Murray says Spezza will not be moved

Neely4Life wrote:

asq2 wrote:What does cap space mean to us?

We're a small market with heavy taxes with a ****ing awful media and a poor team.

There are almost never players the calibre of Spezza on the free agent market, especially none at his age.

We'd also open up a gaping hole at centre that we'd have to fill.

I dont get your love affair with Spezza at all. Do you realize how incomplete, lazy, passionless, and selfish kind of player Spezza is...? Seriously. You see age and tallent.

Lets get Kyle Beach and Downie too, put them all together on one line. Those 2 are younger than Spezza and have all the tools!

We've been over this ad nauseum. We have three threads in the "latest topics" list covering this. You've made your arguments countless times, I've made my arguments countless times, it's pretty obvious neither of us have or are close to changing their opinions.

I'm going to leave it at that. :D

beedub wrote:

asq2 wrote:What does cap space mean to us?

We're a small market with heavy taxes with a ****ing awful media and a poor team.

There are almost never players the calibre of Spezza on the free agent market, especially none at his age.

We'd also open up a gaping hole at centre that we'd have to fill.

I'd have to disagree with you on a couple of things, asq. We are a small market team, with great media coverage, a great fanbase, and a team that is so massively front loaded with long term cap hits that we're gonna tip over in due time.

eliminate one of the big two and you have flexibility. You can invest in defence, goaltending still save money.

Every team is going to have a couple of marquee players. I would like to see ours spread out to encompass defence and goaltending as well as forward

The amount of coverage is good, but IMO the Ottawa media are not. They'll make a big deal out of pretty much anything to fill space.

The thing is, Ottawa has never really been a big player on the market. The big free agents tend to go to the same group of teams.

What big free agent acquisitions have we made? Martin Gerber? Joe Corvo? Jarkko Ruutu?

Yes, Murray's a relatively new GM so that might change, but this team has never been about free agency. And free agency is all about over-paying.

Complain about Spezza's $7 million all you want, because Gomez and Drury are making more than he is and Wade Redden almost the same amount.

You're almost never going to find a player the calibre of Spezza on the free agent market, and if you do you're going to have to drastically overpay to get him to sign here, where the taxes are higher, the weather isn't great, and the team is non-competitive. That means kissing goodbye to guys like Volchenkov, Karlsson, potentially a guy like MPS in the future.

And seriously, would we actually want to sign a top-end guy willing to sign here? Because unless he's locally born, it would show that he's about the money rather than about winning.

Neely4Life wrote:Yzerman was also the captain at a very young age and was a leader despite being the complete player he became. Yzerman also played in the 80's where it was offense first an run and gun, he grew up in the NHL playing the game the way everyone else was.

There isnt even a remote thought about Spezza being anything called a leader. Yzerman never had anyone to play with until about 1990 while Spezza has had more tallent around him than a lot of players have in their careers.

I hate people saying Yzerman didnt do this until that. Spezza and Yzerman are no where near the same player. If people want to compare Spezza to anyone, look no further than Pierre Turgeon.

How about Pavel Datsyuk? People said the Wings would never win with him - and I remember people openly ridiculing the Wings for giving him 6.75 over a long term.

SensFan71 wrote:

shabbs wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:lol, well right there is why its not worth the wait... imagine if we had that for the next 6 years after this with no results... basically over a decade wasted.

Well, Murray's got until this summer to sit and think about it, otherwise after that he'd have to get Spezza to agree to lift his NMC if he wanted to move him for whatever reason.

then its Wade Redden possibly all over again, I do not want to walk down that road again, we got burned once already

Eek. Let's hope not.

Did you guys see that?

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Did you guys see that?

What? Something happened? I'm all in a twitter these days.

The Fighting Montagoose was here and then he was gone without a trace.

504Heater wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:Yzerman was also the captain at a very young age and was a leader despite being the complete player he became. Yzerman also played in the 80's where it was offense first an run and gun, he grew up in the NHL playing the game the way everyone else was.

There isnt even a remote thought about Spezza being anything called a leader. Yzerman never had anyone to play with until about 1990 while Spezza has had more tallent around him than a lot of players have in their careers.

I hate people saying Yzerman didnt do this until that. Spezza and Yzerman are no where near the same player. If people want to compare Spezza to anyone, look no further than Pierre Turgeon.

How about Pavel Datsyuk? People said the Wings would never win with him - and I remember people openly ridiculing the Wings for giving him 6.75 over a long term.

Now he's the best forward in the league. :D

Lecavalier's another example.

Spezza is so far behind those two in terms it isnt even funny. Even taking into account his age. They are also both extremely physical which makes them hard to play against.

If Spezza ever had that kind of mentality, then sure, I would be turned around somewhat on him. I dont see Spezza ever being able to play that kind of physical game and putting opponites into the boards and the ice.

Datsyuk was the softest player in the league at Spezza's age.

Spezza's better than either of them were at 25.

I like Spezza, but some money has to go out the door. It won't be Alfie, Fisher, Phillips, or Heatley. If not Spezza, then Comire? Vermette?

dennycrane wrote:I like Spezza, but some money has to go out the door. It won't be Alfie, Fisher, Phillips, or Heatley. If not Spezza, then Comire? Vermette?

Why won't it be Fisher, Heatley, or Phillips?

Fisher could accept a trade to Nashville
Heatley would accept a trade to Calgary, maybe Edmonton.
Phillips would probably like to go to Calgary as well.

asq2 wrote:Datsyuk was the softest player in the league at Spezza's age.

Spezza's better than either of them were at 25.

Based on what? Lecalivier was the World Cup MVP at 24, lol, and had a cup! Spezza was no where near what Lecailver S about him being a better player than Lecailver at 24. Spezza is almost 2 years older and still isnt anywhere near what Lecailver was.

Thats just wrong.

The Guy With The Mustache wrote:

dennycrane wrote:I like Spezza, but some money has to go out the door. It won't be Alfie, Fisher, Phillips, or Heatley. If not Spezza, then Comire? Vermette?

Why won't it be Fisher, Heatley, or Phillips?

Fisher could accept a trade to Nashville
Heatley would accept a trade to Calgary, maybe Edmonton.
Phillips would probably like to go to Calgary as well.

They may accept it, but they won't be asked to.

The Guy With The Mustache wrote:

dennycrane wrote:I like Spezza, but some money has to go out the door. It won't be Alfie, Fisher, Phillips, or Heatley. If not Spezza, then Comire? Vermette?

Why won't it be Fisher, Heatley, or Phillips?

Fisher could accept a trade to Nashville
Heatley would accept a trade to Calgary, maybe Edmonton.
Phillips would probably like to go to Calgary as well.

Fisher and Phillips both mean a lot to the Ottawa community. Both give a lot of THEIR time (not team events) and make mid night vistis to CHEO and really care about this city. Sure, some of their short comings on the ice are anoying, but no one will ever question their effort, leadership, passion, or general attitude towards Ottawa and the commiunity within it.

There is more to being an NHLer than just having the tallent to be there. Getting rid of Fisher or Phillips would be a big mistake and really hurt the Sens on and off the ice.

Heatley, meh, w/e.

If there were 3 contracts that New York would like to forget is those three. That's on them.

I think you don't give enough credit to the appeal of Ottawa as a hockey market. Teams come into SBP and they hear the fans support.

Ok, we're struggling right now, and we have one or two too many deadwood long-Donkey contracts, but the fan base has not changed. We are just as rabid and passionate as we were last year.

If you prefer to shun the spotlight, no, Ottawa is definitely not for you. IF you don't mind being exalted by the fans, and being harrassed for comments or autographs, then you very well may want to play here. Any of the Canadian markets and quite a few of the US markets are known as great cities to play in.

No one complains of playing in Toronto, but what have they won.

Neely4Life wrote:

asq2 wrote:Datsyuk was the softest player in the league at Spezza's age.

Spezza's better than either of them were at 25.

Based on what? Lecalivier was the World Cup MVP at 24, lol, and had a cup! Spezza was no where near what Lecailver S about him being a better player than Lecailver at 24. Spezza is almost 2 years older and still isnt anywhere near what Lecailver was.

Thats just wrong.

Datsyuk was such a little floater. I remember watching him and thinking that he had the talent, but why wouldn't he turn it up a notch? Then they re-signed him to that massive package and I shrugged because I don't really care about the Wings, but look what's since happened.

As for Vinny, he was about to be traded for Radek Bonk. That says it all right there. Spezza gets such a bum-wrap for not winning the World Juniors. Considering he was one of only 5 players ever to play at the age of 16, I think we can cut him a little slack on that personally.

504Heater wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:

asq2 wrote:Datsyuk was the softest player in the league at Spezza's age.

Spezza's better than either of them were at 25.

Based on what? Lecalivier was the World Cup MVP at 24, lol, and had a cup! Spezza was no where near what Lecailver S about him being a better player than Lecailver at 24. Spezza is almost 2 years older and still isnt anywhere near what Lecailver was.

Thats just wrong.

Datsyuk was such a little floater. I remember watching him and thinking that he had the talent, but why wouldn't he turn it up a notch? Then they re-signed him to that massive package and I shrugged because I don't really care about the Wings, but look what's since happened.

As for Vinny, he was about to be traded for Radek Bonk. That says it all right there. Spezza gets such a bum-wrap for not winning the World Juniors. Considering he was one of only 5 players ever to play at the age of 16, I think we can cut him a little slack on that personally.

How many guys have 3 shots at it, and not win... anyways, I said the world cup of hockey, not the WJC. Lecailver was NEVER going to get dealt for Bonk.

Spezza is no where near what Lecailver was at 24, 25. Way ahead.