When the firing of Paul MacLean happened earlier this week, opinions were pretty split about whether or not the struggles of the Senators were due to coaching, or more due to the roster put in front of him to guide.
Many people point to the Senators being the lowest payroll team in the league, and not spending money to put talent on the ice. People pointed the finger at Bryan Murray for not spending wisely enough and putting the right players on the ice for MacLean to succeed.
I have defended the firing since it happened, and also in the past have criticized the Senators for the lack of spending, and have shown that if you don't spend you likely won't win. It might seem a little hypocritical, but it does mean that you have to spend wisely.
The fact of the matter is, teams like the Senators haven't blown their brains out at Free Agency time, like many other teams do. If you look at the ridiculous contracts that are handed out in early July and how often they end up being a bust, or at least underachieving, it is really tough to point the finger of blame at management.
Should the Senators have gotten involved in the bidding for Brad Richards when he went to New York? Paul Stastny when he signed for $7M/season in St. Louis? Matt Niskanen or Brooks Orpik who both defected from Pittsburgh to Washington for absolutely silly contracts? David Clarkson has been a bargain for the Leafs, hasn't he?
Ottawa arguably made one of the better free agent signings in recent memory with Clarke MacArthur two summers ago.
Yet people still point to the Alexei Kovalev signing as a major mistake. Sure, it didn't work out as you would hope, but that came in the wake of the Dany Heatley saga and the Senators needed to bring in some talent. Although enigmatic, Kovalev is widely acknowledged as one of the most skilled players ever to play the game. It simply didn't show on enough nights to make it worthwhile.
Sure, the Senators would probably like a mulligan on the Colin Greening contract, but in the grand scheme of things that is about a $1M mistake, being the difference in what he probably should be at (it wouldn't look so bad at around $1.5M) and what he is ($2.65M).
You can question the Milan Michalek re-signing, but you also have to ice a team and Michalek is a proven 20 goal guy that you have to hope has a rebound season. David Legwand signed for a reasonable 2 year, $6M deal and he is also coming off a 50 point season. For all the complaining about him, he is 2nd on the team and tied for 37th in the league in power play points. And he has had to drag around Zack Smith and Chris Neil for most of the season at even strength. That is a coaching decision. You play a 50 point guy with 2 fourth line wingers and believe it or not, he is probably not going to get 50 points. Shocking, I know.
If you look at the Senators' roster, there are way more bargains than bad contracts. Murray has built the way he has had to, building the team from the inside out. Shrewd drafting and player development. Every roster is dotted with players that teams would rather not have. People point to Greening, Phillips, Neil, Smith and the likes, but those contracts are relatively small compared with other albatrosses being carried by other teams, and it is more in the way they are being used than the actual deals in my opinion.
Murray went out and got Bobby Ryan, and the team has opened the wallet to keep him, MacArthur, Craig Anderson around and as the team matures and grows together, and as those contracts to young players expire, the payroll will grow accordingly.
As much as you can point to the payroll being low, the same team (minus pending UFA Erik Condra) is going to cost around $5M more BEFORE new contracts to Marc Methot (assuming he re-signs), Mika Zibanejad, Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Alex Chiasson are counted in next year. Remember, all of those guys except for Methot are still on their entry level deals. All of a sudden your $56M payroll with $13M in cap space becomes a $67 or $68M roster (with a projected cap of $73M) just by natural internal growth.
Like it or not, this is the core of the roster going forward and don't expect a major shakeup. The Senators have done what they have had to do to try and fill in the gaps, and as much as you can point the finger of blame at Murray and/or Melnyk for Alfredsson leaving, I don't think you can blame them for Spezza's trade request. That finger can be pointed right at the fan base, because whether you think he was thin-skinned or not, shouldering the blame for almost everything that went wrong with the team for the better part of 10 years would wear on anyone.
You can blame Murray for poor selection of coaches, and I am sure he would like a couple of do-overs, but for me the biggest mistake in recent memory was Murray leaving the bench to go to the GM office. Not because he is a bad GM, but because they have been unable to replace his presence behind the bench since that move was made.
Murray has put the pieces in place to the best of his ability, and I agree with the assessment Murray made in his press conference following MacLean's release, almost to a word. The pieces are there, but I think they could have been used a lot better. He hasn't been perfect in his decision-making, but in his job there is really nobody who is.
Sometimes I think people get too caught up in wishing and wanting what the team doesn't have and not realize what they do have. That is, a very young team that is still competing on most nights that will grow together and with a little consistency should be a playoff team despite the team never really hitting rock bottom and rebuilding on the fly.
As I said yesterday, I am not sure if Dave Cameron is the answer behind the bench, but I do know Paul MacLean in his recent (15 month) past, wasn't, and it was time to move on.