Ryan Vesce position?

Oh, and good riddance Emery and Redden! I can't believe Emery went from one of my favorite players to hoping he stays in Russia. How can one guy mess up a team so much?
I like Auld at $1 million as well.

Ruutu was a risk. Grinding wingers usually don't hold up very well into their late 30's, and Ruutu is 32 or 33 starting a new three-year deal.

here's the thing for me. Ottawa has some gaping holes in the lineup if they want to compete now, namely, a Redden replacement/improvement on the top pairing, and 2 proper wingers for the 2nd line. That's not been addressed. Nobody was brought in for D, and Lee is not ready yet to perform at a level you'd expect of a top pairing D on a contender. Even if Meszaros resigns, that's not improvement, that's just keeping what you've got. An RW for the 2nd line was not obtained, neither a sure fire one, nor even a maybe one like Vesce would have been. Is Chris Neil a 2nd line winger in a contender? Left wing, they resigned Vermette. Is Vermette at this point a viable 2nd liner on a contender? I'd say no, but then I'm not a Vermette believer. Is Foligno? i own him, and i'd say no, he's not ggod enough to play 2nd line LW on a contender, and may never be.

Granted, ottawa has cap issues, which limit what they can add through free agency. That would mean building from within. But they haven't really added any real prospects with NHL upside to their system (Mitch O'keefe!?), and it's not a deep system to begin with (compare Phoenix, Chicago, hell, I'd say the Leafs prospect line up is deeper than Ottawa's at this point, and that's saying plenty. [don't agree? top prospect line up for the Leafs: Kulemin-Grabovsky-Tlusty-Stralman-Schenn-Pogge. Can the Sens beat that?]).
So, Murray has not addressed the major short term needs; he has not addressed any long-term needs,. Moreover, and that's the worst for me, he hasn't looked like he's decided which of the two he's going for, and he ends up being half assed on both. Keeping what you have and adding at the margins (Ruutu) is great if you're Detroit or San Jose and are already set on the active roster or if you have a stacked pipeline. Ottawa is neither. Ottawa, well, as we say in Yiddish, they're neither here nor there, and in being undecided on the diredction he's going, Murray has been at best underwhelming.

bang on, fz. The Sens have really fudged it up the past few years. Sure, the cap hurt (losing Chara/Havlat), but some mismanagement of assets has really hurt that club. They are not even a playoff lock anymore.

I guess I look at it totally different than you guys. What I see is a team that should have won the Stanley Cup only 2 seasons ago. If the refs had called the penalties that they did in this years playoffs - Anaheim would have been out in the 1st round 2 years ago. Ottawa easily wins the Cup 2006-2007. I digress on that, Bettman is an idiot and will never let a Canadian Team win the Cup.

Angus, not sure what you mean in saying the Sens have really messed things up the last FEW years?

What I see is this year is the same team as the Stanley Cup Final team, minus the baggage that brought the team down last year.

Let's look at the roster from 2 years ago to todays roster
Still on the team are:
FORWARDS
Alfie
Heater
Spezza
Fisher
Vermette
Kelly
Neil
McAmmond

DEFENSE
Phillips
Volchenkov
Meszaros
Schubert

GOALIE
Gerber

ADDITIONS-----------SUBTRACTIONS
Donovan----------- Schaefer (wanted out)
Foligno----------- Comrie ($$$)
Ruutu----------- Eaves (band-Aid)
Bass----------- Saprykin (???)
Smith----------- Preissing (wish we had him still)
Richardson----------Redden (good riddance $$$)
Lee----------- Corvo (wish we had him still)
Auld----------- Emery (good riddance)

The core of the team is still intact. The Sens D has gotten weaker offensively, and I am not happy with that. Everything else we lost has been replaced at the draft table. Well done. The problems of last year have been shipped out or not resigned. I am looking forward to what Murray will do and have lots of faith the the same core as only 2 years ago. More leadership on the team now with Smith and Ruutu.

I should go back and look at this post before I press submit, but I am already late. Will check tomorrow.

Redden faltered last year and was injured the year before, but he was a great defenseman and still could be. One could say that he was a reason the Sens were a Cup contender three years ago and two years ago...and the reason they failed last year was his faltering. With him completely gone...I don't think that's an improvement to the skill set of the team.


Did I hear you say you wish you had Preissing and Corvo? A mediocre (TP) and one-dimensional (JC) rearguard? If I were running an NHL team, I would trade Preissing and Corvo for Smith and Lee in a heartbeat.

Lee will be a good one, but unfortunately the timing is off. By the time he will be a star, the team will be rebuilding again. They need a star right now.

Shadow wrote:
fzusher wrote:
Thanks Notch for the clips. Nice moves indeed. Ironically, the Sens need him more than the Sharks ... The scary thing about the 3rd clip - I'm not only old enough to remember the song, I even have the album on CD ... a hell, karma to the first person to name the band ...

Europe...Rock the night


DUDE! That's my number one pet peeve with youtube hockey videos, esp the collage ones. For some reason people feel the need to bless us with their shitty musical taste. I don't need a cheesy fucking 80's wank-rock song to figure out that the kid has skills.

Now I've got it in my head....arrrgggh, see Shadow's avatar? yeah that's it.

Dobber wrote:
Did I hear you say you wish you had Preissing and Corvo? A mediocre (TP) and one-dimensional (JC) rearguard? If I were running an NHL team, I would trade Preissing and Corvo for Smith and Lee in a heartbeat.


I only want one of those two back, just as a gap fill for Redden being gone. I am just comparing 2 years ago to now. I feel the team is the same, maybe even better in some spots because of maturity and experience. The one spot the team got weaker is O from the D. Other than that, the team will be back to where they were 2 years ago. Good job Murray, follow your plan.

Dobber wrote:
Did I hear you say you wish you had Preissing and Corvo? A mediocre (TP) and one-dimensional (JC) rearguard? If I were running an NHL team, I would trade Preissing and Corvo for Smith and Lee in a heartbeat.


I only want one of those two back, just as a gap fill for Redden being gone. I am just comparing 2 years ago to now. I feel the team is the same, maybe even better in some spots because of maturity and experience. The one spot the team got weaker is O from the D. Other than that, the team will be back to where they were 2 years ago. Good job Murray, follow your plan.

Mcgoo - hilarious! You are bang on! Shitty musical taste - don't I know it! Those dummies just need to play the clip and leave the horrible music out!