Here's Hoping....

[DueDiligence]

1) That attendance is so bad next year EM runs out of money and is forced to sell to someone like Guy Laliberte.
2) Laliberte cleans house and hires quality NHL people
3) That Sens win the draft lottery in 2020 and get to pick Lafreniere.
4) A bunch of the young guys like Brown, Batherson etc. become legit front line NHL players.
5) By 2022 the Sens are serious contenders again.

Click to read more...

 

[Boud]

The attendance next season will be something else.

The attendance for the rest of the games this season will be something else.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

I don’t believe in hope anymore.

 

[hawthy]

The attendance next season will be something else.

The attendance for the rest of the games this season will be something else.

The scary thing is there is not one, but two home dates against the Leafs (and I use the term “home” loosely). They knew this; basically two sure sellouts. You think those games were bad before, it’ll literally be 80% blue and white.

 

[Sun God Nika]

Karlsson leaves San Jose and they regress hard. Pushing our 2020 first into the top 10.
Duchene Re-signs in columbus and the Duchene curse kicks in giving us another high 2020 first


only hoping.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Karlsson leaves San Jose and they regress hard. Pushing our 2020 first into the top 10.
Duchene Re-signs in columbus and the Duchene curse kicks in giving us another high 2020 first


only hoping.

The only thing that matters is that Melnyk sells.

Until that happens, there can be no lasting success.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

None of that is important, this is just one big long performance arts piece.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Only thing that matters now is forcing Melnyk to sell. Hoping for anything else is futile until he's OUT.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Dorion did best he could to not make us a complete disgrace and we salvaged some proper pieces for the "rebuild"

Now we must get Melnyk out for it to actually be a rebuild and I guarantee it will be a hell of a good one. We have some excellent pieces and tremendous cap space.

But im done being optimistic, im following Vegas and Belleville until he's gone.

 

[Sun God Nika]

The only thing that matters is that Melnyk sells.

Until that happens, there can be no lasting success.

Untill he sells or isn't physically capable of owning a team whatever comes first ill be happy.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Dorion did best he could to not make us a complete disgrace and we salvaged some proper pieces for the "rebuild"

Now we must get Melnyk out for it to actually be a rebuild and I guarantee it will be a hell of a good one. We have some excellent pieces and tremendous cap space.

But im done being optimistic, im following Vegas and Belleville until he's gone.

Any other GM forced to trade the likes of Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Hoffman and Dzingel within less than a year's span would have gotten better pieces for a rebuild.

 

[Flamingo]

None of that is important, this is just one big long performance arts piece.

To be a happy fan of the Ottawa Senators, you need to focus on

1/ bonus-free signings
2/ point per dollar
3/ Trump-like willful denial of the ugly, blinding truth
4/ artless equivocation about fans not deserving a contender

It's a masterpiece.

 

[West Coast Eagles]

1. Duchene re-signs with a full NMC
2. Karlsson re-signs with a full NMC
3. Stone has a full NMC
4. Sharks win the cup. All 3 then simultaneously demand a trade and only accept Ottawa as the destination.
5. Profit

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Any other GM forced to trade the likes of Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Hoffman and Dzingel within less than a year's span would have gotten better pieces for a rebuild.

That's easy to say. I have a hard time imagining someone getting much more when they have no leverage whatsoever.

 

[playasRus]

I actually wonder what PD would have done if he wasn't being pupetteered. BM must've seen something redeeming in him to name him as his successor.

 

[Blotto71]

That's easy to say. I have a hard time imagining someone getting much more when they have no leverage whatsoever.

Dorion painted himself into that leverage-less corner...

 

[BankStreetParade]

1) That attendance is so bad next year EM runs out of money and is forced to sell to someone like Guy Laliberte.
2) Laliberte cleans house and hires quality NHL people
3) That Sens win the draft lottery in 2020 and get to pick Lafreniere.
4) A bunch of the young guys like Brown, Batherson etc. become legit front line NHL players.
5) By 2022 the Sens are serious contenders again.

I don't think people not showing up will be enough. The Forbes estimate for gate receipts from their 2018 write-up was about $35 million. Even if literally not a single person buys any tickets for all of the home games that year he'll lose about $35 million. That's nothing against the $500+ million in capital gain he's already made on the team. It will take at least 5 years of not a single person paying for a ticket before it starts to make a difference and that's assuming the value of the team remains where it is.

He won't run out of money that way. And again that's assuming that literally not one person buys another ticket for the next 5 years.

 

[InTkachukWeTrust]

Dorion did best he could to not make us a complete disgrace and we salvaged some proper pieces for the "rebuild"

Now we must get Melnyk out for it to actually be a rebuild and I guarantee it will be a hell of a good one. We have some excellent pieces and tremendous cap space.

But im done being optimistic, im following Vegas and Belleville until he's gone.

Tbh I'd be down to catch a belleville game with brannstrom but I can't drive anymore

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Dorion painted himself into that leverage-less corner...

Disagree. That he couldn't tell teams interested "well we can just keep him" is not on Dorion.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Any other GM forced to trade the likes of Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Hoffman and Dzingel within less than a year's span would have gotten better pieces for a rebuild.

Every GM in the league knew of the situation Dorion was in. He had absolutely no leverage at all and was forced into a terrible corner. His only glaring mistake is the Duchene debacle but even that is hindsight cause of what Melnyk decided to do after or we would still have EK, Duchene, and Stone signed and wouldn't finish bottom 5.

Similar to how Murray got nothing for Spezza because of no leverage at all.

In retrospect, Dorion maybe botched trading EK at the deadline last year to Vegas for Suzuki + but we got a nice haul from SJ for someone who might not re-sign at all.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

CTC makes enough from non-hockey events to keep the whole thing afloat, as long as the Sens payroll is at the cap floor. This is assuming Melynk doesn't put a penny into Lebreton. Attendance won't matter.

 

[Speatleysson]

1) That attendance is so bad next year EM runs out of money and is forced to sell to someone like Guy Laliberte.
2) Laliberte cleans house and hires quality NHL people
3) That Sens win the draft lottery in 2020 and get to pick Lafreniere.
4) A bunch of the young guys like Brown, Batherson etc. become legit front line NHL players.
5) By 2022 the Sens are serious contenders again.

Here's hoping... but owning the Ottawa Senators is like a novelty thing for Melnyk. I really think we're in it for the long haul :/

 

[danielpalfredsson]

That's easy to say. I have a hard time imagining someone getting much more when they have no leverage whatsoever.

This.

I'll preface this by saying it's an incredibly relief that we actually managed to get a Brannstrom level piece back for Stone, but that doesn't change that Brannstrom+Lindberg+2nd is a soft return for a signed Stone.

The reason it was a soft return is most likely because we waited until the very last minute to start this process of trading players. We had as little leverage as we possibly could have, and Stone having to sign an extension with another team likely made it so that he could severely limit the destinations. Almost like trading a player who has a NTC.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Dorion painted himself into that leverage-less corner...

We got less for these players because we didn't start trading them until right at the deadline, and it was transparent that we had no options other than to deal them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to go take punches for Dorion in a small Navan hockey venue, but I think it's plausible that it was ownership's call to keep Stone/Duchene this late into the process. Or if it was Dorion's call, it was indirectly caused by ownership. Meaning, there was something going on behind the scenes over the last year that would lead him to believe he would have the resources to give Stone the bonus structure needed to keep him.

 

[Xspyrit]

I don't think people not showing up will be enough. The Forbes estimate for gate receipts from their 2018 write-up was about $35 million. Even if literally not a single person buys any tickets for all of the home games that year he'll lose about $35 million. That's nothing against the $500+ million in capital gain he's already made on the team. It will take at least 5 years of not a single person paying for a ticket before it starts to make a difference and that's assuming the value of the team remains where it is.

He won't run out of money that way. And again that's assuming that literally not one person buys another ticket for the next 5 years.

I’m not sure why people don’t understand this (I guess lack of business/life experience). Lowering gate revenues just reduce the team cash flow. It’s obvious with the stars firesale that there’s already a cash flow problem. All it does is encouraging/force him to reduce operation costs further more.

My theory (and I think it’s logical and evident) is that he will pay the team debt loans while making the Lebreton project work to ensure he makes the best ROI when he sells. When does that happen? That’s hard to say, it could be tomorrow, next year, 2 years, 3 years, more? We’ll see, if I had to guess maybe 2 years

All this « not going to games » is cute and everything but really doesn’t change much in the end, Melnyk’s plan was already made. It’s a business straightening plan, a preparation for a sale.

Selling the team after Seattle expansion fee, after the lockout, when the team debt is paid, when the team is starting to rise again and a brand new arena downtown project is underway (casino/condo towers etc is just gravy)... it makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint.

In the meanwhile, his operation costs (roster, coaching, management, etc) are so low (relatively speaking) that it’s naive to think gate revenues will affect him much (plus CTC makes money from other venues). He’s already prepared for this. Just on the roster, he will save 25 M$ per year vs precedent budget. Plus, I even think Boucher might be kept 1 or 2 more years if cheap. Dorion already re-upped 3 years.