News Article: Senators won’t be competitive until they prioritize talent over finances

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

New article by Wayne Scanlan on Sportsnet.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/senators-wont-competitive-prioritize-talent-bottom-line/

"According to CapFriendly, the hockey writer’s favourite summertime source, the Senators are saving $10.1 million from injury insurance payments and another $5.5 million in salary bonuses paid by rivals before trading players to Ottawa (Artem Anisimov, Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown).

Are you sensing a pattern here?

The Senators don’t make moves without taking their bottom line into consideration. While their total cap hit is a pedestrian $65.9 million, well above the cap floor of $60.2 million, their actual payout is an astounding $47.5 million. The cap ceiling is $81.5 million. So much for the salary cap structure ensuring league parity in the payroll department."

"This latest move, which makes nearly 25 per cent of Ottawa’s payroll accounted for by the LTIR Line, is surely an unconventional way to spark a season’s ticket campaign. (Possible slogan: Give us your lame, your chronically injured)."

Click to read more...

 

[InTkachukWeTrust]

I personally believe Melnyk will spend when the time is right. Now is not the right time.

 

[MakeOttawaGreatAgain]

This next season is going to feel like that Russel Crowe movie, Mystery Alaska, when a bunch of scrubs on a no-budget team need to play against real NHL teams.

 

[bert]

I personally believe Melnyk will spend when the time is right. Now is not the right time.

If that were the case they would be taking real assets back instead of dumping money. If you cant see why this is the case then you're out of reach. I truly am mind blown about the sens board on HF right now and how many people cant see the correlation. Media outlets are explaining it to you as plain as day but people still cant wrap their heads around it. Its an incredible phenomenon.

He will never spend, they have lied to you over and over again but you still believe the lies. They let Mark Stone walk out the door as the best two way winger in hockey at 26 years old. They clearly are not willing to spend WAKE UP PEOPLE.

 

[Deku]

Wayne Scanlan is a 12 yr old from Toronto

 

[BatherSeason]

New article by Wayne Scanlan on Sportsnet.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/senators-wont-competitive-prioritize-talent-bottom-line/

"According to CapFriendly, the hockey writer’s favourite summertime source, the Senators are saving $10.1 million from injury insurance payments and another $5.5 million in salary bonuses paid by rivals before trading players to Ottawa (Artem Anisimov, Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown).

Are you sensing a pattern here?

The Senators don’t make moves without taking their bottom line into consideration. While their total cap hit is a pedestrian $65.9 million, well above the cap floor of $60.2 million, their actual payout is an astounding $47.5 million. The cap ceiling is $81.5 million. So much for the salary cap structure ensuring league parity in the payroll department."

"This latest move, which makes nearly 25 per cent of Ottawa’s payroll accounted for by the LTIR Line, is surely an unconventional way to spark a season’s ticket campaign. (Possible slogan: Give us your lame, your chronically injured)."

Meanwhile, the guys that cover the team on a daily basis, Warren, Garrioch, Stevenson, TSN1200 all continue to ignore the elephant in the room.

 

[Samsquanch]

I'll believe Melnyk's story that he'll spend on this team when Chabot and Tkachuk are locked up long term. Obviously, he's broken our trust one too many times before to be simply taken at his word, so all of my optimism over the rebuild needs to be taken with a grain of salt until then.

But so far from what I can see, the plan to shed dollars and rebuild from the ground up is EXACTLY what they told us they were going to be doing, and I dont know why some people are acting like the team is already going back on their word. They have not, yet at least...

I dont personally care about out pitifully low cap hit (or actual dollars paid) for next year. Or even the year after for that matter. It simply does not make sense to spend money on a roster full of kids that is expected to finish at the bottom of the league. We can lambaste Melnyk for his putting us in this situation (and deservedly so), but the reality is that him spending money (or lack thereof) in the present time is not affecting or setting back our rebuild at all, or reneging on the promises that were made earlier this year.

In 2 years from now if the team is still making budget inspired moves and still unwilling to pay their players, well then yes I'll be ready to admit that we're never going to get out of this cycle of failure that we're stuck in. But as I see it right now, the rebuild (something Im at peace with myself) is still going exactly according to plan. And there should be no real cause for concern yet imo.

 

[BatherSeason]

"As has been the case over the past 15 months or so, skeptics outnumber believers 10 to 1 on the streets of the nation’s capital. Asked to name the greatest rivalry in hockey, some wiseacre tweeted: “Eugene Melnyk vs. the salary cap floor.”

I thought the negativity was only found here?

 

[jbeck5]

I'll believe Melnyk's story that he'll spend on this team when Chabot and Tkachuk are locked up long term. Obviously, he's broken our trust one too many times before to be simply taken at his word, so all of my optimism over the rebuild needs to be taken with a grain of salt until then.

But so far from what I can see, the plan to shed dollars and rebuild from the ground up is EXACTLY what they told us they were going to be doing, and I dont know why some people are acting like the team is already going back on their word. They have not, yet at least...

I dont personally care about out pitifully low cap hit (or actual dollars paid) for next year. Or even the year after for that matter. It simply does not make sense to spend money on a roster full of kids that is expected to finish at the bottom of the league. We can lambaste Melnyk for his putting us in this situation (and deservedly so), but the reality is that him spending money (or lack thereof) in the present time is not affecting or setting back our rebuild at all, or reneging on the promises that were made earlier this year.

In 2 years from now if the team is still making budget inspired moves and still unwilling to pay their players, well then yes I'll be ready to admit that we're never going to get out of this cycle of failure that we're stuck in. But as I see it right now, the rebuild (something Im at peace with myself) is still going exactly according to plan. And there should be no real cause for concern yet imo.

It might not even take 2 years...we can find out with what happens with chabot. Do they try to bridge him by penny pinching or do they lock him up maximum years?

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Meanwhile, the guys that cover the team on a daily basis, Warren, Garrioch, Stevenson, TSN1200 all continue to ignore the elephant in the room.

This is the most infuriating part of the media in Ottawa

I like how they take shots at management here and there but when they go to do an interview with them they sound all buddy buddy. Cowards.

 

[Samsquanch]

"As has been the case over the past 15 months or so, skeptics outnumber believers 10 to 1 on the streets of the nation’s capital. Asked to name the greatest rivalry in hockey, some wiseacre tweeted: “Eugene Melnyk vs. the salary cap floor.”

I thought the negativity was only found here?

Maybe you never got the memo, but the Sens have been getting crapped on for many years now... And it started long before Melnyk and his antics, which are just more fuel for the fire.

 

[SPF6ty9]

I'll believe Melnyk's story that he'll spend on this team when Chabot and Tkachuk are locked up long term. Obviously, he's broken our trust one too many times before to be simply taken at his word, so all of my optimism over the rebuild needs to be taken with a grain of salt until then.

But so far from what I can see, the plan to shed dollars and rebuild from the ground up is EXACTLY what they told us they were going to be doing, and I dont know why some people are acting like the team is already going back on their word. They have not, yet at least...

I dont personally care about out pitifully low cap hit (or actual dollars paid) for next year. Or even the year after for that matter. It simply does not make sense to spend money on a roster full of kids that is expected to finish at the bottom of the league. We can lambaste Melnyk for his putting us in this situation (and deservedly so), but the reality is that him spending money (or lack thereof) in the present time is not affecting or setting back our rebuild at all, or reneging on the promises that were made earlier this year.

In 2 years from now if the team is still making budget inspired moves and still unwilling to pay their players, well then yes I'll be ready to admit that we're never going to get out of this cycle of failure that we're stuck in. But as I see it right now, the rebuild (something Im at peace with myself) is still going exactly according to plan. And there should be no real cause for concern yet imo.

I see that you're searching for optimism behind this team and I get that, I'm trying to as well. Hopefully in a couple years the Sens will have prospects that have grown and thrived and are locked up long term. Unfortunately, the moves the team seems to be making, potentially forgoing superior draft pick or prospect compensation (which would help the team not now, but in the future when spending is supposed to happen) in favor of saving some money now, when we're already above the cap floor, does not inspire confidence. This helps the owner, not the team.

And that's the problem, the team is not doing everything it can to build for the future, it's doing everything it can to save money now. I would advise to save your personal money now as well, from investing in this product until they can prove they're actually seriously trying to build something (ie. sign Chabot or make an actual move for hockey reasons).

 

[Micklebot]

Maybe you never got the memo, but the Sens have been getting crapped on for many years now... And it started long before Melnyk and his antics, which are just more fuel for the fire.

Every team gets crapped on, but prior to Melnyk the team was very well regarded as one of the better managed teams, and one of the classiest teams. That reputation started to erode imo with the hiring and subsequent actions of Muckler. He gave us swagger at the cost of classy. Well managed took longer to disappear.

 

[BatherSeason]

Maybe you never got the memo, but the Sens have been getting crapped on for many years now... And it started long before Melnyk and his antics, which are just more fuel for the fire.

I did get the memo. I am basically pointing out to the few people in here who have deemed this to be only a HFBoards point of view and not representative of how the city feels.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Read the article, I don’t disagree with anything he said. Everything he said and his suggestions are all common sense with some nice salary facts spread in there.

 

[stempniaksen]

Maybe you never got the memo, but the Sens have been getting crapped on for many years now... And it started long before Melnyk and his antics, which are just more fuel for the fire.

If you can'te tell the difference between being crapped on for being the "Leafs little brother" or whatever the argument was 10-15 years ago and being universally panned as the worst run NHL franchise I'm not sure what to tell ya.

 

[CDN24]

I see that you're searching for optimism behind this team and I get that, I'm trying to as well. Hopefully in a couple years the Sens will have prospects that have grown and thrived and are locked up long term. Unfortunately, the moves the team seems to be making, potentially forgoing superior draft pick or prospect compensation (which would help the team not now, but in the future when spending is supposed to happen) in favor of saving some money now, when we're already above the cap floor, does not inspire confidence. This helps the owner, not the team.

And that's the problem, the team is not doing everything it can to build for the future, it's doing everything it can to save money now. I would advise to save your personal money now as well, from investing in this product until they can prove they're actually seriously trying to build something (ie. sign Chabot or make an actual move for hockey reasons).

Exactly this, this is what yesterdays Callahan move proves. Tampa did not want to take on Hammond's contract that will cost them 1.3M against the Cap buried in the AHL. What type of pick/prospect would Tampa have given up without Hammond going back. A second? a third at least you would think or a mid level prospect to balance out contracts going each way. Look at what Montreal got to take on Steve Masons cap hit from winnipeg. An effective 3rd liner in Joel Armia, a 4th and a 7th round pick. To take on Callahan Sens upgraded their 6th round pick next year, likely to be 156th over all for Tampas 5th round pick likely to be anywhere from 149th to 155th overall Oh and they saved $2M in real dollars.

 

[Icelevel]

Read the article, I don’t disagree with anything he said. Everything he said and his suggestions are all common sense with some nice salary facts spread in there.

You almost convinced me to read a Wayne scanlan article. Shame on you

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

You almost convinced me to read a Wayne scanlan article. Shame on you

Well I don’t know how much you know about LTIR spending for us and what insurance covers instead but it’s laid out in the article. Nice info to see.

I think another poster put everything perfectly, when I look at these moves I don’t view them as building for the future they look like money saving moves to me.

 

[GrantLemons]

If you can'te tell the difference between being crapped on for being the "Leafs little brother" or whatever the argument was 10-15 years ago and being universally panned as the worst run NHL franchise I'm not sure what to tell ya.

I'd take it one further and say they're up there competing for worst run in all of pro sports. They win the NHL razzie easily.

 

[GrantLemons]

I personally believe Melnyk will spend when the time is right. Now is not the right time.

Imagine believing that after what has taken place over the last 18 months

 

[stempniaksen]

I'd take it one further and say they're up there competing for worst run in all of pro sports. They win the NHL razzie easily.

I was trying to remain as partial as possible, but personally, I'm with ya (outside of maybe the Rays, who've given Melnyk a run for his money).

 

[2CHAINZ]

This next season is going to feel like that Russel Crowe movie, Mystery Alaska, when a bunch of scrubs on a no-budget team need to play against real NHL teams.

Do they also finish dead last then lose the lottery and their #1 Dman ?

 

[Caeldan]

Senators won’t be competitive until they prioritize talent over finances

Also, sky is blue.

 

[BatherSeason]

Do they also finish dead last then lose the lottery and their #1 Dman ?

Knowing Dorion, he will probably lose the lottery, get the second overall pick and overthink it and go off the board and pick a guy ranked by everyone to be drafted between 20-30.