This is how the Sens started out in 1992, there is no way a team has to start from scratch again, unless it means poor decisions for the last 7 years.
By the time we start reaping the rewards "as you put it", half of them will be traded away, and we will be at square one again.
Murray's revolving door method is not working.
There's a flagrant difference between building and rebuilding. Seems very obvious but anyway, no the Sens are not starting from scratch because they already had a prospect pool, infrastructures, staff, players, coaches, etc. Rebuilding means change MANY of the things you have... And yes, the Sens have rebuilt if you compare the 2008 roster and the actual one... It was a progressive rebuild, not a **** all rebuild ala Oilers.
Maybe the Sens should be one of the worst teams for a decade so the fans could actually appreciate and respect their team/players a little bit more when they are not that bad or "average". I actually wish it happens, we all need lessons, that's what life is doing all the time.
NOTE : so far which of the guys drafted under Murray have been traded? Silfverberg, Noesen and a first, but that was to acquire the actual best forward... And no, Foligno was not drafted under Murray. You can be concerned about it when it starts but so far, it's not looking like this.
Spezza and Alfie left because the organization failed them. End of story.
What rebuild? When we traded our veteran 2nd & 3rd line Centers for pieces that have yet to contribute on this team? Getting rid of Kovalev? Letting Kuba and Gonchar leave?
This team is 2-3 years away from being 2-3 years away from being 2-3 years away...
Keeping guys like Michalek, Neil, Phillips, etc is the exact opposite of a rebuild. Thats called keeping guys who are happy to take pay cheques to be in the league at this point. We kept them because they want to be Ottawa Senators... MEH
Cant wait to see this scorer that Murray is looking to trade for to bolster the roster...
This is irrelevant but I understand if people don't see it... Principal reason : the team is barely over the cap floor
Phillips and Neil are career Senators, it may not mean much on this micro board where you have about 500 posters but this is important for loyalty and belonging to the team for casual fans. They are at the end of fruitful careers with one team and their roles have diminished every year (except when Phillips has to replace an injured Methot...), they have also been kept for their experience and leadership. They make 1.9 and 2.5 which is not even the average NHL salary that includes RFA contracts and ELCs. In the NHL, that's cheap money but I understand that some people on this board might not understand all the strings of a market
Michalek is being paid 4.0, which is a bit above the average salary (around 3.0 nowadays) BUT also below his precedent salary which was based on a 4.3 cap hit. Before that new contract, Michalek has been scoring at a 25 goals pace per 82 games played in a total of 5 seasons... It's actually very good but haters just prefer to not see this fact. One of the best examples of confirmation bias on this board.
I would agree that Michalek is now an average player who should be more paid around 3.0 but it's impossible to have all your players earn their contract. If Michalek plays a good 2-way game and scores about 0.5 PPG, he would be worth it because well, the salary structure in the NHL is evolving quickly and many fans just can't adapt quickly enough to understand. That's a reality on HF and probably even more outside.
Now the counter-argument would be that they could have thrown that money to much better players... but reality unfortunately (since it's not a PlayStation game) is that those much better players have to be available and have the DESIRE to come and play in Ottawa, which is also unfortunately not the case for most players.
So, Ottawa instead of signing all the best players from UFA (which is heavily unrealistic) have to sign average veterans (at this point in time) to average salaries like Neil, Phillips, Legwand, Michalek, to patch holes in the roster (they are now "stop gaps") until the players drafted feel more comfortable in the NHL (and this takes time, particularly for D-men)
In summary, Hockey fans are just delusional in general.
If they want this team to spend to the cap every season, just give some of your own money (a little 15M$) for that exact reason. Melnyk will gladly accept it.
