Silver Seven Ottawa Senators Season Preview: Coaching and Management

[AchtzehnBaby]

Trevor Shackles has spoken:

We’ve reached the final section of our season preview series, and that is the Ottawa Senators coaching staff and management. Part I and II of our season preview series discussing the forwards and defense/goalies have already been shared, so be sure to check those out if you haven’t already.

DJ Smith is entering his second season behind the Senators bench, whereas Pierre Dorion is entering his fifth full season as General Manager. Although there are others on the coaching staff such as Jack Capuano, Bob Jones, and Davis Payne, as well as Peter MacTavish as the assistant GM, Smith and Dorion will be the main focus of this article.

Season Preview: Coaching and Management

Click to read more...

 

[BatherSeason]

Trevor Shackles has spoken:

We’ve reached the final section of our season preview series, and that is the Ottawa Senators coaching staff and management. Part I and II of our season preview series discussing the forwards and defense/goalies have already been shared, so be sure to check those out if you haven’t already.

DJ Smith is entering his second season behind the Senators bench, whereas Pierre Dorion is entering his fifth full season as General Manager. Although there are others on the coaching staff such as Jack Capuano, Bob Jones, and Davis Payne, as well as Peter MacTavish as the assistant GM, Smith and Dorion will be the main focus of this article.

Season Preview: Coaching and Management

This article is pretty bang on. Hard to disagree with much here.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

This article is pretty bang on. Hard to disagree with much here.

So Mark Stone wasn't mentioned .. I wonder why I heard we had a future star coming back for him.
I share the same concerns about the re-construction of the roster.

 

[Xspyrit]

"The depth players that he has traditionally targeted have not been very good: players such as Nikita Zaitsev, Erik Gudbranson, Gabriel Dumont, Tom Pyatt, Chris Kelly (2.0), Cedric Paquette, Austin Watson, Scott Sabourin, Nate Thompson, etc. have all had underwhelming impacts in Ottawa and/or elsewhere."

How come guys like Austin Watson and Cedric Paquette have had underwhelming impacts elsewhere? Doesn't look like he watched Paquette with the Lightning. Also, Nate Thomson was very good for his role with the Habs.

Otherwise, article looks fine, well for the parts I have read.

 

[BatherSeason]

Also Nate Thomson was also very good for his role with the Habs.

Nate Thompson was terrible here. It was a really bad signing.

 

[Que]

Personally I think Boucher had a lot to do with roster management when Boucher was here but Dorion is relying much less on DJ for that sort of input.

We have our talent - now we just have to put it all together and DJ looks like he’s a good fit to do it.

 

[Dan Patrick]

I just want to see more moves in a season that we can't draw a direct line to the shallow chasm that is Melnyk's wallet. We got Murray and Dadonov this year, and every other trade was either giving up more resources than necessary to receive monetary relief or lesser assets in return for shedding salary.

It's incredibly frustrating how transparent it is. Also, the fact that largely Dorion gets fair value out of hist trades that send players away only reinforces my belief that he's a good GM bound by the owners meddling and pocket book.

Another season where I have to constantly keep in the back of my mind that Melnyk selling the team would be the best thing that could happen to the Sens.

 

[Imnotagoodposter]

I just want to see more moves in a season that we can't draw a direct line to the shallow chasm that is Melnyk's wallet. We got Murray and Dadonov this year, and every other trade was either giving up more resources than necessary to receive monetary relief or lesser assets in return for shedding salary.

It's incredibly frustrating how transparent it is. Also, the fact that largely Dorion gets fair value out of hist trades that send players away only reinforces my belief that he's a good GM bound by the owners meddling and pocket book.

Another season where I have to constantly keep in the back of my mind that Melnyk selling the team would be the best thing that could happen to the Sens.

The pacquette trade saw us take salary on and so did the Stepan trade

 

[JungleBeat]

All the depth players Dorion has signed and traded for in his career have been lacklustre. DeMelo is the only exception I can think of.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Personally I think Boucher had a lot to do with roster management when Boucher was here but Dorion is relying much less on DJ for that sort of input.

We have our talent - now we just have to put it all together and DJ looks like he’s a good fit to do it.

I disagree.. I think DJ has had significant input into the acquisition of Zaitsev, C. Brown, Watson and J Brown at least

 

[Xspyrit]

Nate Thompson was terrible here. It was a really bad signing.

All the players "terrible here" has a lot to do with the coaching staff. On the Habs for this example,Nate didn't look quite nearly as bad becaue there's a major difference in terms of coaching staff quality. Goaltending and overall depht quality ($$$ invested) are also factors.

Maybe you don't think the coaching staff has been impact on how NHL players perform but we'll have to disagree here. I have often seen "non NHL players" in Ottawa pursue their career elsewhere.

An example of that is Alex Chiasson who some people here were lamblasting, yet he has been given 12-17 mins of TOI/GP on teams that had 94, 105, 79 and 96 pts (paced). These teams made the playoffs 3/4 seasons and one even won the Cup.

Another example? Ok, Mark Borowiecki who is "only in the NHL because Ottawa". Why would the Predators give him a 2 years contract worth 2 M$ per season then?

There's also the opposite thing happening where people get up in arms when Shane Prince gets traded for a 3rd round pick. He then goes and play 84 more NHL games and out. There's even articles written on that kind of subject like this one : "The Shane Prince Trade was Unnecessary and Frustrating"

Prince Trade Analysis: Unnecessary and Frustrating

As hockey fans, all we can do is give our opinion, but it is what it is, an opinion. Personally, I listen much more carefully when a ex NHL player/coach gives his evaluations.

 

[BatherSeason]

All the players "terrible here" has a lot to do with coaching staff. On the Habs for example, they don't look quite nearly as bad becaue there's a major difference in terms of coaching staff quality. Goaltending and overall depht quality ($$$ invested) are also factors.

Maybe you don't think the coaching staff has been impact on how NHL players perform but we'll have to disagree here. I have often seen "non NHL players" in Ottawa pursue their career elsewhere.

An example of that is Alex Chiasson who some people here were lamblasting, yet he has been given 12-17 mins of TOI/GP on teams that had 94, 105, 79 and 96 pts (paced). These teams made the playoffs 3/4 seasons and one even won the Cup.

Another example? Ok, Mark Borowiecki who is only in the NHL because he is in Ottawa... Why would the Predators give him a 2 years contract worth 2 M$ per season?

There's also the opposite thing happening where people get up in arms when Shane Prince gets traded for a 3rd round pick. He then goes and play 84 more NHL games and out. There's even articles written on that kind of subject "The Shane Prince Trade was Unnecessary and Frustrating"

Prince Trade Analysis: Unnecessary and Frustrating

As hockey fans, all we can do is give our opinion, but it is what it is, an opinion. Personally, I listen much more carefully when a ex NHL player or coach gives his evaluations.

This doesn't change the fact that the Nate Thompson signing was a bad one.

 

[Xspyrit]

This doesn't change the fact that the Nate Thompson signing was a bad one.

Which has absolutely nothing to do with what I was saying.

 

[topshelf15]

Next season I feel will be telling,we likely will have some kids show they are ready to lead the team...And cheap leadership veterans will not be needed...What will be are good players that support them...And that will cost more money...

 

[JungleBeat]

This doesn't change the fact that the Nate Thompson signing was a bad one.

Most of the depth guys Dorion traded and signed found their way outside of the league in a couple years. Garbage

 

[Dan Patrick]

The pacquette trade saw us take salary on and so did the Stepan trade

The pacquette trade saw us send out two LTIR contracts that were only partially insured. Though we took on more salary total we also shed money through those contracts. It didn't matter at all if we had kept those contracts and likely if we didn't force Tampa to take them we could have received better assets for the cap relief it provided them. Similarly, Stepan is a forward that was identified by several sites as being a likely target for the sens, why? Because his actual owed money was millions of dollars less than his salary. If random hockey blogs know this, I don't have a hard time imagining other GMs know it to. It lowers our bargaining leverage for trades making it harder to give fair value for players.

Listen, I don't hate the trades. As I said I just want to see more moves that everyone can't easily draw a hard line to Melnyk.

 

[Imnotagoodposter]

The pacquette trade saw us send out two LTIR contracts that were only partially insured. Though we took on more salary total we also shed money through those contracts. It didn't matter at all if we had kept those contracts and likely if we didn't force Tampa to take them we could have received better assets for the cap relief it provided them. Similarly, Stepan is a forward that was identified by several sites as being a likely target for the sens, why? Because his actual owed money was millions of dollars less than his salary. If random hockey blogs know this, I don't have a hard time imagining other GMs know it to. It lowers our bargaining leverage for trades making it harder to give fair value for players.

Listen, I don't hate the trades. As I said I just want to see more moves that everyone can't easily draw a hard line to Melnyk.

Still signed Dadonov and Murray and made some frugal but good trades also. Not really sure how anyone can look at this off-season in such a negative Nancy light you salty Susan !

 

[Adele Dazeem]

DJ will be under a microscope this season. He needs to put the young guys in positions to succeed.
They also need to cement a winning culture. These young players need to go out every game and compete. Veterans who show any glimpse of slacking should be banished to the taxi squad until they're off the team completely.

 

[JD1]

Nate Thompson was terrible here. It was a really bad signing.

Was it a bad signing? Or bad luck? Thompson bottomed out in his battle with alcohol while here. He was better before he got here and since he left.