UPDATE: Appears Stephane Da Costa is
headed to the KHL. Ottawa would not offer a one-way deal.
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It became apparent about a week or so ago that Ales Hemsky was leaving the Ottawa Senators organization.
One of my favorite recent developments with the cost per point Ottawa Senators -- to my recollection, it started during
Erik Karlsson's contract negotiations a couple of years back -- is that they publicly beg and plead for the target player to be reasonable in his contract demands. This really isn't
unique to Ottawa, but it's kind of amazing how regularly it happens with this particular team. And this quote seems to be rephrased and recycled every time team and player are at the table. From 2012:
“From our perspective, everybody has to be reasonable, recognizing ... Look, we can’t spend toe-to-toe with the highest and the biggest market teams,” said Melnyk.
“All we can offer is an opportunity to some of these players and the opportunity to be part of a great organization with a shot. There’s no question that we have the pieces to be competitive and if we add the right pieces, an extremely competitive team.
There's no conceivable reason why the Ottawa Senators would be sour on Ales Hemsky as a player -- he looked great in Ottawa, and I don't really doubt that he'd look good on the wing of any Ottawa center. That strikes me as important, since Jason Spezza's being traded sometime in the next few weeks.
Because of the Jason Spezza trade, you figured that Hemsky wouldn't sign with Ottawa regardless. All you could ask is that the team made a competitive offer to a very good hockey player with a few years of top-six production left. If they were beat out, such is life.
Take it away, Bob McKenzie:
I would call that offer somewhere between insulting and offensive. It's defensible to me to offer something so terrible as that to Ales Hemsky if (a) you don't think he's worth it; and (b) you are prepared to allocate that money elsewhere. Of course, if you have a pulse and have even casually paid attention to what's happened over the last few years, you're probably skeptical with respect to (b).
And, perhaps stuff like this is perhaps why
certain players aren't convinced this team is trying to compete in good faith. Maybe.
So, all that's left now is moving his rights to a team. I'd think a team like San Jose or Pittsburgh would be a great fit.
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Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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