Murray's first order of Business

I know we we all have been talking off and on about getting Neil resigned to a contract as well as possibly Comrie, then Murray has to turn his attention to getting a bonafide # 1 PMD or at least someone that can fill the void somewhat until Karlsson makes it over here, but from what I am seeing at nhlnumbers.com, and some of you probably have picked up on this before, but I am thinking that Murray signing RFA Ryan Shannon should his first order of business. Shannon is a small player yes, but playing with Fish and Foligno, his lack of size works, plus like someone pointed out to me before, I believe it was Heater, but with Shannon around, it's like the Fish's career is starting to wake up again. So before any offer sheets come July 1st, Murray better get pen to paper on an extension for Ryan Shannon, how long, I will leave that to the experts.

Excellent point SF. I was thinking the same thing recently. With the FFS line, the Sens NOW HAVE a legit secondary scoring threat(s) and Shannon seems to be the integral cog to make it flow; so yes, Murray had better extend him and soon because I'm sure many other GM's noticed how that speedy gonzalez can move and make plays...

Give him a one year deal so that he can prove himself over an entire season. I'd say somewhere in the 800-850K range out to be good.

I also agree. And this allows us to keep the big 3 together. So our top line is all skill, and our 2nd line would be a grinding scoring line. They have skill too, but they just hammer the opposition, are strong on the puck, cycle it well, tire out the opposition with solid forecheck and puck possession.

Now if we have a 3rd line that will include Regin, and maybe Comrie, and either Kelly or Zubov, we have a 3rd line build around speed. Another line that is solid defensively, but will move the puck quickly, be shifty, and make people react instinctively.

We will have a triple threat, all with different attack styles, and secondary scoring should not be an issue.

Bass Destruction wrote:I also agree. And this allows us to keep the big 3 together. So our top line is all skill, and our 2nd line would be a grinding scoring line. They have skill too, but they just hammer the opposition, are strong on the puck, cycle it well, tire out the opposition with solid forecheck and puck possession.

Now if we have a 3rd line that will include Regin, and maybe Comrie, and either Kelly or Zubov, we have a 3rd line build around speed. Another line that is solid defensively, but will move the puck quickly, be shifty, and make people react instinctively.

We will have a triple threat, all with different attack styles, and secondary scoring should not be an issue.

this triple theat might be something that we haven't had since hossa and havlat were here, that was probably the time when we had the most balanced scoring over the past few years. Cronie is right though, other GM's are on notice about Shannon and a draft pick or two is a small price to pay if you think the guy is worth it, and in my opinion, Shannon is.

IMHO Murray's first order of business is the extension of Cory Clouston's contract and removal of the 'interim' tag...

davetherave wrote:IMHO Murray's first order of business is the extension of Cory Clouston's contract and removal of the 'interim' tag...

okay, since I do agree with you, we will make Shannon Murray's second order of business, man, he is going to be a busy man this off season.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Lesson+learned+Murray+laments/1433101/story.html

Look at the bottom. See Peter The Great? That's me. :##:

I'm sure most of you don't want to hear it, but unless there is another mid-to-large sized contract going out, Murray is not signing another expensive defenceman. He put his money into Kuba. He clearly feels that between Kuba, Campoli, and one of Bell, Picard, and Lee, he has his offencive defencemen. My guess is that he is fairly comfortable with Kuba and Campoli as the top offencive guys. He didn't re-sign Kuba for three years and use up a late 1st round pick on Campoli if he thought otherwise.

agreed.

Mojo wrote:I'm sure most of you don't want to hear it, but unless there is another mid-to-large sized contract going out, Murray is not signing another expensive defenceman. He put his money into Kuba. He clearly feels that between Kuba, Campoli, and one of Bell, Picard, and Lee, he has his offencive defencemen. My guess is that he is fairly comfortable with Kuba and Campoli as the top offencive guys. He didn't re-sign Kuba for three years and use up a late 1st round pick on Campoli if he thought otherwise.

I'm pretty much okay with that personally. I think we have an option to get a really good veteran D-man for a 1-year contract when players realize that teams aren't gonna sign them.

504Heater wrote:

Mojo wrote:I'm sure most of you don't want to hear it, but unless there is another mid-to-large sized contract going out, Murray is not signing another expensive defenceman. He put his money into Kuba. He clearly feels that between Kuba, Campoli, and one of Bell, Picard, and Lee, he has his offencive defencemen. My guess is that he is fairly comfortable with Kuba and Campoli as the top offencive guys. He didn't re-sign Kuba for three years and use up a late 1st round pick on Campoli if he thought otherwise.

I'm pretty much okay with that personally. I think we have an option to get a really good veteran D-man for a 1-year contract when players realize that teams aren't gonna sign them.

There may be room in the cap to squeeze someone in cheap near the end of summer, but I don't think there is any room on the depth chart. If we bring someone else in, then either Kuba and/or Campoli gets bumped down the depth chart. Campoli needs the minutes so that he can continue developing. If Kuba got bumped to a third pairing, he would be a waste of money. Plus I'm sure that while Melnyk wants the team to be competitive and is willing to spend to the cap, he wouldn't be heart-broken if Murray saved him a few million!

I agee that the coach has to be first order of business. I am not questioning Clouston's impact on this team this year, it really has been quite remarkable.

The logical step would be to hand him an extension to coach here. I am sure that Murray will make an informed decision about how to proceed at head coach.

Mojo wrote:I'm sure most of you don't want to hear it, but unless there is another mid-to-large sized contract going out, Murray is not signing another expensive defenceman. He put his money into Kuba. He clearly feels that between Kuba, Campoli, and one of Bell, Picard, and Lee, he has his offencive defencemen. My guess is that he is fairly comfortable with Kuba and Campoli as the top offencive guys. He didn't re-sign Kuba for three years and use up a late 1st round pick on Campoli if he thought otherwise.

I'm guessing that Kelly and Schubert would be trade options. Moving them would allow you to gain further assets while freeing up cap space to sign Comrie and Neil, and opening a spot for younger players like Bass, Zubov or Regin.

First priority (in my opinion) would be signing Clouston. Second would be getting a puck moving defenseman. That could very well be Karlsson, but there's no way to know if he is ready for prime time. Then, again, the last 20-some games have shown us that we can be competitive with Schubert/Lee/Bell in the lineup, so maybe that "second priority" is a distant second. There's always next March.

Other than that, some contracts definitely have to be moved. My guess is that at least one of Neil, Kelly, Schubert, Fisher, Spezza won't be in Sens unis next season.

Neil is the easiest as a UFA, and if he wants $more than $2M, but now that even the wife's doing local ads maybe they are prepared to come down in demands.

Kelly would be a tough one to lose because we've already lost Vermette. That's two top penalty killers. However playing a more disciplined game and cutting down on penalties taken is another way to cut down.

Schubert just doesn't give you much cap room, and he's started playing better of late. I was very vocal about him being gone earlier in the year, then he got benched for what felt like half a season, but maybe that's been good for him. He's no longer sulking about not playing D; he seems to have realized that playing *anything* in the NHL while getting $950K is way better than sitting in the pressbox,. Hard to work on your next contract while wearing a suit and tie.

Fisher would be a tough move to take, bit it's probably the one that makes th most sense. He's got to be the highest $-per-point forward on the team, even since Clouston took over. Plus he's still not strong enough (on a consistent basis) on face offs. Now that we lost Vermette, can we afford 30-40% from our second-line centre? If we can't move him to the wing, then I'd like to see him moved elsewhere.

Spezza? I really don't think he's easily moved at this point in time, even though his NTC hasn't licked in yet. He's also the hardest piece to replace. IMO, of course.