What a wild spot Sens owner Eugene Melnyk has the city of Ottawa and his own franchise in.
It’s a Mexican standoff really. No arena deal in place and a team that if it trades its 3 top potential UFA’s will be a motley mess of bad contracts and young futures.
It’s essentially a declaration that if the City doesn’t support the team it will have a very poor product for a hockey generation and possibly even get moved to Quebec City.
It should be interesting to see who blinks and when as this rolls out.
A big problem for the team is that it appears that GM Pierre Dorion is stringed by his owner. The trade to acquire Matt Duchene was not a strong one. Now the team may lose Duchene, see its #1 pick and possible #1 overall end up with Colorado, and end up with a more bare pantry.
While teams want Mark Stone, at his salary point and a glut of forward talent available what could his possible return be?
Ryan Dzingel and his 20 goal seasons?
Ottawa is in a situation where they would have to pay a premium to retain these players, if they are willing to stay. For Duchene and Stone in particular there is no real jazz to stay in a hot mess that is Ottawa.
Erik Karlsson didn’t even land the team a 1st round pick. Yes, all three key UFA’s could land 1sts, but in the big picture that would still mean years of suffering for Ottawa fans.
IF you trade Cody Ceci and the minutes he eats up where does that leave your D corp?
The pantry simply isn’t that full in the minors.
Mr. Melnyk has this team gearing for a full bottom salary cap dwelling team while he works out his arena and ownership situation which will not endear him with the local die hard Sens fans. And Ottawa fans are die hard and smart hockey people.
This has to be breaking a lot of their hearts as this team is only a few years away from making a real cup run; something the city won’t see for at least half a decade if not longer.
Sadly the team isn’t doing the things it could like the move that Montreal did in taking in Steve Mason and then buying him out to acquire an asset.
What do you think Sens fans? You can post your comments below.