Trevor Shackles: How to Mishandle an Asset 101: Cody Ceci Edition The Senators mishandled Cody Ceci for over 3 years

Well if that isn’t enough to kill yourself, I don’t know what is

Well if that isn’t enough to kill yourself, I don’t know what is
- Slimtj100

What a first comment.

Looks like there's a new "Z" in O-Town!!

What a first comment.

Looks like there's a new "Z" in O-Town!!
- As_I_See_It

I feel so bad for Ottawa fans

It could be worse, you guys could’ve traded Zibanejad and a 2nd for Brassard.

Strange article. Everyone that has piled on Ceci for such a long time seems to be missing him already. Let it go he is gone.

Some fans need a resentment. Someone to blame for what goes wrong. We will discover soon enough that nothing much will change with the departure of Ceci. The Sens are a lottery team and the Leafs will have close to 100 points.

We will experience traces of phantom resentment where some will want to conjure up the connection between Ceci and Zaitsev and direct their animus towards the newest Senator..

Strange article. Everyone that has piled on Ceci for such a long time seems to be missing him already. Let it go he is gone.

Some fans need a resentment. Someone to blame for what goes wrong. We will discover soon enough that nothing much will change with the departure of Ceci. The Sens are a lottery team and the Leafs will have close to 100 points.

We will experience traces phantom resentment where some will want to conjure up the connection between Ceci and Zaitsev and direct their animus towards the newest Senator..
- spatso

Do you not find it interesting how they held onto him for so long until his value was nothing? This was the first idea for an article I had the second the trade was made.

There’s nothing more you can say...mismanaged assets seems to be a running theme with this team (very long list)

Trying to save every penny possible no matter how bad the deal is, a running theme with this team.

Bad trades a theme with this team.

I keep setting my expectations reaallllly low and yet somehow, the Eugorion combo find a way to disappoint.

I personally see no prospect in our pool that gives me hope things will turn around (that includes brannstrom)


Lafreniere is the hope

Do you not find it interesting how they held onto him for so long until his value was nothing? This was the first idea for an article I had the second the trade was made.
- Trevor Shackles

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.

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

Petry and Schultz were run out of Edmonton for scraps- how has that worked out for them? It's tough for many to evaluate a player fairly when he plays for a clueless organization...

This storyline is one of many that is the result of weak ownership. All the continuous chaos with the Senators is, really.

Because of weak ownership they have a totally overwhelmed and unqualified GM. Dorion is an old school scout. But he is willing to be the lowest paid GM in the NHL and be a puppet for his owner. So he has the job.

An underqualified GM might have a chance with a strong Hockey Ops department to support him. Back to the cheap owner - Ottawa has the slimmest Hockey Ops group in the league, including essentially zero in the way of an Analytics function.

This is the foundation for the Cody Ceci storyline.

A GM that needs to run everything by his owner and can't make a trade that brings in additional salary resulted in the miss on Taylor Hall.

A GM that is an old school scout with no analytics support resulted in the miss on assessing Ceci. No weight was put on his close to league worst advanced stats. Instead he was highly valued as a 'local boy' who 'plays hurt' and is 'good in the community'. This allowed his trade value to spiral downward.

There is a scene in MoneyBall where Billy Beane is meeting with his whole scouting department. He wants to use advanced analytics to identify potential trade and free agent targets. His group of old school scouts instead are identifying players with ugly girlfriends -means they are not confident - or guys with thick necks. The latter is how I picture the Ottawa 'war room' discussing what local guys who are 'good in the room' they should target.

Until Ottawa has an owner who is willing to pay the money for a top notch GM and Hockey Ops department stories like Cody Ceci will continue to be the norm in Ottawa.

I'm happy that Ceci is gone. While Ceci was never a great player, the public lynching of the guy was excessive and incessant.

The way the Ceci years played out is another example of an organizational stubbornness, along with poor professional player talent assessment.

To hear Ceci's dad tell it, it's entirely EK's fault that he never got the opportunity or the minutes to flourish.

LOL nope.

He was on a hometown jr.A team, he looked better than everyone else because that's what happens in jr. he shouldn't have been picked that high. His offense didn't translate to the NHL speed, he couldn't defend against top lines (he shouldn't have been expected too) His ceiling was a Morgan Reilly light...maybe...at best.

Good luck in Toronto. Lets put him in the Brian Lee, Jared Cowen, Curtis Lazar file and stop talking about him.

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.
- spatso

I obviously don't speak for the Ottawa fan base but in my case, what I couldn't understand was why the guy was given so much ice time when it was painfully obvious that he was more of a liability than an asset. One can always say that OTT didn't much of a choice in its roster but the guy was what... 2nd only in ice time when compared to Karlsson when he was here? That's insane!

I think I'm more angry at how he was handled than at the player himself. Maybe he'll find his stride in TO, who knows.I certainly don't wish him ill but a part of me wouldn't be surprised if the results are the same.

Good luck in Toronto. Lets put him in the Brian Lee, Jared Cowen, Curtis Lazar file and stop talking about him.
- Octavarium

Agreed - I had actually forgot about Jared Cowen!

It is actually kind of funny. Leaf and Sens fans sniping at each other insisting that they dumped the biggest problem on each other. The absolute beauty and joy of summer talk is that it meaningless and is instantly forgotten as soon as training camps open.

It is actually kind of funny. Leaf and Sens fans sniping at each other insisting that they dumped the biggest problem on each other. The absolute beauty and joy of summer talk is that it meaningless and is instantly forgotten as soon as training camps open.

Ceci is RFA though right? So the Leafs could just let him walk couldn't they?

I'm glad to be moving on from the Gardiner and Zaitsev days. We're not going to be replacing those guys with superstars, just sick of always watching them breakdown in their own zone.

Ceci is another example of the Sens overvaluing their own players. Ceci could have moved for a legit piece, but most of the time, Dorion was unwilling. The one time it sounded like he had a deal, Eugene was no where to be found. What kind of franchise runs on only accepting trades via ownership approval? Perplexing.

Sens really wanted Ceci to do well. Hometown boy with loads of potential. I was a fan when they drafted him. I wasn’t a fan how they tried to make him into a shutdown guy. But he never took it upon himself to become a powerplay quarterback either (he did have a booming shot in junior).

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

Larry Murphy won 2 Cups in Pittsburgh before he played for the Leafs. Leafs traded him to Detroit for future considerations and paid half his remaining salary for 1997 and 1998. He won 2 Cups in Detroit playing with Lidstrom.

It is actually kind of funny. Leaf and Sens fans sniping at each other insisting that they dumped the biggest problem on each other. The absolute beauty and joy of summer talk is that it meaningless and is instantly forgotten as soon as training camps open.
- spatso

I wonder how good Dorion would actually be if unleashed.

It looked as though he wanted to make the Ceci-Hall trade but because of waiting for clearance from Melnyk missed out on it. He would have looked like a genius. Hall scored 39 goals and 93 point in 76 games in 17-18.

Imagine the difference that would have made on the Senators. Imagine having him for the 16-17 playoff run... Losing a liability on the back end and adding scoring up front... and the Sens were 1 goal away from the final...

A slap int he face like that could almost bring me to rid myself of cheering for this team until Melnyk is gone. Unfortunately I simply can't help myself.

Don't even think about if Ottawa kept Lehner or Bishop, Kept Zibanejad, Traded for Duchene still, kept Karlsson, Stone and Dzingel (and if necessary for the room, trade Hoffman for the deal the Panthers offered or better if there was one) and had Taylor Hall instead of Ceci. If we didn't have that cheap owner our team could be a behemoth right now. It almost physically hurts.

Our Team last season could have looked like this:

Hoffman - Duchene - Hall
Dzingel - Zibanejad - Stone
White - Pageau - Ryan
Pyatt/Prospect - Smith - McCormik/prospect

Chabot - Karlsson
Phaneuf/Lajoie - Wideman
Wolanin - Borowiecki/Prospect

Bishop
Anderson

Easily at the very least a playoff team. And a team that would have been more attractive to free agents so who knows how much better it could have been.

We will never have the team we deserve until Melnyk is gone. I would totally be fine with keeping Dorion as GM but Melnyk needs to be gone before we can ever truly cheer again.

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.
- spatso

We are not "now insisting" that we have always known that Ceci is not a very good player, we have in fact been shouting it from the mountaintops for years. You are making it seem like we are bashing him on his way out the door but that we were plenty happy to have him around while he was on the team.

When your GM needs to ask the owner permission to add Ceci in a trade, you know you have problems.

Seriously, he had to get permission to trade Ceci? I can understand a star player like Karlsson, but Cody Ceci? come on, that's just sad. All the same, if he got a hold of Melnyk, he would have probably said only if the Oilers pay 50% of the salary.

As long a Melnyk is running the show, the sens will need a miracle.

As much as anything I think it shows that chiarelli never cared about conventional wisdom, opinions outside his own and statistical evidence etc. Just had an idea in his head that no matter what, this guy is good and I’ll trade anything for him

And here we are with Adam larsson for Taylor hall.
And coulda been even worse ...

His tenure in edm is the Worst gm work in nhl history

Today @ 11:06 AM ET
When your GM needs to ask the owner permission to add Ceci in a trade, you know you have problems.

Seriously, he had to get permission to trade Ceci? I can understand a star player like Karlsson, but Cody Ceci? come on, that's just sad. All the same, if he got a hold of Melnyk, he would have probably said only if the Oilers pay 50% of the salary.

As long a Melnyk is running the show, the sens will need a miracle.

Dorion needed permission to add the 6m salary of Hall in the ceci-Hall trade..

I curse to hell the bastard who saved melnyks life.....

As much as anything I think it shows that chiarelli never cared about conventional wisdom, opinions outside his own and statistical evidence etc. Just had an idea in his head that no matter what, this guy is good and I’ll trade anything for him

And here we are with Adam larsson for Taylor hall.
And coulda been even worse ...

His tenure in edm is the Worst gm work in nhl history
- HB77

The problem with Chiarelli it seems that he liked to surround himself with yes men.

I remember watching a video of him discussing trading Seguin to Dallas for that garbage return. There was 5 to 10 guys in that room, and all were agreeing with him. I don't think a single guy even mentioned that this could could go bad.