Murray's first order of Business

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.

Mojo wrote:
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 think it might be time to make an upgrade personally. I know Brian Lee's a young buck, still learning, but I'd rather give his spot with Kuba to a successful veteran at this point. We have Karlsson, Wiercioch, Picard, Campoli all either in the NHL or coming up quick, I like getting a guy that can play top pairing with Kuba. Like a Zubov if Dallas decides not to re-sign him. I'd love to toss 5 million for one season his way. I wanted Schneider at the beginning of the year as well. These one year contracts do nothing negative with the possible exception of cutting down the young players ice time - but in our position our good young guys won't be seeing the NHL until at least after next year.

I would have no issue giving Lee another year in Bingo to prove that he's either a puck-mover or a defencive D-man - or neither - and possibly trading or waiving Picard, re-signing Bell as the 7th D-man and acquiring someone good to play with Kuba.

I hear Chelios wants to play again next year. I hear he's quite the workout nut. :$$$$: