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

[2CHAINZ]

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.

Well ya we don't want to draft players that will be looking for big money in the future.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

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

When they can't sign Chabot, the same people will say the same thing. You know there will be some asinine excuse like Chabot was too old for the rebuild anyways (see Mark Stone).

 

[Tuna99]

If anyone believes Melnyck will spend you’re a sucker. He wouldn’t spend to keep Alfie, Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, Zibby - anyone decent who was owed a high value contract.

Suckers I tell you. Why anyone would believe him is beyond me. He’s lied to the Securities council, his own fans, the leaders of Ottawa, his players, his wife - the guys is a liar and cheap.

Cheap liars don’t think guys like Chabot are with it, they think they are arrogant for asking for market value.

 

[Knave]

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

I think people would be more reassured if there was an example of an owner in pro sports doing this to offset the dozens of examples of years of pain, forced sales, bankruptcy and relocation.

I can't think of a happy ending where an owner can barely keep the team afloat and the GM acts more like a liquidator.

 

[coladin]

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

Really? Wayne is one of the greats at covering hockey

 

[Sens]

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

So it’s not the right time to have a president of hockey? Are you serious

 

[TheDebater]

Sadly the situation in Ottawa has turned into a pain-staking game of cat and mouse, where the fans and Melnyk are alternating between who gets to be the cat, and who gets to be the mouse. Melnyk lays blame on the fanbase for lack of support at the games, and consequently, to the City of Ottawa for not giving the team a "fair chance" with a new arena downtown. His excuse is that if fans don't spend money and attend the games that he won't be able to afford to ice a competitive roster.

The fans on the other hand, believe that they are in control and that their money won't be spent on the team until Melnyk either sells, or to a lesser extent, starts spending on the team and proving to the fans that he deserves to have them spend their money at his venue. It is a vicious cycle that does not appear to be slowing down this season, and if the team struggles, the fans will not show up and if the team has some success, more fans will show up but not the bitter ones and ultimately not enough to fill the arena giving Melnyk more ammo to excuse himself from building a proper contender year in and year out.

 

[Samsquanch]

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.

But we already know that we are terribly run.... it's not like this is shocking new information.

That's my point. We already knew that he wasnt spending money this year, and that he was going to continue to try and shed bad contracts. They said as much a few times.

I never once heard about their plan to weaponize the cap space over the next couple of seasons. Did you?

I'm still holding out hope that this is all part of a larger plan for him to cash out and sell while not losing his shirt over the next season.

 

[Ice-Tray]

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.

I wonder though, if that money being saved is part of what is needed to pay for our kids in the future?

The answer of course is a new owner, but until that happens things need to carry on as best they can.

 

[Ice-Tray]

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.

The optics are terrible, and have been for long enough to have become normal.

A new ownership would allow an image reset immediately, but barring that it’s going to be a slow climb, and everything will depend on how this rebuild goes.

It’s not just an one ice rebuild at this point, but a franchise image rebuild at this point.

This team, even as kids, HAS to be entertaining, scrappy, and gritty to watch in its losses, or people will start to associate a listless on ice product with a listless off ice organization.

The inverse can also apply, slowly but surely.

 

[Acidrain66]

Sadly the situation in Ottawa has turned into a pain-staking game of cat and mouse, where the fans and Melnyk are alternating between who gets to be the cat, and who gets to be the mouse. Melnyk lays blame on the fanbase for lack of support at the games, and consequently, to the City of Ottawa for not giving the team a "fair chance" with a new arena downtown. His excuse is that if fans don't spend money and attend the games that he won't be able to afford to ice a competitive roster.

The fans on the other hand, believe that they are in control and that their money won't be spent on the team until Melnyk either sells, or to a lesser extent, starts spending on the team and proving to the fans that he deserves to have them spend their money at his venue. It is a vicious cycle that does not appear to be slowing down this season, and if the team struggles, the fans will not show up and if the team has some success, more fans will show up but not the bitter ones and ultimately not enough to fill the arena giving Melnyk more ammo to excuse himself from building a proper contender year in and year out.

Sorry it's the year of the tank, so no success

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I wonder though, if that money being saved is part of what is needed to pay for our kids in the future?

The answer of course is a new owner, but until that happens things need to carry on as best they can.

Maybe. It’s why we just have to wait and see.

I personally don’t buy the FYOUS spending stuff I think it’s just an excuse to keep a hook line to troll fans along and not lose them, but we shall see.

For me I envision a “the time still isn’t right” response from the Sens when FYOUS is supposed to happen, either that or it is never brought up again.

 

[stempniaksen]

But we already know that we are terribly run.... it's not like this is shocking new information.

That's my point. We already knew that he wasnt spending money this year, and that he was going to continue to try and shed bad contracts. They said as much a few times.

I never once heard about their plan to weaponize the cap space over the next couple of seasons. Did you?

I'm still holding out hope that this is all part of a larger plan for him to cash out and sell while not losing his shirt over the next season.

None of that has anything to do with the post I quoted, but I'll play along.

The Ottawa Senators cap space could get them veteran help

We’re having discussions … we’re having a multiple discussions,” Dorion said with a smile Thursday at the club’s downtown hotel. “A great position that we’re in right now is our flexibility with our cap space.

“We’ve alluded to that multiple times by saying that our flexibility with certain cap space allows us to take on a certain contract, possibly a guy that can help our culture, possibly a quality veteran, but at the same time we also get something that’s going to help our hockey team. Whether that’s a high pick, a really good young prospect, there are multiple avenues to look at.

“That’s something else we have to analyze and to help our team moving forward.”

Depending on what you take from those quotes, it's pretty clear that at point in time the Sens were looking to weaponize their cap space in some capacity. You can certainly argue they filled the role of "quality vet, someone that can help the culture" with the Hainsey signing. Outside of that particular move I'm not really sure what the team has actually done to weaponize cap space in terms of the rebuild.

Like you, I'll continue to hold out hope that slashing operating costs is with the end game of cashing out (admittedly, I can see why a blank slate would be seen as a positive by postential new ownership) but until that happens I don't have any hope this team will be run like an NHL franchise.

 

[InTkachukWeTrust]

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

A close source of mine said Ceci and Stone wanted to play in Vegas. I don't think Stone was ever signing here. We could've got more for Duche and Karlsson but i'm kind of happy we dodged those contracts, they could turn out bad. Those 2 players ages didn't match with our rebuild either.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

When they can't sign Chabot, the same people will say the same thing. You know there will be some asinine excuse like Chabot was too old for the rebuild anyways (see Mark Stone).

We can't even get a Colin White signing lmao.

 

[GrantLemons]

We can't even get a Colin White signing lmao.

White will be easy they said. He's not even eligible for arbitration they said

 

[Gil Gunderson]

They've literally provided fans with absolutely NOTHING to indicate there will be any interest in winning. Why does Melnyk expect anyone to buy in?

 

[JungleBeat]

Why would anybody trust Melnyk after all that he’s done in the past couple of years?

 

[Ice-Tray]

Maybe. It’s why we just have to wait and see.

I personally don’t buy the FYOUS spending stuff I think it’s just an excuse to keep a hook line to troll fans along and not lose them, but we shall see.

For me I envision a “the time still isn’t right” response from the Sens when FYOUS is supposed to happen, either that or it is never brought up again.

Agreed, I guess the only pearl of hope for me is that he made all of that fyous announcement stuff in a closed event with his sponsors and partners. It’s a least a little different being full of shit to a group of people who pay you millions and who will be negotiating future deals, vs a news release to fans.

Anyways, I’m not betting on it, just waiting to see what happens.

 

[Knave]

Another thing that is amusing is how so many people who mocked Edmonton for their youth movement (trade away their good veteran players) and years of failure that McDavid can't even fix... we're going to tank just like they did, draft first overall once or twice and not be stuck in the same situation. It's going to work for us. We laughed at them but it will work for us.

Having Karlsson and Stone even if they were passed their primes is still a huge asset. You have two intelligent and supremely talented individuals to teach the young guys.

 

[BonkTastic]

I never once heard about their plan to weaponize the cap space over the next couple of seasons. Did you?

We did get this immortal gem from Nic Ruszkowski:

"If, for the sake argument, Stone was not to stay, I would encourage people not to look at that as the final straw but look at that as opportunity in the context of the rebuild".

I'm still holding out hope that this is all part of a larger plan for him to cash out and sell while not losing his shirt over the next season.

I think every one of us can agree that's the dream, yeah.

 

[BonkTastic]

Why would anybody trust Melnyk after all that he’s done in the past couple of years?

Sports fans have been conditioned to defend their team against all criticism from outsiders. Like, when a Leafs fan starts ripping the Sens, your first instinct is to jump to defend your team.

It's hard for some fans to understand and react when that criticism is coming from within the fanbase, and sometimes they are slow to come around to the truth when that criticism is warranted.

 

[The Lewler]

I could be wrong, but I believe that last $5 mil plus annual salary contract the Sens actually signed was Bobby Ryan way back in October in 2014.

Karlsson signed in 2012.
Phaneuf was paid 6.5 million + 1 million signing bonus for the one full year he was here in 16-17. He was acquired after his bonus was paid in 15-16.
Stone signed 1 year deal at well over $5 million ($ 7 mil ++)

At any rate, maybe I'm missing someone, but it seems like a longggg time since we actually signed someone to even a middle tier long contract.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

I could be wrong, but I believe that last $5 mil plus annual salary contract the Sens actually signed was Bobby Ryan way back in October in 2014.

Karlsson signed in 2012.
Phaneuf was paid 6.5 million + 1 million signing bonus for the one full year he was here in 16-17. He was acquired after his bonus was paid in 15-16.
Stone signed 1 year deal at well over $5 million ($ 7 mil ++)

At any rate, maybe I'm missing someone, but it seems like a longggg time since we actually signed someone to even a middle tier long contract.

Hoffman

 

[The Lewler]

Hoffman

Yep I had a feeling I was missing someone.

You're right.

I think my concern is still largely supported by the last 5 years.

 

[DueDiligence]

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.

Have you seen the Blue Jay trades recently? Lots more money than the Sens but very questionable deals!