Wow! Murray Quote from today's con call.

Dash wrote:Guys, get real. So what, he hinted at possibly trying to sign Bouwmeester, but ultimately it comes down to where Jay wants to play, which likely is impacted by many things: money, location, team, etc.

Murray can talk all he wants about what he hopes or plans to do, but unless Bouwmeester signs here, ain't nothing Murray can do. Expect to be disappointed.

I'm going to be finishing my analysis soon for the free agent guide and that should give you a decent list of teams that can afford Bouwmeester.

PKC wrote:

Dash wrote:Guys, get real. So what, he hinted at possibly trying to sign Bouwmeester, but ultimately it comes down to where Jay wants to play, which likely is impacted by many things: money, location, team, etc.

Murray can talk all he wants about what he hopes or plans to do, but unless Bouwmeester signs here, ain't nothing Murray can do. Expect to be disappointed.

I'm going to be finishing my analysis soon for the free agent guide and that should give you a decent list of teams that can afford Bouwmeester.

Teams that can afford his and teams that he will go to are 2 different things.

He wants to leave a decent team in Florida because he hates the non-hockey market.

Off the top of my head, right now, there are 3 teams, maybe 4, that can make a serious pitch for him and they are all in Canada. Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver.

I'm not even discussing Spezza - I'm talking about people assuming and getting ahead of themselves that Bouwmeester to Ottawa is even an option. If you are Jay Bouwmeester, really, is Ottawa your first choice?

Dash wrote:I'm not even discussing Spezza - I'm talking about people assuming and getting ahead of themselves that Bouwmeester to Ottawa is even an option. If you are Jay Bouwmeester, really, is Ottawa your first choice?

Comes down to cap space, he wont have many choices if nobody can pay him.

Ah, don't be surprised to see JayBo sign here and Atrain moved out because of it. Atrain would be used to get that top 6 forward that we also need.

And who else is moved to make room for Jay Bo Jamvan?

I guess we know why Murray passed on Boyle last year, he really seems to have a hard on for JBo. Murray get it done.

At the expense of Volchenkov? Move Phillips, or Phillips and Smith before touching A-Train.

Dash wrote:At the expense of Volchenkov? Move Phillips, or Phillips and Smith before touching A-Train.

move smith and/or Picard WAAAAY before considering moving Philips or Volchenkov.

Besides, Philips WILL retire a Senator. The organization needs stability like that....

he and Alfie, I see in the front office after they hang them up...eventually....


and to all the other posts above...Spezza is gonzo come June...especially if we get a top 4 pick and can grab on of those top end forwards (MSP)

Why would we deal Spezza after acquiring an 18 year old winger?

asq2 wrote:Why would we deal Spezza after acquiring an 18 year old winger?

Thats just it. If the Sens move SPezza and don't get an elite centre in return, it'll be just like the years between Yashin and Spezza.

Even if the Sens luck out and draft Taveras, does anyone really want him to be the top line centre on a team his rookie season?

No, Tavares must be better than Spezza already. I mean, who cares that he has the same question marks about him and that he's actually a less productive player in the OHL than Spezza was.

asq2 wrote:No, Tavares must be better than Spezza already. I mean, who cares that he has the same question marks about him and that he's actually a less productive player in the OHL than Spezza was.

Personally I'd hate to lose Spezza, every team needs an elite centre and thats exactly what Spezza is.

There is still too much money invested in 5 forwards, to me the logical choice is to trade Fisher. He's one of my favorite players, but thats a lot of cake to give a third line centre when so much is invested in the top line.

Maybe the Sens can move Schubie, Auld, Smith (who i love from his edmonton days) and Kelly or something to free up the cap space. I don't know for sure, i havent seen any cap numbers since all the moves yesterday.

I'm willing to keep Fisher next season, because he's impressed me quite a bit in the latter part of this year. Lately he's seemed to be a much better set-up man/not have quite as much tunnel vision

If he can't produce next season, then I'd try to move him, even if it means taking less for him.

asq2 wrote:I'm willing to keep Fisher next season, because he's impressed me quite a bit in the latter part of this year. Lately he's seemed to be a much better set-up man/not have quite as much tunnel vision

If he can't produce next season, then I'd try to move him, even if it means taking less for him.

I'd hesitate to move Fisher too, Im just not sure if the Sens will be able to land a top pair defenseman if one of the big 4 aren't traded.

Maybe Picard, Campoli and Lee will be better enough next season that the Sens won't need to acquire someone else I just don't have much faith in that.

Heh, no, me neither.

What would you be looking at, though, in terms of a blue-line? Let's say we sign Ohlund for ~$4.5 million. Are we looking at:

Ohlund - Kuba
Phillips - Volchenkov
Campoli - Smith, Picard, Bell, Karlsson, Karlsson, Lee, Schubert?

EDIT: IMO, that's a pretty respectable blue-line, although we're looking to have way too many depth defencemen.

Personally, I'd rather not have Erik in the NHL next season, unless he can really bulk up over the summer.

Granted, the allure for me of signing Ohlund would be that he could mentor a guy like E Karlsson.

Seems to me that the logical ones to move if J-Bo was to come in would be Fisher or Heatley (in that order).

Moving Fisher would simply allow one of our other four centres (not including Spezza) to slide into his spot, and would relieve the team of $4M+ of cap hit. Drafting MPS (or MSP, whichever is proper) would replace the "power-forward" we'd have lost, but would add some (not much) finish. And Martin has a hard-on for Fisher.

Heatley would be the other option, but they don't seem keen to take on salary at that level; we'd be making cap space but it would be harder to replace the point production.

If a sign-and-trade were to occur before July 1st, there is no reason why Ottawa couldn't still be in the running (although Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver seem more likely - the latter two are closer to being contenders).