News Article: The Senators are the worst-run Canadian NHL team.

[AchtzehnBaby]

Scott Stinson: The Senators are the worst-run Canadian NHL team. Given the competition, that’s some achievement

“It takes some doing to be the most poorly run of the Canadian NHL franchises in a world in which the Edmonton Oilers also exist, but the Sens are making a fine run at pulling it off.

To be charitable for a minute, Ottawa does have a good pool of young players and prospects: Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Maxime Lajoie at the NHL level, plus others in the pipeline.”

Click to read more...

 

[Neiler]

Can't believe they specified "Canadian". Story should have said "professional team in any sport" instead.

 

[Ouroboros]

The worst, eh? You might even say...


...unparalleled.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

I liked this one:

“Which reminds me of one last quote from Mark Awkwardly Interviews Eugene, when the owner was talking about how he thought Sens fans were really excited about the team’s new direction. “We gotta give them the hope that they know that we know what we are doing,” he said.
I do not imagine many Sens fans hope that, presently.”

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Woooooo!

We're Number 1!!

 

[Masked]

I'd still take our situation over Edmonton's. There's no hope there of the owner ever getting ousted. Any decent person brought in to manage will get worn down into a moron by the alumni group camped out in the executive offices. The team can't draft unless they get the first overall pick and even then it is dicey. The only free agents who will sign there are massively overpaid.

At least here it seems like Eugene's hold might be on tenuous ground and we've demonstrated an ability to produce quality young players.

 

[NyQuil]

I'd still take our situation over Edmonton's.

They have the best player in hockey.

That's something.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

They have the best player in hockey.

That's something.

We’re a team though.

 

[BonkTastic]

I'm going to go ahead and file this under "no sh*t, Sherlock".

 

[Brannstorm]

Ok, points in the artice I see:

-1)Melnyk was both speaking of a rebuild process and speaking (at least at the beginning of the year) that we would do well this year in his mind. Counter-intuitive.

-2)Dorion traded Karlsson for prospects and young cheap depth players. So here followed the rebuild path. Only again this would seem counter-intuitive because we had already traded away our #1 pick (which in hindsight probably was the reason for Melnyk's anxiety and have it both way answers)
My 2 cents: I think what had been forgotten was that Karlsson needed to be traded, that locker room was so divided. There were too many egos hurt. IMO Turris was sour, Karlsson and Hoffman who even knows what went on there. Blame the organisation if you want but these grown men had 3 year old level hissy fits a year after almost winning a cup.

- 3) Melnyk said 10 rookies to play this year for the rebuild. Only 5 have been infused. Well I think here this is a good balance. We lead the NHL in a lot of rookie categories and all of the combined point totals for rookies because we have so many good ones! If we added more it would hurt their development, so we didn't. I would see this differently from the author who felt (I guess) that Melnyk should have kept his word about that too.

-4) The Duchene trade in hindsight shouldn't have been made. IMO especially if the rift in the organisation was already known. However at the time it was a good hockey trade, We got Duchene for Turris and a pick we thought would suck. We gave Bowers and not Batherson or Formenton. We all felt we had a good team after the playoff run. Turris apparently didn't even negotiate or compromise at all he had to go. We will get a bunch of stuff back for Duchene I hope help. also duchene played better here, showed his full potential.

In conclusion, I think Melnyk's inconsistencies are the main problem. Being honest and following through is the biggest problem with the organisation. However I wholeheartedly disagree with the line that we are the most poorly run Canadian franchise even after the Oilers. The auther made that statement and then immediately qualified it with "To be charitable for a minute, Ottawa does have a good pool of young players and prospects: Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk, Colin White, Maxime Lajoie at the NHL level, plus others in the pipeline."

I think that's a huge problem with media analysing our team. They don't look at our drafting and devlopment and if they do they see the success and dismiss it "charitably". We have so much more Depth than the oilers it is crazy. PD has drafted and recognised talent very well IMO. If it weren't for Melnyk's unlikeable characteristics and our lack of money we would be the best team in the league. And I think we still will be once our depth rises. Ottawa rising.

 

[hockey20000]

I wouId say we the 2nd worse Edmonton is the worse run easiIy… you got best pIayer in worId and stiII can't turn things around .

 

[Upgrayedd]

Id argue you can remove "Canadian NHL" from the title of the article, im having a hard time currently finding a team that comes close to the mismanagement that has occurred over the last few seasons.

Unless Edmonton's owner has come out and said he plans on spending as little as possible and doesn't care in the least about the product he provides to his former customers and are planning to trade McD, they could be close I guess.

 

[BonkTastic]

I wouId say we the 2nd worse Edmonton is the worse run easiIy

The fact that they fired Chiarelli and seem committed thoroughly to fixing the situation there (despite how hard it will be, I certainly don't envy the guy whose job it will be to fix that cap mess) shows that at the very least, they:
1) have identified the problem, and
2) they have shown a willingness to spend money to fix their problems.

It's close for sure, but IMO those two points put them ahead of us.

you got best pIayer in worId and stiII can't turn things around .

You could almost say the same thing about us and Karlsson last year.

 

[hockey20000]

The fact that they fired Chiarelli and seem committed thoroughly to fixing the situation there (despite how hard it will be, I certainly don't envy the guy whose job it will be to fix that cap mess) shows that at the very least, they:
1) have identified the problem, and
2) they have shown a willingness to spend money to fix their problems.

It's close for sure, but IMO those two points put them ahead of us.

theey spend money on useIess pIayers Iike Iucic IoI...

 

[BonkTastic]

theey spend money on useIess pIayers Iike Iucic IoI...

Same as us and Bobby Ryan...

Plus, they got Lucic for free. We had to give up a 1st and Silfverberg for our cap anchor.

 

[Masked]

The fact that they fired Chiarelli and seem committed thoroughly to fixing the situation there

If they were really committed to fixing the situation they'd dump Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish and Scott Howson. Instead they scapegoat Chiarelli while the buffoons who have been running the organization into the ground for decades are still around.

 

[BonkTastic]

If they were really committed to fixing the situation they'd dump Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish and Scott Howson.

You could say the same thing about Melnyk & Dorion.

 

[BatherSeason]

IMO especially if the rift in the organisation was already known.

What is this "rift" you are talking about? There was no rift, only one that Melnyk and Dorion used as an excuse to cut costs. Karlsson's Instagram account was littered with him hanging out with current Sens players throughout the summer.

The only rift that existed was between the wives of EK and Hoff. When Hoff was traded, that should have solved it, but EK "wanted to be paid", just like every other upcoming UFA, Melnyk didn't like that. Thus, the real rift between the owner and the fanbase began.

Karlsson, Duchene, Stone, Dzingel, Hoffman. 5 star players that have been moved within a 10 month period. This has never happened in sports before and there is no reason to let Melnyk/Dorion off the hook here.

 

[Peptic Balcers]

Same as us and Bobby Ryan...

Plus, they got Lucic for free. We had to give up a 1st and Silfverberg for our cap anchor.

Bobby Ryan produces at a 2nd line rate while being paid like a top line winger. Lucic has already bottomed out.

Bobby's contract is awful, and has way too much term but its not nearly as bad as Lucic's

 

[Boud]

Arguing on who's worse between the Oilers and the Sens management is like arguing whether you'd rather have a car with no engine or an engine with no car...

Maybe you like one more than the other but both are useless and won't get you anywhere. To me this is a conversation that's going nowhere. Oilers and Sens are top 2 worst run franchises in hockey. To me it's not really relevant who's in a worse position than the other.

 

[Very Stable Genius]

They have the best player in hockey.

That's something.

And a brand new downtown arena.

 

[BondraTime]

The fact that they fired Chiarelli and seem committed thoroughly to fixing the situation there (despite how hard it will be, I certainly don't envy the guy whose job it will be to fix that cap mess) shows that at the very least, they:
1) have identified the problem, and
2) they have shown a willingness to spend money to fix their problems.

It's close for sure, but IMO those two points put them ahead of us.



You could almost say the same thing about us and Karlsson last year.

The Sens aren't badly managed, we've just successfully discovered 10,000 ways to fail
- Thomas Edison

........... -Michael Scott

........................ - Eugene & Pierre

 

[Xspyrit]

Why is there a need to make it all complicated and everything?

It's only one person responsible for all of this

He hired a cheap unqualified GM, AGM and a cheap coaching staff and that's what it does at the end of the day

I don't blame Guy Boucher one minute, he should have been hired as an assistant coach. I don't blame Dorion, he should be AGM and/or in charge of scouting and drafting. I believe they're good people that are good hockey heads but are completely miscast in their current position. Is it their fault? No, they took the job and the salary and most importantly, the challenge. But as shown in the last 2 seasons, it was too big for them, even though they had success the first season, which was mainly due to the team that Murray built.

Since we don't have access to Melnyk's accountants work, it's hard to say how much it's him being cheap and how much it is because the team is not profitable. Sure, he owns the arena so he makes profits on other venues but that doesn't mean that he will accept losing millions every year with the hockey team. He manages this business like he would for any other type of businesses (I have to specify here, this is not MY opinion). The problem is that there's FANS who care... I have worked for a Claridge company in the past and watched them go for a + 10 M$ investment write-off just like that, instead on investing and re-work the brand and products of the division. It was a big company purge after the financial crisis of 2008 but just a succession of mismanagement after me and my boss were gone. On the website, their management style says "Collaborative approach with management." I would say lol to this.

Anyway, Melnyk doesn't have the management style required to operate a NHL franchise, first he should stay quiet all the time (outside of talking about positive stuff like foundations, etc) and he should know where to put his money. COACHING is vital and can actually fix a lot of problems, teach the young guys the right way.

Here's a rich club who has hired competent and qualified personnel :

Hockey Operations

Melnyk was lucky to have a quality executive like Murray for years, who delayed the inevitable. I was wondering why Murray was constantly hiring unproven coaches. Now I know why

There's another thing as to why Melnyk is very lucky : Sens drafting has been one of the best since Murray took over in 2008.

 

[BonkTastic]

Bobby Ryan produces at a 2nd line rate while being paid like a top line winger. Lucic has already bottomed out.

Bobby's contract is awful, and has way too much term but its not nearly as bad as Lucic's

My point was that "one bad contract" is not the exclusive domain of the Edmonton Oilers.

 

[Senscore]

"The Senators are the worst-run Canadian NHL team."