Schneider and Winchester... So that's FREE PICKS right there. We went from a bottom-5 prospect pool to a top-5 pool in 3 years. I don't see any reason to worry unless you fortunately don't have any other problem.

Not much to complain here about but to each their own I guess.

 

[aragorn]

Brian Burke can be an annoying blowhard, but he always made a good point about the trade deadline - more bad trades get made that day than any other day of the year. I always cringe when I think of some of the bad deadline deals this organization made in the past, bringing in guys like Cullen and Commodore as short term rentals in exchange for picks we could have used. (In fairness to the GM, I think he was under pressure from a slightly delusional Melnyk, who always thinks we are only one piece away from winning a Cup.)

I am a huge "stay the course" advocate - panic stricken trades either way on deadline day make no sense. The organization has a long term plan, and they should stick to it.

Stay the course only works if the prospects you have drafted & developed actually turn into what they were projected to be. If you are lucky as Ottawa has been you also get some late round gems like Condra, Greening & Stone. Most teams try to draft well & trade well & sign a good UFA in the offseason but there are no guarantees in this business in any yr.

The Turris, Bishop, Methot & Anderson trades all worked out very well for Ottawa, sometimes you have to take a chance. It takes good scouting, good coaching at all levels, good development, good trades, no devastating injuries, players to their potential or better & lots of good puck luck. So far Ottawa is playing above their skill level & hanging in there which is great for the organization.

 

[Qward]

I am okay with trading, I just hope it is quantity for quality.

 

[darglor]

Stay the course until the deadline, then use Gonchar and one Bishop/Lehner as trade bait. You're going to lose Gonchar for nothing anyway so you might as well get something for him. Lehner will become disgruntled in the AHL if we keep all 3 of them, so I think you need to move one for some tangible assets at some point.

 

[BondraTime]

Stay the course until the deadline, then use Gonchar and one Bishop/Lehner as trade bait. You're going to lose Gonchar for nothing anyway so you might as well get something for him. Lehner will become disgruntled in the AHL if we keep all 3 of them, so I think you need to move one for some tangible assets at some point.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Gonchar re-signed for a year, he wants to play in Sochi, and we could still use him as a 1 year, mentor to bridge the gap of Ceci.

 

[MiscBrah]

I posted this is another thread but it's almost impossible for us to NOT make the playoffs.

Teams that will be fighting for the 5-8 seeds

Ottawa, Toronto, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York Islanders (maybe)

4 of those teams are in the same division = less of a chance that even 3 or 4 of them will make the playoffs because they are playing each other more.

I don't see any other teams from below that line making a push for the playoffs. We've put ourselves in an excellent position to enter the post-season.

 

[operasen]

I guess Stone's stay will be more secure now that Dizzy is down. He's one I do not want to see moved. I think if Murray does target a Perry trade (also UFA) Anaheim would ask a ransom of youth and picks as opposed to established guys - exactly what we do not want. Sign Perry in the off season, fine.

Michalek is a guy who could go and bring a decent return. He was a force in the West when he was with San Jose. But only if we are getting a positive return.

Statsny is available, wonder what we could do to get him - Michalek and DaCosta type of package?

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Stay the course....unless we can steal a great young player with plenty of skill for pennies.

 

[Senateurs]

I guess sellers.

Gonchar, Bishop, Tender maybe Regin if he's not part of future plans.

hope we can still qualify for the playoffs and give the young guys some valuable post season experience.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Since we don't even need to trade Bishop anymore (yet) I say we don't make moves at the deadline other than if someone wants Gonchar, and even then I don't expect him he'll be traded if all we'd be getting was a 2nd round pick

 

[Xspyrit]

I'm surprised to read that many people are saying "sellers"... That's more a pipe dream than a possibility in the real world... UNLESS the Sens go on a massive losing streak and are clearly out of the playoffs at the deadline. That is impossible IMO because even bottom feeders get wins/points and the Sens are better than that...

I'm not sure how many games are left before the deadline but even if they lose all those games, would they clearly be out of the playoffs race?

A NHL GM won't be selling his players if the team needs them. Cowen, Karlsson and Lundin are still going to miss a lot of games so I can't see Murray trading Sergei Gonchar... doesn't make any sense in the reality

Maybe Bishop if the right deal comes along as we could graduate Robin Lehner... Maybe another forward if we have extra bodies and are healthy enough. We have a lot of depht

 

[QuietOnTheFront]

When is the trade deadline?

We should bring this up closer to that date.. Then we can assess our chances of actually making the playoffs.

 

[Micklebot]

When is the trade deadline?

We should bring this up closer to that date.. Then we can assess our chances of actually making the playoffs.

3 Apr. 12 games remain prior to that, so we'll have played 36 games and will probably need to be on pace for 53-54 pts to be a playoff team (about 40-41 pts puts us on pace) That would mean getting 12-13 of a possible 24 pts, or playing "500" hockey. Given the loser pt, 500 hockey is pretty easy to attain, but if we are only at 40-41 pts we are trending in the wrong way.

 

[QuietOnTheFront]

3 Apr. 12 games remain prior to that, so we'll have played 36 games and will probably need to be on pace for 53-54 pts to be a playoff team (about 40-41 pts puts us on pace) That would mean getting 12-13 of a possible 24 pts, or playing "500" hockey. Given the loser pt, 500 hockey is pretty easy to attain, but if we are only at 40-41 pts we are trending in the wrong way.

Yeah so we have about 2 weeks to start really dissecting this issue. At the end of the day I don't see us becoming the fire-sale team ala 2011. But guys like Gonchar, Michalek and Bishop have the potential to be bounced if we're on the outside looking in. The injuries on the backend have really added a strain on our biggest asset Gonchar. I think we could get a premium as he is that veteran presence with a ring. It's too bad but if we aren't in a playoff spot we should trade him as he is unlikely to resign here.

 

[BonkTastic]

Ask me again in 3 weeks.