Well thats good you can see into the future now

- top shelf 15

Its called expectations. How old is he? 19, 20? He won't have a major impact for 2-3 more years.

Continue.

What happened to the big offer to Boyle, it was top money offered but he declined.
- spatso

Yeah, mental how he chose to go back to his former team situated in FLA. I mean who prefers florida winters to toronto?

Its called expectations. How old is he? 19, 20? He won't have a major impact for 2-3 more years.
- cburgess

Duh! Building an elite team requires patience.

Yeah, mental how he chose to go back to his former team situated in FLA. I mean who prefers florida winters to toronto?
- walshyleafsfan

Right the team that nobody chooses, except when they Clarkson 4th liners and still get rejected.

Duh! Building an elite team requires patience.
- spatso

And most on here are saying they will be fine next season. They will be in the basement with lazar playing in the nhl next year.

And most on here are saying they will be fine next season. They will be in the basement with lazar playing in the nhl next year.
- cburgess

Just plain dumb. Same lineup pounded the snot out of Montreal two years ago. Last year was a sophomore slump. Games are played on the ice. Let's just wait for the scoreboard!

Would you have wanted Murray to sign any of these players for the cash/term they received?

Pouliot 5 years @ $4M- No way I would do this contract. This has buyout all over it.
Strallman 5 years @ $4.5M - I think this is an overpayment.
Gilbert 2 years @ $2.8M - Not a fan of the player at this money but this would be the easiest to swallow of the three.

With regards to the trade, I would have preferred Chaisson and a 1st over Chaisson, the two prospects and the 2nd but Murray had the quantity over quality approach. Even a 1 for 1 would have been preferable.
- HoweHatrick

Pouliot's term is a lot for a guy like him, but not a horrific deal.

Stralman and Gilbert were both massive bargains at that price, Stralman was the second best defenceman on the NYR that just went to the finals this past year.

4.5 million for any top 4 defenceman is a bargain in todays NHL, really.

Just plain dumb. Same lineup pounded the snot out of Montreal two years ago. Last year was a sophomore slump. Games are played on the ice. Let's just wait for the scoreboard!
- spatso

^

Just plain dumb. Same lineup pounded the snot out of Montreal two years ago. Last year was a sophomore slump. Games are played on the ice. Let's just wait for the scoreboard!
- spatso

You also had elite level goaltending that covered up a pile of mistakes.

Pouliot's term is a lot for a guy like him, but not a horrific deal.

Stralman and Gilbert were both massive bargains at that price, Stralman was the second best defenceman on the NYR that just went to the finals this past year.

4.5 million for any top 4 defenceman is a bargain in todays NHL, really.
- TommyDeVito

I didn't care for any of those players. All I hoped for was for us to land Christian Ehrhoff. Sadly it didn't happen. Is it the end of the world? Hell no. Hopefully Cowen has a bounce back year and they play Weircioch on the top-4.

Right the team that nobody chooses, except when they Clarkson 4th liners and still get rejected.
- spatso

I honestly don't know if you are 100% serious with all your posts or if you are stuck in a personification of yourself, but from reading your comments the Sens can do no wrong. I haven't seen you criticize a single move ever made by the Sens. Not one. With all of these great moves I'd expect Ottawa to be moving forward. But it seems like you're going backwards every year. If you guys are rebuilding like you mention, then the Hemsky trade was a complete ballsup. As is the Phillips signing. However, as always you are over the moon with every transaction. It's like the whole Pageau - Giroux thing. No one in their right mind would ever come out with a comparison of those two players.

Fortunately, for the rest of the East, your owner is dismantling the Sens piece by piece. And that's good for the rest of us because Ottawa were always one of the best in the East.

You also had elite level goaltending that covered up a pile of mistakes.
- cburgess

I don't buy that one bit, and your statement is too easy from a outsiders perspective. We were way better offensively with prospects you hadn't even heard about.

Pouliot's term is a lot for a guy like him, but not a horrific deal.

Stralman and Gilbert were both massive bargains at that price, Stralman was the second best defenceman on the NYR that just went to the finals this past year.

4.5 million for any top 4 defenceman is a bargain in todays NHL, really.
- TommyDeVito

If you have players on entry level deals like Stone, Ceci, Lazar their cost is only about 20% of the cost of those deals. And you have to give them playing time.

This kind of comment is just plain bizarre. The Senators are stocked with great young talent. They are a big team. They are going to be fine next year.

A lot of us wanted this result out of today. It would have been crazy to give a 31 year old player with a bad back a long term big dollar deal. This team has transformed itself over the three years Murray said it would take. They will compete hard. They will win enough to keep fans excited. They will become a force in the east soon enough.
- spatso

Bizarre? What is bizarre is that an organization would let its captain, heart and soul, walk because of penny pinching. It all started with Alfredsson and it has snowballed since. If you cannot admit that was a huge mistake on a number of levels, we can simply stop this discussion. You cannot run a successful business in the manner the Senators are operating.

Prospects you say. Remember Conacher? "Great" prospect.
Remember Bishop? Great prospect.

In terms of the prospects still in the system, they are just prospects until they prove themselves. They have done nothing to prove themselves yet so perhaps a measure of restraint should be observed before claiming any of them will be NHL players. Just like the players received for Spezza. They are in no way, shape or form roster players until they prove themselves - Chaisson included.

In the meantime, we have no firm evidence that the Senators are even negotiating with Ryan. The way the organization is operating, it would be of little surprise to me if Ryan were traded before the start of the season.

I don't buy that one bit, and your statement is too easy from a outsiders perspective. We were way better offensively with prospects you hadn't even heard about.
- TheCalSen

Is Ottawa the only team that has prospects? Do you not think the rest of the league has prospects close to the level of ottawas? Or is every player they draft an automatic can't miss blue chipper?

Continue.

What happened to the big offer to Boyle, it was top money offered but he declined.
- spatso

Wanted to go to a top contender, was a better fit for his family. Players don't always go for top dollar.

I honestly don't know if you are 100% serious with all your posts or if you are stuck in a personification of yourself, but from reading your comments the Sens can do no wrong. I haven't seen you criticize a single move ever made by the Sens. Not one. With all of these great moves I'd expect Ottawa to be moving forward. But it seems like you're going backwards every year. If you guys are rebuilding like you mention, then the Hemsky trade was a complete ballsup. As is the Phillips signing. However, as always you are over the moon with every transaction. It's like the whole Pageau - Giroux thing. No one in their right mind would ever come out with a comparison of those two players.

Fortunately, for the rest of the East, your owner is dismantling the Sens piece by piece. And that's good for the rest of us because Ottawa were always one of the best in the East.
- walshyleafsfan

Hold on there buddy.
1. Hemsky was brought into the club so that they can increase Spezza's value. If you ask me, it worked.
2. Even with a crappy year, the Senators ended up having a better year than the Leafs. Now by no means is that a good achievement, but it shows that our management is building for the future and not for shallow pushes into the Playoffs. Retooling is the correct term for what Ottawa is going through.

Hold on there buddy.
1. Hemsky was brought into the club so that they can increase Spezza's value. If you ask me, it worked.
2. Even with a crappy year, the Senators ended up having a better year than the Leafs. Now by no means is that a good achievement, but it shows that our management is building for the future and not for shallow pushes into the Playoffs. Retooling is the correct term for what Ottawa is going through.
- TheCalSen

As you say, I wouldn't use the Leafs as a benchmark. So without Hemsky, you wouldn't have got the haul you got today?

Is Ottawa the only team that has prospects? Do you not think the rest of the league has prospects close to the level of ottawas? Or is every player they draft an automatic can't miss blue chipper?
- cburgess

I don't know how you could have perceived that from the comment I made. Every team has quality prospects. All I am saying is that when Ottawa utilizes there prospect pool (Pageau, Stone, Hoffman...) they end up of the winning side. I don't think I should remind you of our series 2 seasons ago. Everyone and their mother in league was saying "Who is Pageau?" That's just one example.

Hold on there buddy.
1. Hemsky was brought into the club so that they can increase Spezza's value. If you ask me, it worked.
2. Even with a crappy year, the Senators ended up having a better year than the Leafs. Now by no means is that a good achievement, but it shows that our management is building for the future and not for shallow pushes into the Playoffs. Retooling is the correct term for what Ottawa is going through.
- TheCalSen

No team would trade for a player to increase the trade value of another. Thats a stupid comment. They brought him in to see if he would fit well with Spezza. He did, but now they are both in Dallas. Also, it was done to try to make the first rd pick they traded to ANA lower by winning a few games down the stretch.

Just plain dumb. Same lineup pounded the snot out of Montreal two years ago. Last year was a sophomore slump. Games are played on the ice. Let's just wait for the scoreboard!
- spatso

at least u will get McDavid.

I honestly don't know if you are 100% serious with all your posts or if you are stuck in a personification of yourself, but from reading your comments the Sens can do no wrong. I haven't seen you criticize a single move ever made by the Sens. Not one. With all of these great moves I'd expect Ottawa to be moving forward. But it seems like you're going backwards every year. If you guys are rebuilding like you mention, then the Hemsky trade was a complete ballsup. As is the Phillips signing. However, as always you are over the moon with every transaction. It's like the whole Pageau - Giroux thing. No one in their right mind would ever come out with a comparison of those two players.

Fortunately, for the rest of the East, your owner is dismantling the Sens piece by piece. And that's good for the rest of us because Ottawa were always one of the best in the East.
- walshyleafsfan

Boy did you pick on the wrong guy.

I have taken heat on this thread going back over two years ago when I called for a Spezza trade as I thought he would retard a rebuilding program.

I thought it was time for Alfredsson to leave when he did.

I criticized the Bobby Ryan trade as not being good for the rebuild.

I took a great deal of criticism hear going back more than a year when I said Melnyk eas broke and a destructive force on the team.

I don't know how you could have perceived that from the comment I made. Every team has quality prospects. All I am saying is that when Ottawa utilizes there prospect pool (Pageau, Stone, Hoffman...) they end up of the winning side. I don't think I should remind of our series 2 seasons ago. Everyone and their mother in league was saying "Who is Pageau?" That's just one example.
- TheCalSen

oh ya, that guy that has had 2 good gamesin his career and couldn't crack a bottom feeder team last year. I wouldn't get too excited over him

I don't know how you could have perceived that from the comment I made. Every team has quality prospects. All I am saying is that when Ottawa utilizes there prospect pool (Pageau, Stone, Hoffman...) they end up of the winning side. I don't think I should remind you of our series 2 seasons ago. Everyone and their mother in league was saying "Who is Pageau?" That's just one example.
- TheCalSen

I think everyone is still saying "who is Pageau".

Sorry, couldn't resist

No team would trade for a player to increase the trade value of another. Thats a stupid comment. They brought him in to see if he would fit well with Spezza. He did, but now they are both in Dallas. Also, it was done to try to make the first rd pick they traded to ANA lower by winning a few games down the stretch.
- cburgess

I just told you that the Senators did do that? So your comment is irrelevant.