Is Eugene Melnyk the Worst Owner in the League?

[SpezDispenser]

No one in Ottawa likes Melnyk, such a big mouth, but the one thing the guy does is sign players. Time and time again. Anderson, Hoffman, Stone, Methot, Karlsson, Smith, Pageau.

The Turris situation is one where he wanted more money than he signed for in Nashville and Ottawa balked. Nothing wrong with this, it was actually a really strong contender move that took a little bit of stones to do. Worse comes to worse, I bet Melnyk would have paid him - which he always does.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Well this will be quite a bit more $.

Do you know what the term 'blank cheque' means?

 

[WingsMJN2965]

you seem pretty riled up about this

I'd argue that Nashville got hosed signing Turris to the deal

You seem to have a low standard for what qualifies as "Riled up."

 

[Paulinvancouver]

Noooo...

Aquilinis. By a mile.

The man who just won them two presidents trophies in a row told them we needed to rebuild. They canned him.
They hired their buddy Linden who has no experience managing anything, nevermind a hockey team. They knew he would do their bidding.
They demanded that Benning win now with a lineup that demanded a rebuild. Every move they made had to thus satisfy two competing objectives.
They were behind the Virtanen pick because they wanted a local boy they could use to put bums in seats.

I'd much prefer to manage within a slightly smaller internal cap opposed to meddling with direction of the team.

 

[Revelation]

Turris and the equivalent of 2 1sts and a 2nd for a slightly younger Kyle Turris without the playoff pedigree.

If I was a Sens fan I'd be pretty tempted to look for a new team after this.

 

[BLONG7]

Karlsson negotiations will be fascinating to watch.

Uncle Eugene will have to sell the team to the Super Swede!!!

 

[JuniorNelson]

Ottawa did not get hosed. Duchene is an excellent addition. Imagine him centering Stone and Hoffman. I've seen the Senators play the Canucks twice this season and I think they just became way harder to play.

 

[These Are The Days]

I don't know... Melnyk looks like a saint compared to whoever is running the Panthers. Those guys are a bunch of nerds and I could never imagine working for someone who would fire Gallant like that just to put a "yes man" in charge. And True North seems to escape a lot of criticism here. I've never seen an ownership group so complacent with mediocrity. This is year number 7 and there's no guarantee they Jets are making the playoffs this year, which would mark 6 times out of the playoffs in team existence. If I was in Winnipeg I'd be ready to pull my goddamn hair out.

 

[Asquaredx2]

Turris and the equivalent of 2 1sts and a 2nd for a slightly younger Kyle Turris without the playoff pedigree.

If I was a Sens fan I'd be pretty tempted to look for a new team after this.

I don't like the addition of the 1st given what Nashville gave up, but it is top-10 protected. The other pick we gave up is a 3rd which I see as canceling out with offloading Hammond.

Lastly, nobody is too concerned about losing Shane Bowers. Time will tell I f course but most Sens fans were annoyed that he was picked over some of the other players available. Most of us have been considering Formenton to be our first round pick from that draft pretty much since rookie camp.

I agree that we gave up a lot given the level of upgrade MD represents over KT is questionable. But it's not quite as bad as you make it out to be. The only thing I'm upset about is the 1st rounder.

EDIT : to tie this into the thread, beyond even the penny pinching, what drives me nuts is how much Melnyk mouths off to the media. If you're going to be an internal budget owner, be meek and humble about it. Dude wants to be the biggest star in the organization. Some of what he says is just embarrassing.

 

[NyQuil]

Turris and the equivalent of 2 1sts and a 2nd for a slightly younger Kyle Turris without the playoff pedigree.

If I was a Sens fan I'd be pretty tempted to look for a new team after this.

You are very easily tempted.

Ottawa managed to avoid trading Chabot, Brown or White which was apparently the sticking point from Sakic to begin with.

 

[branch]

Turris contract issue was about term not about $. Uninformed people should refrain from starting threads about subjects they know nothing about lmao.

 

[branch]

Seems like Ottawa spent the farm system to make a lateral move and acquire an extra year of Matt Duchene, old salary level contract.

It makes no sense. It's not a finishing move, it's not anything.

Would have made more sense had they just re-signed Turris.

Ottawa still has their top 7 prospects in the organization.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I think he has devolved into not a great owner. Personally, I am not a fan of him. I don't know everything about every owner in the league so I am not sure if he is the worst though.

But to be honest, I am not a fan of most sports franchise owners.

 

[rent free]

The last hour has convinced me. Didn't want to pay Kyle Turris, so he traded him, plus a 1st and 3rd round pick, for Matt Duchene. Within an hour, Nashville signs Turris for 6 years, for the same amount Duchene is making. Granted, Duchene is 2 years younger and may very well re-emerge as a better player than Turris... In which case Ottawa will have to pay him next year.

Remember when Chicago fans practically rejoiced at Bill Wirtz's death? Almost feel like Melnyk will be the same way in Ottawa.

He's probably not the worst but he is up there. The only good thing he's done is he traded for phaneuf and hired Boucher. Is he the only bad gm with a good team.

 

[MarkStone]

There's a list with a few reasons as to why one would be able to think Eugene Melnyk is not exactly an ideal owner. This deal is not one of those reasons.

 

[MarkStone]

There's a list you could create with a few reasons as to why one would be able to think Eugene Melnyk is not exactly an ideal owner. This deal is not one of those reasons.

Edit: delete pls lol

 

[Mr Hat]

Turris and the equivalent of 2 1sts and a 2nd for a slightly younger Kyle Turris without the playoff pedigree.

If I was a Sens fan I'd be pretty tempted to look for a new team after this.

Whatever will we do without a 1st round pick when our farm team is overflowing with NHL ready players looking for a spot!

Might as well call it done. Who wants to watch a team with a core entering their prime anyways??

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

The hate for Melnyk is way too outrageous. Him being so loud in the media surely doesn't help, but his actual cap management is quite good.

We just gave up two firsts and a third and Turris for Turris Lite. That's not great.
We are paying emotional marshmallow Bobby Ryan 7+ mil a year to have a broken finger every year. That's not great.
We are paying Dion Phaneuf....that's not great.
We gave Mark Borowiecki a raise. That's not great.

We are mediocre cap managers and are in our position in the Atlantic because that section is pure shite. The only good team there is Tampa Bay. Maybe Toronto, once the stop turning over the puck. We're average, MTL is average, everyone else is garbage.

And yeah, Melnyk is hella cheap. We used to get STUFF as season ticket holders, now it's just points and crap, and he increased parking prices, and he tarped off cheap seats so we'd buy more expensive ones (we aren't!) and he fired people because tickets weren't selling. Guy is a loud-mouth Scrooge of an owner. Just brutal.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

We just gave up two firsts and a third and Turris for Turris Lite. That's not great.
We are paying emotional marshmallow Bobby Ryan 7+ mil a year to have a broken finger every year. That's not great.
We are paying Dion Phaneuf....that's not great.
We gave Mark Borowiecki a raise. That's not great.

We are mediocre cap managers and are in our position in the Atlantic because that section is pure ****e. The only good team there is Tampa Bay. Maybe Toronto, once the stop turning over the puck. We're average, MTL is average, everyone else is garbage.

And yeah, Melnyk is hella cheap. We used to get STUFF as season ticket holders, now it's just points and crap, and he increased parking prices, and he tarped off cheap seats so we'd buy more expensive ones (we aren't!) and he fired people because tickets weren't selling. Guy is a loud-mouth Scrooge of an owner. Just brutal.

Many teams have players who make more than they deserve; Phaneuf being our version of that statement.
Ryan to a lesser extent as he's looked decent early on; minus the injury. You can't blame the injury on anyone that's just ridiculous. Boroweicki has looked good and the 1.5M salary isn't even a dot in the cap space that we have.
Funny enough you should mention the Atlantic is shit, when statistically the entire league is parity ridden.
Ottawa has a generational talent in Karlsson, that should be enough for every single game to be a sellout. The only explanation and generally agreed upon reason as to why Ottawa doesn't sell out tickets is location and also the fact that it must compete with longstanding fandoms of the Leafs and Canadiens; hence why most Leaf/Hab away games are filled with away fans near the region.

 

[TeamRenzo]

Turris and the equivalent of 2 1sts and a 2nd for a slightly younger Kyle Turris without the playoff pedigree.

If I was a Sens fan I'd be pretty tempted to look for a new team after this.

That is not an objective way to evaluate this trade.