Maclean or Spezza seems to be the scenario floating out there right now.
- Cup 06

Interesting. I remeber you were right on on something. How well are you connected? Do you work in the organization?

You sense they're probably going to make Spezza the fall guy for this year, right or wrong ..
- Travis Yost

For (frank)'s sake. Why does there have to always be a fall guy? If they do this, they're not responding to the fans, they're responding to the idiot media and idiot owner. These guys are young, they need more time. If Spezza goes, so does the entire top line. And for what? You noted the return for him may be crap. Certainly not a top pairing left side defenseman. He may even end up asking for a trade depending on how the negotiations go.

I swear if Spezza goes, there is not a chance in hell this will be a playoff team next year. The trickle down will be too huge. How will the cost per point look then?

Hold onto Spezza
Sign Hemsky
Leave PM
Get 2 new asst coaches of his (PM) choice

If we are out of the playoff next season come trade deadline, we can dump Ryan and Spezza and Anderson at inflated trade deadline prices.

PM has made some strange lines combos and choices this year, but you have to give him an other shot, plus who are you going to replace him with? Trotz? Caryle?

Move S.Prince (wanted a trade this season already) and De costa/JGP this summer and bring in some help on D. (Erhoff?)
- short_bus

Laviolette...h'e still available right?

Edit: Nevermind.

Given his last half of the season, the recent ridiculous UFA contracts, and the likelihood of the salary cap going up, I think it's possible someone will sign Hemsky for up to 6.5M.
- AlfieFever

Of course they will. And he's probably worth it. He and Spezz could be frigging twins. They're skill sets are so similar, but Hemmer tends to backcheck better and be more creative. Should shoot more, just like Spezz.

We should be keeping all these guys, maybe even Michalek at a reduced rate. Should be buying out Greening, Phillips, should trade Neil. Neil would probably net a great return from a team like, say, Toronto. At 1.9M until 2016, that's a bargain for such a gritty, heart and soul player! Trade Neil, Borowiecki and Pageau, maybe even Methot, if you can get that #2D.

Oh, and keep MacLean too. He made some weird choices, but maybe he needs better assistants. Obviously a defensive coach upgrade, as well as one that can help Paul make better ice-time decisions.

I am okay if the Senators resign Spezza to a fair contact. But vigorously oppose any 8 year deal at huge dollars. Senators are at the same point as they were with Yashin. They had a good young team, but Yashin was heir best player. But just not a leader.

The team improved as soon as they dealt Yashin.

Tampa improved when they bought out LeCavalier.

Boston began a serious Stanley Cup journey by trading Joe Thornton. The Sharks have never done much other than for their early season results.

Trading Spezza would mean to be back at rebuilding from scratch immediately as the new season starts. Spezza had a back surgery the year before. That's why his start to this season was horrible. He needed to get back in shape and start trusting what he can do with the puck. Now that Spezza seems to be much better, it would be a major blow to the team to trade him. Guaranteed loss for the Sens organization if he gets traded. Its a no brainer to keep the best offensive player of the team and a potentially much better captain next year. One question that begs.... Did Anaheim trade Getzlaf after his first year as a captain? Getzlaf had also a terrible first year as a captain.

I say give a last chance to Spezza and Paul Mclean. Re-assess them mid next season. I think the team can learn from this bad season.
- PtotheY

Completely agree. Spezza is healthy now, has the whole summer to rehab. Mark my words, he will be awesome next year. They gotta treat this guy like gold right now to keep the rest of the team on board.

Completely agree. Spezza is healthy now, has the whole summer to rehab. Mark my words, he will be awesome next year. They gotta treat this guy like gold right now to keep the rest of the team on board.
- Stringer74

i think/hope it's something they'll bring up with the players in thier "year end interviews", and kind of judge how the guys would feel if they moved on from spezza.

i'm not sure if it's something that's normally done (talking about player movement with players), but after the way the team felt after losing alfi, i'd hope that management would reach out and see how guys felt, before moving spezza.

Oilerzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Botta:

In SBJ: NHL is preparing a credit facility of at least $1 billion. Would allow clubs to borrow from a loan pool.

Botta:
- Travis Yost

melnyk is probably ecstatic......gonna take out an NHL loan, against his hockey team, to buy new horsies and some of his biovail stocks back.

To me, it could go either way.

If we trade Spezza, we better damn well get a top 4 (ideally top 2) Dman. It is clear that we need D more than we need scoring. Trading our top center for a top pairing dman is a smart move.

If they trade him for another forward, it will be a waste of time.

One thing is certain, though. They need to take that C away from him immediately. I think part of the reason why he struggled so much is because of the C. He tried to play a two-way game and it didn't work. Spezza is too old to change his stripes. He is offensive and that's it.

Take the C away, give him an A, and let him do what he does. No need for him to worry about anything other than producing points and trying to play 60% of his shifts in the other team's end.

To me, it could go either way.

If we trade Spezza, we better damn well get a top 4 (ideally top 2) Dman. It is clear that we need D more than we need scoring. Trading our top center for a top pairing dman is a smart move.

If they trade him for another forward, it will be a waste of time.

One thing is certain, though. They need to take that C away from him immediately. I think part of the reason why he struggled so much is because of the C. He tried to play a two-way game and it didn't work. Spezza is too old to change his stripes. He is offensive and that's it.

Take the C away, give him an A, and let him do what he does. No need for him to worry about anything other than producing points and trying to play 60% of his shifts in the other team's end.
- Charliebox

i disagree 100% with that.

if he stays, he's the captain. the only other real options are neil or phillips, and quite frankly, that's (frank)ing terrifying.

if spezza leaves, the captain will be one of the two worst players on this team......that can't happen.

if you strip the C from spezza, then you have to COMPLETELY re-vamp the entire leadership core, and strip the A's from phillips and neil.

if it was my choice.......

C - turris
A - ryan
A - karlsson

melnyk is probably ecstatic......gonna take out an NHL loan, against his hockey team, to buy new horsies and some of his biovail stocks back.
- sensarmy_11

Hmm. Not sure if he'd be that happy about this, if there's any truth to what we've seen. If he consolidated Sens/arena debt with his other business debt (he did), it blurs the lines and he can say whatever he wants about the team's finances (he has).

If the NHL offers better rates, and better yet, forces teams to use this new finance entity, my guess is that they will require owners to separate the team debt from 'other' debt. This lets them keep a better eye on the actual health of the teams. This could, potentially, be the beginning of new ownership in Ottawa.

To me, it could go either way.

If we trade Spezza, we better damn well get a top 4 (ideally top 2) Dman. It is clear that we need D more than we need scoring. Trading our top center for a top pairing dman is a smart move.

If they trade him for another forward, it will be a waste of time.

One thing is certain, though. They need to take that C away from him immediately. I think part of the reason why he struggled so much is because of the C. He tried to play a two-way game and it didn't work. Spezza is too old to change his stripes. He is offensive and that's it.

Take the C away, give him an A, and let him do what he does. No need for him to worry about anything other than producing points and trying to play 60% of his shifts in the other team's end.
- Charliebox

Totally disagree, and you can't take the C away from a player without trading him. His is playing a much better 2-way game. You can see the improvement in the second half. Prior to that, he had zero lateral movement, and was not explosive at all. Read Mendez' article. Spezza will be a very good captain. I'm not saying sign for 8 years. 4, maybe 5, at 7-8M. He will be worth it.

Hmm. Not sure if he'd be that happy about this, if there's any truth to what we've seen. If he consolidated Sens/arena debt with his other business debt (he did), it blurs the lines and he can say whatever he wants about the team's finances (he has).

If the NHL offers better rates, and better yet, forces teams to use this new finance entity, my guess is that they will require owners to separate the team debt from 'other' debt. This lets them keep a better eye on the actual health of the teams. This could, potentially, be the beginning of new ownership in Ottawa.
- Stringer74

don't tease me man

don't tease me man
- sensarmy_11

Haha, well I'm just speculating. But you have to think that if the league suspects he's scraping team profits to finance other debt, while claiming to be a have-not team, thus not paying fairly into equalization, they wouldn't be very happy.

Haha, well I'm just speculating. But you have to think that if the league suspects he's scraping team profits to finance other debt, while claiming to be a have-not team, thus not paying fairly into equalization, they wouldn't be very happy.
- Stringer74

i really hope, after all his crying poor this year, that the league goes over his finances in GREAT DETAIL.

A trade for Spezza would start with Larsson and a first.
- karlssens

You guys don't want Larsson. Gelinas is much better

i wonder if st louis poops the bed in the playoffs, if a deal centering around spezza and shattenkirk would be possible.
- sensarmy_11

Theyre going too. Chicago is too bored in the regular season, but their real team will show up for the playoffs

Theyre going too. Chicago is too bored in the regular season, but their real team will show up for the playoffs
- Danformo

West Finals:

SJ wins 4-2 over Chicago

East Finals:

Boston wins 4-1 over NYR

SCF:

SJ wins 4-3

Avalanche/Mackinnon

Happened

= not absurd
- Cup 06

Avalanche were a worse team then we would be without the vets. Also had serious goaltending issues.

If you're going to give a guy the shiv, then do it now.

Not when the guy has had all offseason to prepare for training camp, then run it, then start the season. If you know you're going to do it, don't waste that time, then give the guy the prison-yard shank 10, 15, 20 games into the year.

It's a borderline miracle that the Flyers made the playoffs this year after doing it that way. They were 1-7, then 4-10, doing it that way, firing Peter Laviolette three games into the season after a horrific training camp and preseason.

If the East wasn't so wretched for the first 30-35 games of the season, they would've been dead and buried. At one point, they had just a 4 percent chance of making the playoffs.

I do agree that the Sens should have done better this season and I do believe that some of the reasons why they didn't are fairly obvious. And I've watched this sport for 30-plus years, so I know that a coach can get the hook at any time.

But I also believe this to be true: The East isn't going to stumble out of the gate like it did as a whole next season. Teams that screw around at the beginning...I think they're begging to get left behind.

Avalanche were a worse team then we would be without the vets. Also had serious goaltending issues.
- TommyDeVito

I pretty strongly disagree.

Karlsson obviously better than any dman the Avs had, and I probably like your depth over theirs in a significant way too. but neither group is amazing.

If I were to match up the forwards they had versus the ones you have going into next year (minus the vets), I'd probably rank O'Reilly, Stastny, Landeskog and Duchene all over Turris and Ryan. Depth forwards are similar but again with an edge to the Avs.

In a limited sample size, Lehner > Varlamov, but even this year suggested he was in tougher with a heavier workload.

All in all, I wouldn't say it's impossible for you guys to finish bottom 3 if you literally sold off every one of your vets (and got nothing good back). Unlikely hypothetical anyway.

i can see spezza to red wings, playing again with alfred