Murray Karlsson Shopping? (karlsson)

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Murray Karlsson Shopping?

By GARTH'S CORNER

Apr 13, 2016 • 7:52 am

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Three weeks ago, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk put everyone in his hockey organization on high alert.

Melnyk warned of sweeping organizational changes, and dramatic developments at every level of the organization.

On Sunday, incumbent GM Bryan Murray was reoved from his long time GM post.

On Monday, Pierre Dorion was named new GM.

On Tuesday, Dorion fired head coach Dave Cameron and two of his assistants. Cameron who was the fifth head coach in the past nine seasons in Kanata.

What will happen will Mt. Melnyk erupts on Wednesday? Thursday? Friday?

Let's wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Cameron's assistant coaches Rick Wamsley and Andre Tourigny were also fired. Assistant Jason Smith will be re-assigned to another job in the organization.

"We just felt we needed to make a whole change," said Dorion said. "At the end of the day, this was my call and I felt it was the right thing to do."

Dorion told reporters owner Eugene Melnyk has committed the proper amount of resources to find the best man available for the job.

"Mr. Melnyk made it clear to me that we have the resources to hire the best coach available," Dorion said. "We're going to hire someone good."

If Melnyk truly is serious about hiring a defensive minded, household name head coach, he better be prepared to pay north of $3 million oper season or else he will have to settle for second best.

My list of candidates to replace Cameron include future ex-Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien, Binghamton Senators head coach Luke Richardson, former NHL head coaches Marc Crawford and Guy Boucher. If the St. Louis Blues get punted in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Chicago Blackhawks and Ken Hitchcock gets canned, add his name to the Ottawa list. Ideally, Dorion is looking to have his next head coach hired by the end of June when the NHL Draft will get underway in Buffalo.

Dorion stressed that the next Ottawa head coach will be a task master about playing team-defense.

"We'll definitely look at someone who will make the commitment to have our players play defence," said Dorion.

Melnyk was critical of some of Cameron's use of personnel and nobody in the organization is pleased the club didn't making the playoffs.

After going on an historic 21-1-1 run to make the 2015 playoffs, the Senators struggled mightily in 2015-16.

The forecast calls for the gale force winds of change to continue to howl through Canada's capital for the forseeable future.

The Ottawa Senators players are next on the firing line. Melnyk is mad as Hell right now and he is not going to take the losing and mediocrity anymore.

Melnyk says that there are no untouchables on the Senators' roster.

Senators fans aren't going to like that Melnyk is exposing all of his players the scrutiny.

That includes his captain Erik Karlsson.

Karlsson has scored 100 goals and added 285 assists in 479 career regular season games in his seven season career in Ottawa.He has added another 4 goals and 15 assists in 29 casreer playoff games.

Karlsson who just posted a career year with 16 goals and 66 assists. Karlsson, 25, has three years remaining on his current contract that will make him a neat and tidy $6.5M AAV. Talk about cap friendly contract! An 80+ point D-man with a sub-$7M AAV. Props to Bryan and Tim Murray for crafting such a team-friendly contract. Karlsson is a two time Norris Trophy winner (2012, 2015) just completed his seventh NHL season. He will be nominated for the Norris again this season.

The Senators should be thinking about trading away Karlsson now in exchange for key building blocks that will assist them in a quick rebuild.

If I were Pierre Dorion, I would be phoning my friend and former co-worker Tim Murray right about now. I'd be speaking candidly with the Buffalo GM about the availability of Erik Karlsson.

Murray, the former Ottawa AGM, played an integral role in the scouting and drafting Karlsson to Ottawa from his native Landsbro, Sweden. Tim Murray knows and understands what motivates Karlsson better than any other talent evaluator in the NHL. Murray and his Ottawa scouts did their hundreds of hours of due diligence in the scouting process. Murray knows Karlsson inside and out. And, vice versa.

On Tuesday at his season ending presser, Murray sent out another S.O.S. Message to the rest of the NHL GMs and personnel men that he is still looking for a PP QB defenseman would fall from the skies. Perhaps he was talking about Karlsson, a man that he has intimate knowledge about. Murray and Dan Bylsma have been searching for a top pair D who can play alongside Rasmus Ristolainen. Their ideal candidate has to be able to play 25-27 minutes TOI per game in all situations. Karlsson averaged a whisker shy of 29 minutes TOI per game this season. He played 2,375 total minutes while playing in all 82 games.

Murray's ideal QB has to be proficient on the PP and PK. He must be able to make the first pass with dexterity and be able to skate the puck through all three zones.

Erik Karlsson checks each and every one of Tim Murray's pre-requisite boxes.

If Murray and Dorion can work it out, Karlsson would be a perfect fit for Buffalo's PP that already boasts of grauitous talents in the form of Jack Eichel, Ryan O'Reilly, Samson Reinhart, Evander Kane, and Rasmus Ristolainen.

The Senators were among the NHL's worst teams on the PP and PK units despite the fact that they had defenceman Erik Karlsson as the QB. I don't blame Karlsson for the special teams failures. I blame Cameron and his assistants for the that.

Karlsson scored 27 of his 82 points on the PP this past season. He scored 1 PPG and added 26 PP assists this season. Last season, Karlsson scored 6 PPG and added 24 PP assists. In 2013-14, Karlsson scored 5 PPG and added 26 PP assists.

One wonders if Karlsson will conform his game to his new Ottawa head coach? Would task masters like Julien, Hitchcock, Crawford, or Boucher put a saddle on the wild mustang who loves to roam the icy 200 by 85 foot prairies?

Karlsson loves to skate free and create off the rush. How will he react when his new boss tells him not to roam and gallop around but instead get to the blue line and dump and change? Will his new head coach tether him to a leash or let him be the rover?

My giess is that Julien, Hitchcock, Crawford or Boucher would shoot daggers of dirty looks at Karlsson after and end to end rush. Those coaches are so old school that they would not conform to Karlsson. He would be disciplined to play the so called sheet music that was placed in front of him, NOT improvise and freestyle.

For that, I think Karlsson would grow weary of the contact criticism of his offensive game. See Mike Therrien and P.K. Subban for anecdotal evidence.

I can gurantee you that Karlsson would not have accumulated 16Gs, 66 and 82 points this season playing for Julien in Boston or Hitchcock in St. Louis. The Sens missed the playoffs despite their captain's Herculean offensive efforts. His critics, and there a lot of them, who scoff at Karlsson's offensiive prowess. He's often criticized for using his D-zone as a place to collect his breath between rushes. Karlsson is a solid defender. He is simply type cast. He delivers 84 hits this season. He blocked 175 shots and forced takeaways. Great stats to be certain, however, his critics like to harp on Karlson's 96 giveaways and his -2 rating. How can it be that a defender who plays 29 minutes per game and accumulate 82 points in a season only be a -2?

Drew Doughty once suffered from the similar type-casting in Los Angeles. Darryl Sutter wanted mnore defense and less offense from his wild stallion. It too a couple of seasons for Terry Murray to teach Doughty the 200 foot defensive game. Doughty bought into the team concept that Sutter and Murray were selling and he sacrificed his own point totals for the benefit of the team. The results are out of this world production for Doughty, who has two Stanley Cup championship rings on his hands. Karlsson and Doughty are comparable players. Sutter and Terry Murray worked with Doughty and allowed him to buy in to their team structure. Doughty now sacrifices his personal points in order to help team win play berths, playoff series and Stanley Cup championships.

Guess who runs Buffalo's defense today?

The same Terry Murray who is respensible for transforming Drew Doughty into one of the top three most complete defensemen in the NHL. Doughty is no longer type cast as a run-n-gun man. He has re-branded his game to the point where he is mentioned in the same breath as Duncan Keith, Shea Weber, and Ryan Suter.

When was the last time that Karlsson was mentioned in the same breath as the NHL's most complete D-men?

I refer to Terry Murray as the “D-Man Whisperer… because his unique methods and positive reinforcement nurtures and strengthens his star pupils. Murray inspires his players and brings pumps their confidence up and up to it's highest heights. Look at Terry Murray's body of work. It speaks for itself.

Another selling point for Buffalo is that Dan Bylsma won a Stanley Cup in 2009 with rover Kris Letang on his blue line. Bylsma is tolerant of creativity from his blue liners whereas Julien and others may not be as forthcoming in their support.

Because Karlsson carries an affordable $6.5 million cap hit for the next three seasons, money would not be an object for Murray who has $35 million in available salary cap space for next season.

Murray also has assets (“Murrency…) to make it worth Ottawa's while to trade Karlsson to division foe Buffalo.

Remember, Tim Murray and Pierre Dorion completed a blockbuster deal when Cole Schneider, Alex Guptill, and Eric O'Dell, and defenseman Michael S'Dao arrived in AHL Rochester in exchange for Jason Akeson, Phil Varone, and defenseman Jerome Leduc.

There is an appetite for the Sabres and Sens to make trades with one another. Robin Lehner was traded to Buffalo for the 21st overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft?

On Tuesday, Dorion cited the Buffalo blue line as his first area of attention. Tim Murray can trade former first round D Mark Pysyk to Ottawa along with top six power center Zemgus Girgensons. Murray can also add in prospect Nick Baptiste and two second round draft choices. Murray may also be tempted to include his 2016 first round pick, which right now is #8 overall. Maybe its a Karlsson-Mike Hoffman trade to Buffalo in exchange for my aforementioned package along with Buffalo's 2016 first rounder. The Sabres still has an opportunity to win one of three lotteries for the top three picks in the 2016 NHL Draft. Tim Murray will know his draft selection position on April 30 when the NHL Draft Lottery takes place.

Melnyk, Dorion and whomever the new Ottawa head coach will be have some serious, serious soul searching to do as the NHL Draft and unrestricted free agency periods draw closer.

Doing business with Tim Murray may not be such a bad thing. Murray is known to the Sens ownership and management team having worked there for as long as he did. Murray also has a plethora of assets in the form of 12 picks in the 2016 NHL Draft as well as excellent roster players and prospects to create a win-win proposition for both organizations. Murray would get his QB in Karlsson and Dorion would be able to rebuild on the flying using the assets acquired is a trade for his All Star D-man.

Is Karlsson prepared to endure a rebuild during the final three years of his Ottawa contract?

Tim Murray has friends in high places at Newport Sports. That's the same agency that reps Ryan O'Reilly and Evander Kane also represents Erik Karlsson. And, that #91 guy, Steven Stamkos, from Tampa.

Tim Murray isn't messing around. He wants to add his QB, a top six superstar sniper and another sniping winger.

Murray has the unlimited financial resources, the Murrency, the draft choices, the prospects and the cajones to make a trade for Erik Karlson and to sign UFAs Steven Stamkos and Jimmy Vesey.

Go ahead. Tell Tim Murray that he can't have an early Christmas present or two, or three.

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