the league needs to investigate this with a impartial 3rd party, Murray was fine to starts vs the panthers and be the back up for 2 games in the first round but now he is magically injured for the long term, in the offseason and TOR will not release details of his injury, total BS. the NHL is a corrupt clown league if they do nothing
- Mithos

The best part of the move is that his $1.6M still counts against the Senators’ cap this year.

I don't know why everyone is so hot and bothered by the LTIR rules. Who cares. Who cares if it can be used for cap circumvention. Everybody cheats the rules to some extent. EVERYBODY.
.... rolling stops at stop signs, jumping a light, speeding, income taxes ..... So if you all want to get draconian for LTIR, it would be like the police putting speed monitoring equipment on every road and nabbing everyone for speeding.

I just don't care about the LTIR rules. Let a team use it for their benefit. I would still prefer to have the Salary Cap in place to allow all teams the opportunity to at least compete. Let's face facts .... in baseball with basically no cap .... most teams will never have the opportunity to build a winning team. It is generally the same top teams competing each year. That gets tired and boring very fast.

I don't know why everyone is so hot and bothered by the LTIR rules. Who cares. Who cares if it can be used for cap circumvention. Everybody cheats the rules to some extent. EVERYBODY.
.... rolling stops at stop signs, jumping a light, speeding, income taxes ..... So if you all want to get draconian for LTIR, it would be like the police putting speed monitoring equipment on every road and nabbing everyone for speeding.

I just don't care about the LTIR rules. Let a team use it for their benefit. I would still prefer to have the Salary Cap in place to allow all teams the opportunity to at least compete. Let's face facts .... in baseball with basically no cap .... most teams will never have the opportunity to build a winning team. It is generally the same top teams competing each year. That gets tired and boring very fast.
- OttawaB

Something I still can't figure out. Sens have around $5.2m in cap space and they need to sign Pinto and probably another forward before training camp opens. They will carry more than $5.0m in dead cap going into season (Bobby Ryan, Matt Murray, Colin White and Michael Del Zotto).

So, how would they have made it work with DeBrincat? Same for Tarasenko.

Next year they lose all the dead cap plus the cap will go up by another $5m. Compared to most teams the Sens are in great shape in their cap management. But we now have a bunch of teams out there desperately needing to move salary out and very few teams wanting to buy.

Rangers signed Blake wheeler for $800k for one season. We are going to see more deals like this.

Bergeron retiring helped this trade along.

" it would be like the police putting speed monitoring equipment on every road and nabbing everyone for speeding."


That's exactly what is happening in Ottawa. Except it's not the police. They're not that stupid. It's the city needing to pay for a train that suddenly can't carry people, an overflowing dump and bike lanes for 2% of it's citizenry.

A friend of mine used to help design roads and intersections in Ottawa and told me they're not designed for speed traps. They study the crap out of traffic. 1/3 of the people drive below the speed limit, 1/3 at the limit and 1/3 speed way over. Keeping that in mind they design things. Single lane here, merge lane there etc etc and the target speed. Then uneducated city people come along and need money. They plop cameras in places they think they'll make the most money and suddenly you've created a bottleneck of people ALL going the speed limit. Not what it was designed to do. Just like the cap. This wasn't what the NHL had in mind.

" it would be like the police putting speed monitoring equipment on every road and nabbing everyone for speeding."


That's exactly what is happening in Ottawa. Except it's not the police. They're not that stupid. It's the city needing to pay for a train that suddenly can't carry people, an overflowing dump and bike lanes for 2% of it's citizenry.

A friend of mine used to help design roads and intersections in Ottawa and told me they're not designed for speed traps. They study the crap out of traffic. 1/3 of the people drive below the speed limit, 1/3 at the limit and 1/3 speed way over. Keeping that in mind they design things. Single lane here, merge lane there etc etc and the target speed. Then uneducated city people come along and need money. They plop cameras in places they think they'll make the most money and suddenly you've created a bottleneck of people ALL going the speed limit. Not what it was designed to do. Just like the cap. This wasn't what the NHL had in mind.
- Octavarium

Good comparison. But for most owners, the cap crunch is absolute proof that the cap is working and is needed. The majority of owners would be hostile to any tampering with the basic model and formula for the current cap.

I also think the players have thrived under the cap. It ensures all teams spend to a certain limit. Maybe only the really high end players are negatively affected because their salary is limited. But the average player has seen a rise in pay.
The cap means that all teams must play above a salary floor .... no team can have cap of 20-30 million (for example) if they want to cut and rebuild or just have cheap owners. Plus, without the cap, would there still be 32 teams? Or would there be less, which means less jobs for players.

Something I still can't figure out. Sens have around $5.2m in cap space and they need to sign Pinto and probably another forward before training camp opens. They will carry more than $5.0m in dead cap going into season (Bobby Ryan, Matt Murray, Colin White and Michael Del Zotto).

So, how would they have made it work with DeBrincat? Same for Tarasenko.

Next year they lose all the dead cap plus the cap will go up by another $5m. Compared to most teams the Sens are in great shape in their cap management. But we now have a bunch of teams out there desperately needing to move salary out and very few teams wanting to buy.

Rangers signed Blake wheeler for $800k for one season. We are going to see more deals like this.
- spatso

I am not sure why you bring up the Debrincat stuff again. It doesn’t work now obviously and now have Kubalik counting towards the team cap now who wasn’t before. It was going to be tough to extend Debrincat, but it’s odd how so many folks made it seem impossible. He didn’t want to be here. Good riddance. Move on. It could very well be a blessing in disguise.

Tarashenko – doesn’t make sense unless he takes a significant reduced deal to his market value but if there is any Hockey Canada fallout with any particular player, there might be some alleviation to the existing roster to allow for another significant move. Purely speculation but makes more sense from that point of view.

I am not sure why you bring up the Debrincat stuff again. It doesn’t work now obviously and now have Kubalik counting towards the team cap now who wasn’t before. It was going to be tough to extend Debrincat, but it’s odd how so many folks made it seem impossible. He didn’t want to be here. Good riddance. Move on. It could very well be a blessing in disguise.

Tarashenko – doesn’t make sense unless he takes a significant reduced deal to his market value but if there is any Hockey Canada fallout with any particular player, there might be some alleviation to the existing roster to allow for another significant move. Purely speculation but makes more sense from that point of view.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

It seems to me from locker room clean out day on there was a chorus of voices saying DeBrincat wants out and there is no hope of his resigning and an almost total acceptance of it being finished. And, then we have the deal. And, it is a pretty fair offer from the Wings. So, going forward DeBrincat shows up at the wedding with his Sens teammates and he repeats the stories of his loving the coaching staff and teammates. It all sounds so odd.

And, then you look at the cap and realize the Sens benefit from moving him out this year and would have had a real problem next year trying to fit Sanderson and Chychrun under the cap. You wonder if this was a drama played out for the fans and the outcome was decided before Garrioch wrote a column where he claimed that on a single interview he was able to discern that DeBrincat wasn't coming back.

I think it is the Garrioch story that was so strange me. It was strange the day he wrote it. And, it is even more strange a few months s later.

It feels like there was never really any plan for DeBrincat. Had they been serious about him being a member of the team's core, they wouldn't have played him on his off-wing all season on the 2nd line beside a rookie centre. The pre-season had made it pretty clear they were working towards a DeBrincat-Stutzle-Giroux scoring line, and they just decided not to do that anymore when the season began. Instead, they put their best goal-scorer right beside their top goal-scorer from the previous season (Norris), and rarely allowed him to play with either of the team's best play-makers (Stutzle/Giroux) or the player who might most effectively offset his lack of physical size (Tkachuk). Not exactly a recipe for success.

It feels like there was never really any plan for DeBrincat. Had they been serious about him being a member of the team's core, they wouldn't have played him on his off-wing all season on the 2nd line beside a rookie centre. The pre-season had made it pretty clear they were working towards a DeBrincat-Stutzle-Giroux scoring line, and they just decided not to do that anymore when the season began. Instead, they put their best goal-scorer right beside their top goal-scorer from the previous season (Norris), and rarely allowed him to play with either of the team's best play-makers (Stutzle/Giroux) or the player who might most effectively offset his lack of physical size (Tkachuk). Not exactly a recipe for success.
- khawk

This makes a lot of sense. DeBrincat is a very good player but never a very good fit for the Sens. Would it have been different had the Sens not signed Giroux? Maybe.

Welp, there ya go, Tarasenko signs with the sens! 1yr - 5 million

Welp, there ya go, Tarasenko, 1 yr 5 million to the sens!
- RyeDog13

wow, so i guess Jospeh is on his way out since OTT still has to sign Pinto

wow, so i guess Jospeh is on his way out since OTT still has to sign Pinto
- Mithos

Yeah, let's hope this has nothing to do with Batherson.

Yeah, let's hope this has nothing to do with Batherson.
- RyeDog13

I'd guess Joseph or/and Brannstrom are gone.

Sokolov will likely start in Belleville I imagine. Perhaps Greig too then?

Yeah, let's hope this has nothing to do with Batherson.
- RyeDog13

Unfortunately, that would make considerably more sense than assuming they're going to be trading out talent they'll just have to immediately replace.

Unfortunately, that would make considerably more sense than assuming they're going to be trading out talent they'll just have to immediately replace.
- khawk

could be Forsberg injured longer than expected, he did suffer a torn MCL in both knees

Tarasenko signs 1 year x 5 million.

...someone's getting traded if they want to sign Pinto.

I don't feel great about this signing. I will be really disappointed if Pinto is the player at risk of being moved.

Ottawa sends Brannstrom and Joseph to Philadelphia for Laughton.

Ottawa trades Lassi Thompson for a 2nd or 3rd round pick (he is waiver exempt and will not make the team this year).

I could even see Ottawa trading Zub if they could sign a couple of years of Dumba at $3.5 to $4 million. This would get us completely cap compliant.


Stutzle, Tkachuk, Giroux
Norris, Tarasenko, Batherson
Pinto, Laughton, Kubalik
Kastelik, Greig, Sokolov/Kelly/MacKewen/Crookshank

Chabot/Zub
Chychrun/Sanderson
Bernard-Docker/Klevin/Hamonic

Korpisalo/Forsberg

That puts us very close to 83,500,000 (maybe a smidge over).

This has Batherson written all over it. Tomorrow is Friday.

This has Batherson written all over it. Tomorrow is Friday.
- Bartacus

I'd be surprised. Batherson is signed to a great contract, for four more years.

It better not be Batherson, or that's terrible asset management.

This has Batherson written all over it. Tomorrow is Friday.
- Bartacus

100%. They’ve been told. He/They those involved are all getting one year. That’s my call. And the law suits against the league by the NHLPA are probably all getting drawn up. It’s a private employer imposing penalties based on crimes unlikely to be proven in court. I’m not a lawyer but it’s stinky to suspend them all.

The Tarasenkn deal is ho hum. 1 year. Painless. He’s a Russian floater - Kovalev 2.0.

Ottawa sends Brannstrom and Joseph to Philadelphia for Laughton.

Ottawa trades Lassi Thompson for a 2nd or 3rd round pick (he is waiver exempt and will not make the team this year).

I could even see Ottawa trading Zub if they could sign a couple of years of Dumba at $3.5 to $4 million. This would get us completely cap compliant.


Stutzle, Tkachuk, Giroux
Norris, Tarasenko, Batherson
Pinto, Laughton, Kubalik
Kastelik, Greig, Sokolov/Kelly/MacKewen/Crookshank

Chabot/Zub
Chychrun/Sanderson
Bernard-Docker/Klevin/Hamonic

Korpisalo/Forsberg

That puts us very close to 83,500,000 (maybe a smidge over).
- OttawaB

Brannstrom has no value and Joseph has negative value with his contract. You would likely have to give up a 1st or 2nd round pick just to get rid of Joseph. Nobody would claim him on waivers for free.

This has Batherson written all over it. Tomorrow is Friday.
- Bartacus

I'm not so sure about this. The Tarasenko discussions have been ongoing for 2-3 weeks. This is not some last minute deal.
There is no way the NHL would give that kind of lead-time on potential suspensions. Plus, there is no way that something wouldn't have leaked out about this news. Too many people would have had to have been privy to the news. That many people could never keep the secret. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not a believer in conspiracy theories.

I think it is more plausible that the Sens had to get the deal done with Tarasenko or lose him to another team. Tarasenko was waiting for his new reps to size up the landscape to make a deal. He's not sitting around waiting for Ottawa to make a decision when they "find" out about Batherson. Plus with new ownership coming in we could see them wanting to make a bit of a splash with a trade to clean up the salary cap issue (and re-sign Pinto ).