Garrioch has inside information because he's essentially on the team payroll. He releases what they tell him to release and makes it sound nice. Very little actual reporting or sleuthing or contacts with him beyond what PD tells him.
- Octavarium

Yes, I appreciate that what we hear from Garrioch is what the Sens want us to hear. I would think that the nugget in the reporting is that the Sens might be setting up to move out Connor Brown.

Larry Brooks who does much the same for the Rangers as Garrioch does for the Sens is commenting this morning that the rumours out of Montreal that the Rangers are interested in Dubois have been started by the Jets. Rangers cannot afford Dubois as much as he would be a great fit playing behind Zibanejad.

Still think Ottawa and Philly match up.

You want a top 6 wing. Travis Konecny could be had. His numbers are comparable to Fiala over his career and also only a 5.5mil cap hit.
- J35Bacher

I like Konecny. But for some reason his game has gone soft. Conor Brown gives you more at less cost.

Report: Gaudette won't receive qualifying offer from Sens

https://www.tsn.ca/adam-g...cted-free-agent-1.1819464

Still think Ottawa and Philly match up.

You want a top 6 wing. Travis Konecny could be had. His numbers are comparable to Fiala over his career and also only a 5.5mil cap hit.
- J35Bacher

Where the hell do you see comparable numbers? I'm happy the Sens didn't go for Fiala and would be shocked if they even thought about Konecny.

Everyday Sens did nice job of summarizing long windy article by Bruce:

Notes from Bruce:

- Colin White is a likely buyout candidate.

- Zaitsev could be traded with a sweetener.

- Sens weren’t interested in Fiala’s $7.9M AAV.

- AGM search almost done.

- Sens are listening to offers for Connor Brown.

- Habs want another top ten pick.

And, as usual, we assume that all information from Bruce was planted by the Sens.

I remember when Patrick Lalime was the starter. Whenever an opposing player would send the puck out of their own end of the ice and it would slide down towards the Ottawa net the whole building would collectively hold their breath and hope that Lalime wouldn't let it get by him. That's how I feel about Dorion at this time of year,

Everyday Sens did nice job of summarizing long windy article by Bruce:

Notes from Bruce:

- Colin White is a likely buyout candidate.

- Zaitsev could be traded with a sweetener.

- Sens weren’t interested in Fiala’s $7.9M AAV.

- AGM search almost done.

- Sens are listening to offers for Connor Brown.

- Habs want another top ten pick.

And, as usual, we assume that all information from Bruce was planted by the Sens.
- spatso

Why the need to get rid of white? Yeah his contract isn’t great, but he’s not hurting the team. With Smith’s use of Zaitsev, there should be a focus on moving/buying him out.

Listening to offers on Brown also seems like spinning your tires. The guy is good fit on this team right now. If they’re out of it by trade deadline, sure look at moving him, but moving him now shows me they don’t expect to compete.

Why the need to get rid of white? Yeah his contract isn’t great, but he’s not hurting the team. With Smith’s use of Zaitsev, there should be a focus on moving/buying him out.

Listening to offers on Brown also seems like spinning your tires. The guy is good fit on this team right now. If they’re out of it by trade deadline, sure look at moving him, but moving him now shows me they don’t expect to compete.
- CooCooKaChoo

When you want to move the kind of money that Ottawa has put on the table with rumours of moving White, Zaitsev and Connor Brown on the table it is likely they are thinking of making a move for a whale.

- Colin White is a likely buyout candidate. Would and Would NOT surprise me.

- Zaitsev could be traded with a sweetener. He needs to go.

- Sens weren’t interested in Fiala’s $7.9M AAV. Thank the sweet baby elephant.

- AGM search almost done. who cares

- Sens are listening to offers for Connor Brown. this is dumb send him to Tampa so he and Nick be together again

- Habs want another top ten pick. then the Habs should be prepared to move Suzuki or Anderson or take back sizeable dead money - which they can't do because they don't have room

Why the need to get rid of white? Yeah his contract isn’t great, but he’s not hurting the team. With Smith’s use of Zaitsev, there should be a focus on moving/buying him out.

Listening to offers on Brown also seems like spinning your tires. The guy is good fit on this team right now. If they’re out of it by trade deadline, sure look at moving him, but moving him now shows me they don’t expect to compete.
- CooCooKaChoo

I like White, but he is kind of redundent on this team.

He most likely wont player center since Stuzle, Pinto and Norris are all ahead of him on the depth chart.

Then he gets lost in the shuffle of players not good enough for a top 6 role, and the third line. At his age you kind of need to expect he is the player he presents himself to be.

Add in his contract and you have a player who is prime buy out candidate.

Why the need to get rid of white? Yeah his contract isn’t great, but he’s not hurting the team. With Smith’s use of Zaitsev, there should be a focus on moving/buying him out.
- CooCooKaChoo

There's no question that Zaitsev/Murray are more serious roster issues, but White's situation is more time-sensitive. The reason is that he's still just 25, which means his buyout saves a lot more $$$/AAV this year than it would next year. The short-hand is that despite creating a $875K cap hit for the next 6yrs, buying White out this year will effectively cost them $5.25M to save them $10.5M in actual $$$. Were they to wait until next year, the cap hit would escalate to $1.8M/yr for most of the following 4yrs, and they would be paying $7.33M to save just $3.66M. For an internal-budget team, that just can't be ignored, and may actually be regarded as Step 1 in how the team plans to facilitate trade deals for Zaitsev/Murray.

There's no question that Zaitsev/Murray are more serious roster issues, but White's situation is more time-sensitive. The reason is that he's still just 25, which means his buyout saves a lot more $$$/AAV this year than it would next year. The short-hand is that despite creating a $875K cap hit for the next 6yrs, buying White out this year will effectively cost them $5.25M to save them $10.5M in actual $$$. Were they to wait until next year, the cap hit would escalate to $1.8M/yr for most of the following 4yrs, and they would be paying $7.33M to save just $3.66M. For an internal-budget team, that just can't be ignored, and may actually be how the team plans to facilitate trade deals for Zaitsev/Murray.
- khawk

Fair enough I guess, but it's so frustrating. Murray and Zaitsev hurt this team so much more and have less trade value. They'll buy White, trade one of those two and have to waste an asset (or two) as a sweetner, then keep whoever's left to be a plug in the lineup.

Regarding Patrick Lalime.

Five years with Ottawa.
146 wins.
100 losses.
sv% .908
goals against. 2.32

and his play off numbers are absolutely sparkly by todays standards. He was a very good goalie for Ottawa and not the reason we lost.
21 and 20 in the play offs.
.926
1.77

the reason we lost was the leafs.......And despite bob cole and harry neal throwing on their leaf jerseys as soon as they were off camera....there was no cheating....no secret bettman initiative....the leafs simply got it done.

The Ottawa Senators announced today that the team has named two assistant general managers, promoting chief amateur scout Trent Mann and adding Ryan Bowness who previously served as the director of professional scouting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The additions are effective July 1, 2022.

Craig Anderson signed a one year deal with Buffalo. Maybe the Sens can honour him when the Sabres visit this year, as he was injured last year when Buffalo came to town.

The Ottawa Senators announced today that the team has named two assistant general managers, promoting chief amateur scout Trent Mann and adding Ryan Bowness who previously served as the director of professional scouting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The additions are effective July 1, 2022.
- Whatisavailable

Kevin said if Trent wasn't promoted the team knew he would be gone this summer. Bowness will run the BSens and do some contractual stuff.

Regarding Patrick Lalime.

Five years with Ottawa.
146 wins.
100 losses.
sv% .908
goals against. 2.32

and his play off numbers are absolutely sparkly by todays standards. He was a very good goalie for Ottawa and not the reason we lost.
21 and 20 in the play offs.
.926
1.77

the reason we lost was the leafs.......And despite bob cole and harry neal throwing on their leaf jerseys as soon as they were off camera....there was no cheating....no secret bettman initiative....the leafs simply got it done.
- Octavarium

Jacques Martin got suckered by other GMs calling the Sens dirty and soft. He wanted to prove them wrong and tried to out muscle the Leafs instead of skating them right out of the building.

As far as Lalime goes I remember even the play by play guys used to say you could hear the whole building catching their breath whenever the puck got cleared into the Ottawa zone. You could not trust that guy.

Regarding Patrick Lalime.

Five years with Ottawa.
146 wins.
100 losses.
sv% .908
goals against. 2.32

and his play off numbers are absolutely sparkly by todays standards. He was a very good goalie for Ottawa and not the reason we lost.
21 and 20 in the play offs.
.926
1.77

the reason we lost was the leafs.......And despite bob cole and harry neal throwing on their leaf jerseys as soon as they were off camera....there was no cheating....no secret bettman initiative....the leafs simply got it done.
- Octavarium

Good stuff.

Report: Gaudette won't receive qualifying offer from Sens

https://www.tsn.ca/adam-g...cted-free-agent-1.1819464
- HoweHatrick

The writing was on wall for him when they signed Gambrell. But Gaudette had more skill. The Gaudette and MDZ picks up last year were that of PM, so I think PD was doing everything possible to rid of himself of any PM move while Eugene was alive.

Craig Anderson signed a one year deal with Buffalo. Maybe the Sens can honour him when the Sabres visit this year, as he was injured last year when Buffalo came to town.
- LawyerSens4Life

I just saw that signing on nhl.com so great to see him lace them up for one more year

Fair enough I guess, but it's so frustrating. Murray and Zaitsev hurt this team so much more and have less trade value. They'll buy White, trade one of those two and have to waste an asset (or two) as a sweetner, then keep whoever's left to be a plug in the lineup.
- CooCooKaChoo

Oh, it's more than a bit frustrating... and entirely self-inflicted. But they have to stop the bleeding before they can legitimately move forward. The fear, of course, is that the team does nothing other than buy out White, and let Zaitsev & Murray continue to be major problems heading into training camp. I'm sure Dorion is already quite shocked at the lack of interest in their "elite" Russian D-man, or that other GM assume he's actually talking about Zub.

Shawn Simpson
@TSNSimmer
I think this all points to Kellar and some fixed costs.

I was hoping for something bigger and more physical. Although I would definitely take Keller over Dibrincat simply because of the fixed term consistent with the Sens compete window.

Leafs trying sell negotiation rights for Mikheyev.

I really do not get the hype for Josh Anderson anywhere, ever. His stat lines are exceedingly mediocre. He is overpaid on a long contract. He is always sold on intangibles. He's never scored 50 pts in a season despite consistently receiving top 6 ice time. His contract per points scored ratio is bad. He is incredibly injury prone and has played only one full 82 game season over 8 years in the league. He doesn't really draw or take the penalties a good power forward does. He's 28, we know what he is. He's basically what I think Tyler Boucher might turn into, and we already have Tyler Boucher. The guy is NOT Tom Wilson. But he's also the kind of player our GM clearly likes. If we trade 7 for him, somebody has kompromat on Dorion.

One player flying under the UFA radar a bit is Vincent Trocheck, who I think could be a very good RW/C complement to Stutzle. He has >20G/50Pts upside, won 54% of the >1,000 faceoffs he took last year, can play both special teams, is a natural RH-shot, and plays bigger than his size (e.g. had >180 hits last year, which would have been 3rd on the Senators). Even with some anticipated decline, I don't think a multi-year contract is too much of a risk, given his strong two-way ability (i.e. could play effectively down to more of a 3rd line RW/C role, if that were required a few years down the road).

In many ways, he's kind of a younger, poor man's Giroux... and far more useful as an all-round forward than many other potential UFA options they might kick the tires on like Strome, Niederreiter, Smith, or Rackell.