To be fair to Dorion, Ceci was a Bryan Murray pick and I remember him playing on the 67s. He was good - very, very good in the OHL. No one really criticized the pick at the time and many thought we were lucky to have him fall as far as he did as he was originally projected as a top 12 pick in his draft year.

Could he have been traded for better assets earlier in his career? Probably. That Hall trade would have been epic. But if we want to know who's responsible for his reputation in the NHL tanking as much as it did, look in the mirror. You really think that teams don't look at social media to assess fan reactions to how players are performing on top of their analytics work and scouting? Teams don't want players with dumpster fire reputations who will be the black sheep of their own fanbase after acquiring them. Ottawa fans contributed to lowering his value significantly from constant harping on his play, end of story.

That is one of the biggest unacknowledged problems with this team, its fanbase and local media coverage. With a couple of Swedish exceptions, we always eat our own. Jason Spezza - a ballerina giveaway machine according to our 'fans' despite being a point per game player and all-star while here. Joe Corvo - a guy who put up better numbers than Ceci on a bottom pairing and who was a PP specialist and huge reason we got to the Finals - and we give him the nickname 'Uh Oh'. He was the only player honest enough to say publicly what some of the issues in Ottawa were and all we did was run him out of town for it. Dany Heatley - enough said. Wade Redden - multiple year all-star, only d-man we've had so far to crack the Canadian Olympic team roster and the dude who started the whole Wade's World charity for CHEO kids that other players continued after he left - nope, just an overpaid coke head we lost Chara to keep according to our fans. Cody Ceci - just more of the same.

Look in the mirror if you wanna know a huge reason why this team is in the state it's in. The fans to a large degree are part of the problem. You all want Melnyk gone yet when he could have literally just been put out to pasture years ago from liver failure, the fans stepped up and saved his life to let him continue to be the person he is while managing this team. Then we resent him for the decisions made since.

We don't show up to games because it's too far or too cold, and then we resent a cheapo owner for his thriftiness while refusing to pay well below NHL average seat prices despite being one of the wealthiest communities in the country based on average household income.

How do people think we are gonna be able to finance the high end scouting and analytics department we need and expect? Government grants (no, that's only for stadium construction...)? Charity BBQs? More debt loading making it impossible to pay the players we eventually obtain from this scouting bump? Our revenue sharing or TV monies which all get swallowed up by player contracts and our expanding LTIR and salary retention list?

Until this mindset of 'it's somebody else's problem to deal with' changes and we start to actually put our money where our mouths are and show some freaking positivity and optimism for once, not much is gonna change around this team. Hell, even if we do that it may not change much given our owner's approach to management, but it may actually be worth trying for once!

Curios perspective. Think about what you're saying. So many fans are now insisting that they have always known that Ceci was not a very good hockey player. Yet there is more than ample evidence that multiple teams once thought that Ceci was very good player.

That is the essence of the issue. The pro evaluators got it wrong and the amateurs are convinced they were right all along. The difficulty is once you think you are right, in this kind of war of opinions, you don't ever want to be proven wrong.

The fan base that was hostile to Ceci is now hoping against hope that Ceci fails miserably in Toronto. If he succeeds they will be even more bitter. But, if he fails they will feel triumphant in themselves because they were right all along.

Larry Murphy was despised by the Leaf fan base. Far worse than Ceci, he was booed by everyone any time he touched the puck. His play ultimately became a projection of the fan hostility. Finally, it got so bad the Leafs traded him. He went to Detroit and later Pittsburgh where he was an all star and the winner of Stanley Cups. I am sure there are still Leaf fans rattling around insisting he was always a bad player despite loading up on post season success..

I hope Ceci does well in Toronto. I simply cannot embrace the bitterness and mean spirit shown towards him.
- spatso

His value continuously got lower and lower though, which is why he was given up for not much in the end. Cody Ceci is not Larry Murphy, but I do hope he can at least find some success. This blog wasn't about bitterness and mean spirit towards Ceci, it was about the frustration towards the team for not realizing what they had.

To be fair to Dorion, Ceci was a Bryan Murray pick and I remember him playing on the 67s. He was good - very, very good in the OHL. No one really criticized the pick at the time and many thought we were lucky to have him fall as far as he did as he was originally projected as a top 12 pick in his draft year.

Could he have been traded for better assets earlier in his career? Probably. That Hall trade would have been epic. But if we want to know who's responsible for his reputation in the NHL tanking as much as it did, look in the mirror. You really think that teams don't look at social media to assess fan reactions to how players are performing on top of their analytics work and scouting? Teams don't want players with dumpster fire reputations who will be the black sheep of their own fanbase after acquiring them. Ottawa fans contributed to lowering his value significantly from constant harping on his play, end of story.

That is one of the biggest unacknowledged problems with this team, its fanbase and local media coverage. With a couple of Swedish exceptions, we always eat our own. Jason Spezza - a ballerina giveaway machine according to our 'fans' despite being a point per game player and all-star while here. Joe Corvo - a guy who put up better numbers than Ceci on a bottom pairing and who was a PP specialist and huge reason we got to the Finals - and we give him the nickname 'Uh Oh'. He was the only player honest enough to say publicly what some of the issues in Ottawa were and all we did was run him out of town for it. Dany Heatley - enough said. Wade Redden - multiple year all-star, only d-man we've had so far to crack the Canadian Olympic team roster and the dude who started the whole Wade's World charity for CHEO kids that other players continued after he left - nope, just an overpaid coke head we lost Chara to keep according to our fans. Cody Ceci - just more of the same.

Look in the mirror if you wanna know a huge reason why this team is in the state it's in. The fans to a large degree are part of the problem. You all want Melnyk gone yet when he could have literally just been put out to pasture years ago from liver failure, the fans stepped up and saved his life to let him continue to be the person he is while managing this team. Then we resent him for the decisions made since.

We don't show up to games because it's too far or too cold, and then we resent a cheapo owner for his thriftiness while refusing to pay well below NHL average seat prices despite being one of the wealthiest communities in the country based on average household income.

How do people think we are gonna be able to finance the high end scouting and analytics department we need and expect? Government grants (no, that's only for stadium construction...)? Charity BBQs? More debt loading making it impossible to pay the players we eventually obtain from this scouting bump? Our revenue sharing or TV monies which all get swallowed up by player contracts and our expanding LTIR and salary retention list?

Until this mindset of 'it's somebody else's problem to deal with' changes and we start to actually put our money where our mouths are and show some freaking positivity and optimism for once, not much is gonna change around this team. Hell, even if we do that it may not change much given our owner's approach to management, but it may actually be worth trying for once!


- ahjnkn

This has got to be the strangest instance of blaming the fanbase I've ever seen. So...it's the fans fault that Ceci's value kept going down because they were negative about him on social media? As if other front offices look at Twitter and decide if a player is good or not? I've never once seen an argument like that, wow.

To be fair to Dorion, Ceci was a Bryan Murray pick and I remember him playing on the 67s. He was good - very, very good in the OHL. No one really criticized the pick at the time and many thought we were lucky to have him fall as far as he did as he was originally projected as a top 12 pick in his draft year.

Could he have been traded for better assets earlier in his career? Probably. That Hall trade would have been epic. But if we want to know who's responsible for his reputation in the NHL tanking as much as it did, look in the mirror. You really think that teams don't look at social media to assess fan reactions to how players are performing on top of their analytics work and scouting? Teams don't want players with dumpster fire reputations who will be the black sheep of their own fanbase after acquiring them. Ottawa fans contributed to lowering his value significantly from constant harping on his play, end of story.

That is one of the biggest unacknowledged problems with this team, its fanbase and local media coverage. With a couple of Swedish exceptions, we always eat our own. Jason Spezza - a ballerina giveaway machine according to our 'fans' despite being a point per game player and all-star while here. Joe Corvo - a guy who put up better numbers than Ceci on a bottom pairing and who was a PP specialist and huge reason we got to the Finals - and we give him the nickname 'Uh Oh'. He was the only player honest enough to say publicly what some of the issues in Ottawa were and all we did was run him out of town for it. Dany Heatley - enough said. Wade Redden - multiple year all-star, only d-man we've had so far to crack the Canadian Olympic team roster and the dude who started the whole Wade's World charity for CHEO kids that other players continued after he left - nope, just an overpaid coke head we lost Chara to keep according to our fans. Cody Ceci - just more of the same.

Look in the mirror if you wanna know a huge reason why this team is in the state it's in. The fans to a large degree are part of the problem. You all want Melnyk gone yet when he could have literally just been put out to pasture years ago from liver failure, the fans stepped up and saved his life to let him continue to be the person he is while managing this team. Then we resent him for the decisions made since.

We don't show up to games because it's too far or too cold, and then we resent a cheapo owner for his thriftiness while refusing to pay well below NHL average seat prices despite being one of the wealthiest communities in the country based on average household income.

How do people think we are gonna be able to finance the high end scouting and analytics department we need and expect? Government grants (no, that's only for stadium construction...)? Charity BBQs? More debt loading making it impossible to pay the players we eventually obtain from this scouting bump? Our revenue sharing or TV monies which all get swallowed up by player contracts and our expanding LTIR and salary retention list?

Until this mindset of 'it's somebody else's problem to deal with' changes and we start to actually put our money where our mouths are and show some freaking positivity and optimism for once, not much is gonna change around this team. Hell, even if we do that it may not change much given our owner's approach to management, but it may actually be worth trying for once!


- ahjnkn

Also a big yikes for insinuating that the person who donated a liver to Melnyk should have let him die as if him being selfless is part of the reason why Ottawa sucks right now. I get what you're saying about him not owning the team anymore, but come on man, you can't seriously be blaming the entire fanbase for one person being a selfless human being.

Maybe the problem with Ceci was lack of player development? Isn't the team responsible for capitalizing on the potential as well not just the player's responsibility to work on their game?

This has got to be the strangest instance of blaming the fanbase I've ever seen. So...it's the fans fault that Ceci's value kept going down because they were negative about him on social media? As if other front offices look at Twitter and decide if a player is good or not? I've never once seen an argument like that, wow.
- Trevor Shackles

I'll agree with Trevor. Although, I have to say Ceci not developing is on him mostly and the team partially.

Nowadays these guys get paid enough to hire people to train them and to fix holes in their game to the extent possible.

To be fair to Dorion, Ceci was a Bryan Murray pick and I remember him playing on the 67s. He was good - very, very good in the OHL. No one really criticized the pick at the time and many thought we were lucky to have him fall as far as he did as he was originally projected as a top 12 pick in his draft year.

Could he have been traded for better assets earlier in his career? Probably. That Hall trade would have been epic. But if we want to know who's responsible for his reputation in the NHL tanking as much as it did, look in the mirror. You really think that teams don't look at social media to assess fan reactions to how players are performing on top of their analytics work and scouting? Teams don't want players with dumpster fire reputations who will be the black sheep of their own fanbase after acquiring them. Ottawa fans contributed to lowering his value significantly from constant harping on his play, end of story.

That is one of the biggest unacknowledged problems with this team, its fanbase and local media coverage. With a couple of Swedish exceptions, we always eat our own. Jason Spezza - a ballerina giveaway machine according to our 'fans' despite being a point per game player and all-star while here. Joe Corvo - a guy who put up better numbers than Ceci on a bottom pairing and who was a PP specialist and huge reason we got to the Finals - and we give him the nickname 'Uh Oh'. He was the only player honest enough to say publicly what some of the issues in Ottawa were and all we did was run him out of town for it. Dany Heatley - enough said. Wade Redden - multiple year all-star, only d-man we've had so far to crack the Canadian Olympic team roster and the dude who started the whole Wade's World charity for CHEO kids that other players continued after he left - nope, just an overpaid coke head we lost Chara to keep according to our fans. Cody Ceci - just more of the same.

Look in the mirror if you wanna know a huge reason why this team is in the state it's in. The fans to a large degree are part of the problem. You all want Melnyk gone yet when he could have literally just been put out to pasture years ago from liver failure, the fans stepped up and saved his life to let him continue to be the person he is while managing this team. Then we resent him for the decisions made since.

We don't show up to games because it's too far or too cold, and then we resent a cheapo owner for his thriftiness while refusing to pay well below NHL average seat prices despite being one of the wealthiest communities in the country based on average household income.

How do people think we are gonna be able to finance the high end scouting and analytics department we need and expect? Government grants (no, that's only for stadium construction...)? Charity BBQs? More debt loading making it impossible to pay the players we eventually obtain from this scouting bump? Our revenue sharing or TV monies which all get swallowed up by player contracts and our expanding LTIR and salary retention list?

Until this mindset of 'it's somebody else's problem to deal with' changes and we start to actually put our money where our mouths are and show some freaking positivity and optimism for once, not much is gonna change around this team. Hell, even if we do that it may not change much given our owner's approach to management, but it may actually be worth trying for once!


- ahjnkn

To be fair to Dorion, Ceci was a Bryan Murray pick and I remember him playing on the 67s. He was good - very, very good in the OHL. No one really criticized the pick at the time and many thought we were lucky to have him fall as far as he did as he was originally projected as a top 12 pick in his draft year.

Could he have been traded for better assets earlier in his career? Probably. That Hall trade would have been epic. But if we want to know who's responsible for his reputation in the NHL tanking as much as it did, look in the mirror. You really think that teams don't look at social media to assess fan reactions to how players are performing on top of their analytics work and scouting? Teams don't want players with dumpster fire reputations who will be the black sheep of their own fanbase after acquiring them. Ottawa fans contributed to lowering his value significantly from constant harping on his play, end of story.

That is one of the biggest unacknowledged problems with this team, its fanbase and local media coverage. With a couple of Swedish exceptions, we always eat our own. Jason Spezza - a ballerina giveaway machine according to our 'fans' despite being a point per game player and all-star while here. Joe Corvo - a guy who put up better numbers than Ceci on a bottom pairing and who was a PP specialist and huge reason we got to the Finals - and we give him the nickname 'Uh Oh'. He was the only player honest enough to say publicly what some of the issues in Ottawa were and all we did was run him out of town for it. Dany Heatley - enough said. Wade Redden - multiple year all-star, only d-man we've had so far to crack the Canadian Olympic team roster and the dude who started the whole Wade's World charity for CHEO kids that other players continued after he left - nope, just an overpaid coke head we lost Chara to keep according to our fans. Cody Ceci - just more of the same.

Look in the mirror if you wanna know a huge reason why this team is in the state it's in. The fans to a large degree are part of the problem. You all want Melnyk gone yet when he could have literally just been put out to pasture years ago from liver failure, the fans stepped up and saved his life to let him continue to be the person he is while managing this team. Then we resent him for the decisions made since.

We don't show up to games because it's too far or too cold, and then we resent a cheapo owner for his thriftiness while refusing to pay well below NHL average seat prices despite being one of the wealthiest communities in the country based on average household income.

How do people think we are gonna be able to finance the high end scouting and analytics department we need and expect? Government grants (no, that's only for stadium construction...)? Charity BBQs? More debt loading making it impossible to pay the players we eventually obtain from this scouting bump? Our revenue sharing or TV monies which all get swallowed up by player contracts and our expanding LTIR and salary retention list?

Until this mindset of 'it's somebody else's problem to deal with' changes and we start to actually put our money where our mouths are and show some freaking positivity and optimism for once, not much is gonna change around this team. Hell, even if we do that it may not change much given our owner's approach to management, but it may actually be worth trying for once!

Jeez, projecting much?

I have very good sources who told me that just before the Zaitsev trade, the Hurricanes were going to trade Aho for Ceci.

I was sticking to your theme of blatant ignorance ,besides you don't deserve to wear the O
- Senut

This has to be a joke right?

Why do you need to ask 'You're the leaf fan

anyway all i was trying to say Trevor is why are all your posts negative ?
Does Michael Carcone have any upside ?
who are our new assistant coaches ?
whats happening in Belleville ?
why do people who don't actually go to games or buy merch or TV packages
complain that the Sens don't spend to the cap ?
answer a few of those Trevor and I'll help paint targets on Boedkers back
- Senut

I’ve got no prob with Trevor’s articles.

Matter of fact I think he doesn’t rip this team hard enough.

What positives do you really wanna discuss? The coach who got ripped for his defensive schemes when he was with the leafs? You wanna talk about Capuano?
Does he get you excited for this coming season?

Carcone!?? Like, would you like Trevor to discuss how he’s the future of this organization when he’s nothing more then a body who might come up and play bottom 6 minutes?

The only positive of this coming season will be that the sens will be bad enough to draft a potential star in a star studded draft class. Hopefully bad enough to get Lafreniere.

Man you are a whiner ,and my voice command doesn't do punctuation all that well because I literally drool my words out since they removed my lower mandible but thanks for pointing that out
- Senut

Type with your toes then. 🤷🏻‍♂️🙈😱😬

Man you are a whiner ,and my voice command doesn't do punctuation all that well because I literally drool my words out since they removed my lower mandible but thanks for pointing that out
- Senut

I'm not a whiner I'm just pointing out that I do my work despite you saying otherwise.

You deny you're negative in your first statement then prove that you are in the next
Also before you say where Ottawa stood in spending since Melnyk bought the team do your research, do not rely on gas-lit rumors ,look it up and post your results I dare you to.
In my opinion Boedker does't make it past training camp
- Senut

Saying "Carcone is an AHL player" is not being negative, that's just who he is, and I don't really care about that. There's a difference between a pretty clear fact and just outright being negative for no reason. Also I said *right after that* that Belleville should be pretty decent next year. So much for my negativity though, right?

Man you are a whiner ,and my voice command doesn't do punctuation all that well because I literally drool my words out since they removed my lower mandible but thanks for pointing that out
- Senut

Oh man, Melnyk's robot-trolls are getting weirder and weirder every day.

I'm not a whiner I'm just pointing out that I do my work despite you saying otherwise.
- Trevor Shackles

Never explain and never apologize.

You are doing a fine job.

If I agreed with all your opinions I might stop reading.

Difference of opinion is what drives dialogue.

Wtf is going on in this thread?! TrevEr, don't feed the trolls, man.

Never explain and never apologize.

You are doing a fine job.

If I agreed with all your opinions I might stop reading.

Difference of opinion is what drives dialogue.
- spatso

You are slightly incorrect.

*attempted* differences of opinion, drives dialogue.

Wtf is going on in this thread?! TrevEr, don't feed the trolls, man.
- PavohnDatsvares

Yeah, Shackles really should have ignored this idiot.

I mean, at least spell my name right, man.
- Trevor Shackles

Just ignore him, it’s obviously AJNKHN (or whatever his name is) who’s angry you called out his idiotic post on Twitter.

Sens have 11 draft picks next June. five picks in the first two rounds.

Bobby Ryan and Zack Smith stick out as veteran players with contracts that extend beyond next year. But, we all know the only reason they remain on the Sens roster is because Dorion could not move their contracts.

So, how are we to understand Zaitsev? He has five years remaining on his deal at $4.5m on the CAP. There is something going on here that is inconsistent with everything else. On the surface the trade seems fair and balanced for both teams. But, it is totally outside the Sen's obvious rebuild strategy.

Marner's contract status was a huge strategic problem for the Leafs. The Zaitsev deal provided timely short term relief, sort of an insurance policy against any offer sheet sneak attack.

The Sen's really helped the Leafs out of a short term bind. Why?

Sens have 11 draft picks next June. five picks in the first two rounds.

Bobby Ryan and Zack Smith stick out as veteran players with contracts that extend beyond next year. But, we all know the only reason they remain on the Sens roster is because Dorion could not move their contracts.

So, how are we to understand Zaitsev? He has five years remaining on his deal at $4.5m on the CAP. There is something going on here that is inconsistent with everything else. On the surface the trade seems fair and balanced for both teams. But, it is totally outside the Sen's obvious rebuild strategy.

Marner's contract status was a huge strategic problem for the Leafs. The Zaitsev deal provided timely short term relief, sort of an insurance policy against any offer sheet sneak attack.

The Sen's really helped the Leafs out of a short term bind. Why?
- spatso

Because o f the bonuses that saved the Sens money I would imagine.

Because o f the bonuses that saved the Sens money I would imagine.
- david22

This might make sense if the Sens are confident that they can move Zaitsev at the deadline for a pick or prospect.

More than satisfied that Cody Ceci for Connor Brown is a good deal for the Sens.

But, totally baffled how Zaitsev fits. He is on a long term deal and the Sens are loaded with defensive prospects who will be fighting for ice time over the next few years.

Never explain and never apologize.

You are doing a fine job.

If I agreed with all your opinions I might stop reading.

Difference of opinion is what drives dialogue.
- spatso

Agreed. Love the blog, Trevor even if I don't always reply.

Keep up the good work!

Also a big yikes for insinuating that the person who donated a liver to Melnyk should have let him die as if him being selfless is part of the reason why Ottawa sucks right now. I get what you're saying about him not owning the team anymore, but come on man, you can't seriously be blaming the entire fanbase for one person being a selfless human being.
- Trevor Shackles

All the gripes about the way Melnyk managed the team and his poor ownership style predate his health problems. Whoever it was that donated knew there was a risk of this management style continuing to happen and I still resent how the entire infrastructure of the team was used at the time to identify a donor for him and jump the organ donor cue list rather than letting him rely on the public health system like any other patient.

That jackass has spent his whole life structuring his financial affairs to get out of paying as many taxes as possible to put towards our health care system and should have lived/died with the consequences of that choice rather than jumping the queue in favour of others who also needed livers but couldn't afford them. It disgusted me then and it disgusts me now especially since I have had friends rely on public waitlists for organ donations who have died waiting on a donor match, yet that guy gets saved in less than a week's notice because of the benevolence of our community and willingness of our two tier system to let him jump the queue? All so he can continue to manage a team in such a spendthrift way that they will never win again for however long he lives? (frank) that.

As for the points on me projecting, that's fair and I accept it. I've been a paying fan of this team since 1992-93 and seen the many evolutions and behaviours of the fanbase here. We gripe about underinvestment and then withdraw our own investments in the team at times it is needed most. We slag our players worse than any other fanbase outside of Toronto and expect them to continue to love us. I'm tired of seeing the negativity not being called out, and tired of people not putting their money where their mouth is to get the team to where they want it to be. It's like the electoral system - if you can't/shouldn't complain if you don't vote, you can't gripe about a cheap owner if you aren't willing to buy the underpriced tickets or merchandise.