Speculation: What is Dorion's Plan for the Senators?

[RAFI BOMB]

Does anyone know, or has their been any talk about what the actual plan is for the Senators this season?
I know that Dorion mentioned he has multiple plans but it doesn't seem clear which direction this organization is heading in. I wasn't at the town hall meetings so I am not sure what exactly was discussed there but it seems like the actions the Senators have taken this offseason at least suggest that they offered noting but lip service to the fans.

As quick recap, since the cup run all of Marc Methot, Clarke MacArthur, Kyle Turris, Mike Hoffman, Derrick Brassard, Dion Phaneuf, Chris Neil, Alex Burrows, Chris Kelly, Tommy Wingels, Victor Stahlberg and Fredrick Claesson are all gone.

So far this offseason Dorion has done the following:
1. Kept the entire coaching staff around and promised that somehow they will be better this year
2. Potentially solved some of the broken dynamics in the locker room by trading Hoffman away but in the process downgraded the offensive talent by only acquiring Mikkel Boedker in return
3. Bought out the contract for Burrows
4. Signed Nick Paul to his qualifying offer
5. Signed a few AHL players (Paul Carey, Adam Tambellini, Stuart Percy)
6. Waited until the last minute to sign Mark Stone to only a 1 year extension and let the arbitrator determine the contact for Cody Ceci

Going into this season, on paper the Senators are worse than they were during the cup run and still worse than they were last season. The three most talented players on the team in Karlsson, Stone and Duchene are all on expiring contracts and there are rumors that they may not like the direction the organization is heading in and may not be interested in sticking around. The Senators 2019 1st round pick was traded as part of the package to acquire Duchene so if the Senators suck this year, which seems likely, they won't even have a chance at a top quality prospect.

What does the plan look like? Does it make any logical or rational sense? What reason is there to be excited in the Senators this season? What reason is there to have any faith in Dorion as a GM and not completely question his competency?

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[Linda Bacon]

 

[Karl Prime]

Karlsson, Stone, Duchene, and Chabot are the only reasons I'll be watching games with interest this season. And the young guys (White, Brown, Wolanin, Jaros).

 

[Engineer]

ok

 

[Fandlauer]

 

[Ouroboros]

They have a plan in place and the team will be vastly improved.

 

[2CHAINZ]

Thread title is misleading I opened thread because I thought I was going to read dorions plan.

 

[BondraTime]

They have a plan in place and the team will be vastly improved.

Vastly improved? What have we done to improve, let alone vastly improve?

(We fixed our locker room issues! While subtracting talent from a 30th place team)

We should expect a 25th-31st place finish

 

[The Lewler]

His plan is simple.

Do what Melnyk tells him to do.

If you want to be very charitable :

-Minimize damage and hold on praying for new owner while still doing what Melnyk told him to do.

 

[Hale The Villain]

His plan is simple.

Do what Melnyk tells him to do.

If you want to be very charitable :

-Minimize damage and hold on praying for new owner while still doing what Melnyk told him to do.

I don't think Dorion would survive an ownership change.

Only way he stays a GM in this league is if Melnyk remains owner. Any other competent owner would fire his incompetent ass.

 

[BonkTastic]

From all outward appearances, the plan as the owner seems to desire it is to run the team as cheaply as possible (this is not limited to the on-ice payroll, but certainly includes it) while also trying to be a playoff team, because playoff home games are part of the team's budget plan most years.

Dorion's part in this plan is to survive for as long as he can, given the hopeless directive of being competitive without any support (either through staff or budget), without losing his job.

Dorion's not a very good GM, I think most of us can agree on that, but at the same time the job he is being asked to do is borderline impossible.

 

[2CHAINZ]

Vastly improved? What have we done to improve, let alone vastly improve?

(We fixed our locker room issues! While subtracting talent from a 30th place team)

We should expect a 25th-31st place finish

Bro if you read that post and didnt understand it is sarcastic you need to get more. If you did read it knowing its sarcastic and are now reverse trolling the original troll then hat off to you sir.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

He's either had a terrible off season with nothing that looks like a plan or something big is coming down the pipe. Somehow our roster looks even worse than it did last year, so not sure where this improvement will come from unless our goalies remember how to play hockey and a ton of our youth overachieves out of nowhere. I assumed we would have at least one of our big fish locked up by now.

Even if we keep Karlsson, Stone and Duchene to start the year...

-We have a worse 2nd line center than we did the last 2 years, which leads to our 3rd line center being downgraded also.
-Our 2nd D pairing is more of a 3rd pairing guy likely to be paired with someone in over their head because they're too young and/or not good enough
-We still haven't replaced Methot, although perhaps Chabot is more ready this year.
-Our goaltending is still a hot mess consisting of what looks like an over the hill vet and an overpaid borderline backup. I saw nothing from them last year that gives me any hope at all for improvement.
-Assuming our top line is Stone, Duchene & Dzingel, our secondary scoring is non existent and we will continue to rely on injury prone Ryan, a 2nd line center that doesn't belong there, and? Boedker I guess?
-Lame duck coach on a one year deal who while I'm sure will talk a big talk about youth, will focus more on what he thinks helps his own future, not the organizations.

I'm really not seeing much of anything to give me a lot of hope for having a good season. I don't discount the possibility that anything can happen, but Imo this season has two real possible outcomes. We'll either see a new owner come in and re-sign our big guys, or we'll be in a mess shortly in to the season with our season story already written for the media with our 4 best roster players heading to UFA.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The Plan Mr. Melnyk , The Plan

 

[BondraTime]

Bro if you read that post and didnt understand it is sarcastic you need to get more. If you did read it knowing its sarcastic and are now reverse trolling the original troll then hat off to you sir.

It's the former unfortunately

 

[FlyingJ]

His plan is simple.

Do what Melnyk tells him to do.

If you want to be very charitable :

-Minimize damage and hold on praying for new owner while still doing what Melnyk told him to do.

At this point, I think Pierre has to realize that if new ownership came in he'd almost certainly be tossed. New owners would want their people put in place. He'd only stay around as long as the new owners' evaluation of the team lasted.

 

[solidprospect]

If the locker room was in fact broken it's really hard to judge how last season went and how this next season will go. And as a whole we're the most back and forth team season to season in the NHL right now.

So I think his plan was to fix the locker room. We'll see if it was.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Has there ever been a pro sports franchise go into the season with their 4 best (and only 3 star) players all as pending UFA's?

I can't think of any team in as tough of a UFA situation off the top of my head and some quick googling. That shit is not business as usual.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

The plan is to implement the plan they’ve been working on.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The Plan vs a potential work stoppage in 2020 or 2022

Leon Draisaitl and his agents negotiated what may be the prototypical lockout-proof contract. Draisaitl’s compensation is paid exclusively through the base salary in most of the years. He has a base salary of $9 million in 2018-19, $9 million in 2019-20, $8 million in 2021-22, $8 million in 2023-24, and $8 million in 2024-25. There are no bonuses payable in these seasons. However, in the two possible lockout seasons, 2020-21 and 2022-23, his base salary drops to $2 million and $1 million respectively with signing bonuses of $7 million in each of those years. His contract structure dictates that, whether or not there is a lockout, he is guaranteed to be paid $7 million for those seasons.

https://thehockeywriters.com/nhl-players-planning-lockout-signing-bonuses/

The precedent is set for contracts to include signing bonuses to protect against work stoppages. I could see Melnyk really balking at these high bonuses in years where there is reduced income. IMO this is the major stumbling block, as suggested by Stevenson on the Karlsson deal. This will be applicable to Stone and Duchene and maybe to a lesser extent Dzingel as well.. their agents will think they are not doing there jobs unless they protect the players income in the event of a lockout. These guys will all likely be traded as a result... A further one year deal walks them into a potential zero , if there is a work stoppage in 2020.

The CBA is set to expire on September 15, 2022. However, the terms of the current agreement would extend on a year to year basis from that date, unless the league or NHL Players Association (NHLPA) give written notice by May 18, 2022, that they intend to terminate the agreement. This date is crucial.
Of late, one key point of the CBA has become widely reported. Section 3.1 paragraph (b) of the CBA is the so-called opt-out clause that gives the league and the NHLPA the right to terminate the agreement before the start of the 2020-21 season.
Even more foreboding was the recent failed attempt to extend the current CBA. The league made an offer to allow players to participate in the Olympics in South Korea, in exchange for extending the current CBA by three years. The NHLPA rejected the offer due to a variety of concerns about the current deal, not the least of which is the mandated escrow payments by the players. This may seem trivial, it may also serve as the canary in the coal mine that points to trouble ahead.

 

[The Lewler]

At this point, I think Pierre has to realize that if new ownership came in he'd almost certainly be tossed. New owners would want their people put in place. He'd only stay around as long as the new owners' evaluation of the team lasted.

So then he's done under any scenario other than Melnyk retaining ownership, which in turn motivates him to shed salary and keep him happy.

 

[Tuna99]

Dorion has his talents - but managing Melnyck isn’t at the top of his list and that’s fine. Alfie, Anselmi, Dave Cameron lots of good smart accomplished people don’t like Melnyck so it’s not a quality fault.

Dorion is hard to evaluate because the team is all over the place. But the players certainly seems to have lost confidence in management (aAndy trade request, EK negotiating with other teams). Dorion has talent and I believe good qualities and wants to win, but he at times seems to struggle with the media and seems to think his job is to outsmart his own fan base which he will never do, No GM will. You can manipulate th message and smoke and mirrors your way through a lot, but you can’t tell me this team has any direction or a coherent plan in any regard. It’s a complete disaster and the best plan right now is almost just start over from scratch - new players, new owner; new management. Keep the scouts and coaches and everyone else can go IMO

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

There is no "plan" as there would have been pre-Murray/Muckler/Dorion, but it's more or less the same plan.
Tape it together and hope for a little extra gate revenue from a playoff run or bubble run.
Ideally, the plan would phase out Ryan, Smith and others and replace them with NHL-ready young talent, filling the gaps with free agents like the Leafs used to do with Steckel et al.. We don't have that luxury, so we need to hope for overachievement from our young guys and go from there.

 

[Sun God Nika]

 

[L'Aveuglette]