Murray sounds off on Meszaros

The article says he was told if they offered $4 there was a chance he'd sign, but he never offered him that, especially after talking to Melnyk. Kuba waived a no-trade to come here as well, so he wants to be here, unlike MESSaroz.[/quote]

Murray confirmed a Sun Media report he offered Meszaros a five-year deal at $3.5- million per season. He also "offered a little higher than that" at the last minute. Meszaros accepted a six-year, $24-million deal from the Bolts. (as per the Sun)

After that it said that he was told if he offered $4 he would take it to his agent...etc...

SensGirl11 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I'm very happy with the return we got for Mesz and the subsequent cap situation we'll be in next year as well. I think Kuba will fit in nicely and to get Picard alone is awesome then you throw in a first and I love this deal. Kuba helps for this season while Lee learns for a year, then Karlsson gets callups next season and Picard learns next season as well. by 2010 we should have a D that includes Lee, Karlsson, Picard, Volchie and Phillips as our top 5!! That will be very nice indeed.

Do you think it would be best for Lee to play with Phillips this year? I think it would help his development more if he were to play with him. Or do we leave Philly and Volchenkov together and place Lee with Smith or Kuba??

Imo these pairings work best:
Phillips - Kuba
Volchenkov - Lee
Smith - Picard/Schubert

You've got the veteran pairing, the youth movement, and the other guys...EAch line has a shutdown man and each line has a puck mover.
Phillips had one of his best seasons when paired with Chara and Kuba is as close as you get to Chara in this league...
Volchenkov and Lee are both solid defenders, one can move the puck the other can destroy people.
Smith is not top-4 anymore but he is the ultimate 3rd pairing shutdown man. He insulates whichever "rookie" is beside him.

SensGirl11 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I'm very happy with the return we got for Mesz and the subsequent cap situation we'll be in next year as well. I think Kuba will fit in nicely and to get Picard alone is awesome then you throw in a first and I love this deal. Kuba helps for this season while Lee learns for a year, then Karlsson gets callups next season and Picard learns next season as well. by 2010 we should have a D that includes Lee, Karlsson, Picard, Volchie and Phillips as our top 5!! That will be very nice indeed.

Do you think it would be best for Lee to play with Phillips this year? I think it would help his development more if he were to play with him. Or do we leave Philly and Volchenkov together and place Lee with Smith or Kuba??

I think Philly will see some time with Lee and some with Volchie such that Lee's minutes aren't too high for his first season and so he is sheltered with a veteran Defensive D in Philly. That's what I would suspect anyway.

cash wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I'm very happy with the return we got for Mesz and the subsequent cap situation we'll be in next year as well. I think Kuba will fit in nicely and to get Picard alone is awesome then you throw in a first and I love this deal. Kuba helps for this season while Lee learns for a year, then Karlsson gets callups next season and Picard learns next season as well. by 2010 we should have a D that includes Lee, Karlsson, Picard, Volchie and Phillips as our top 5!! That will be very nice indeed.

Do you think it would be best for Lee to play with Phillips this year? I think it would help his development more if he were to play with him. Or do we leave Philly and Volchenkov together and place Lee with Smith or Kuba??

Imo these pairings work best:
Phillips - Kuba
Volchenkov - Lee
Smith - Picard/Schubert

You've got the veteran pairing, the youth movement, and the other guys...EAch line has a shutdown man and each line has a puck mover.
Phillips had one of his best seasons when paired with Chara and Kuba is as close as you get to Chara in this league...
Volchenkov and Lee are both solid defenders, one can move the puck the other can destroy people.
Smith is not top-4 anymore but he is the ultimate 3rd pairing shutdown man. He insulates whichever "rookie" is beside him.

I like it! That could work out perfectly. Hopefully Hartsburg feels the same way.
I do believe you need one shut down and one puck mover per pairing, those are the best pairings you can have. Nobody wants 2
slow defenders as a pairing, mind you Philly and Volchenkov have worked out very well and they're both pretty slow. (Philly has his moments) This is going to be a very interesting training camp, we should have a pretty good idea of who ends up together.
I always thought that Philly would be the best partner for Lee, but Volchenkov could work too.

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I'm very happy with the return we got for Mesz and the subsequent cap situation we'll be in next year as well. I think Kuba will fit in nicely and to get Picard alone is awesome then you throw in a first and I love this deal. Kuba helps for this season while Lee learns for a year, then Karlsson gets callups next season and Picard learns next season as well. by 2010 we should have a D that includes Lee, Karlsson, Picard, Volchie and Phillips as our top 5!! That will be very nice indeed.

Do you think it would be best for Lee to play with Phillips this year? I think it would help his development more if he were to play with him. Or do we leave Philly and Volchenkov together and place Lee with Smith or Kuba??

I think Philly will see some time with Lee and some with Volchie such that Lee's minutes aren't too high for his first season and so he is sheltered with a veteran Defensive D in Philly. That's what I would suspect anyway.

How many minutes per game do you think Lee should have? I know we shouldn't be putting too much on his plate, but I think he could handle at least 18-20 minutes per game...No?

I agree with the comments of people not wanting to give Lee too many minutes in his first full year. Ideally, Phillips should be playing against the opposing top lines most of the time, so it might be too much for Lee to be paired with him full time. Kuba has been playing top line minutes the last few years, so he could fit in real well with Phillips.

I could see them putting Phillips and Volchenkov together for the PK. The 2nd pairing could be Smith and Kuba/Schubert?!? Not bad at all.

Anyone have any ideas on who could play the back end on the PP? I figure Alfie/Kuba, and Lee/Schubert, or some combination of those four players.

I just read Jon Jordan's (from hockeybuzz) views on the Meszaros deal.

As for the Meszaros deal itself, it sure looks like the Lightning gave
up a ton for a 22-year-old defenseman when many were hoping they'd land
a seasoned vet. (Give that up, by the way, folks. If you hadn't
noticed, management wants speed from the back end and speed and
"seasoned vets" don't often go together.) Kuba (though I was told by a
club official around the time of the Boyle trade, "We like Kuba. We
want to keep him around") had long stuck out as a tradable asset,
largely because of his 3 million dollar cap hit and many fans had lost
their patience in him some time ago. Picard and the 1st rounder
acquired in the San Jose deal are what, if anything, some are saying
make this too much to have paid in exchange for Meszaros ... but here's
where you have to look at that fictional "big deal".

He seems to think the deal favoured Ottawa, but thinks in context of all of the other summer deals, it still works out for Tampa. Interesting read from a Tampa perspective.

I can't believe it, I just can't believe what I read this morning. He wouldn't sign what sounded like pretty damn close to 4 million a year with the Sens because he didn't want to be paired with Jason Smith?

Are you kidding me? All his young career he's been paired with the best, Chara, Redden, times with Phillips and Volchenkov - and yet he was only good when he was flanked by the big, protective body of Chara. Put him with Redden and he sucked. Sucked. And now, he turns down a 3.5 X 5 - and then apparently a 4 million a year contract to go to Tampa? Using the number 4.5 million as a threat and an offer sheet as an added threat...Wow, then he signs a 4 million dollar deal within a day there.

This is one of the biggest kicks in the pants I've ever gotten as a Sens fan. If I were Jason Smith, I'm looking for my first opportunity to absolutely put this little punk's teeth right down his throat for him. You won't have a tough partner in TB - it's impossible. I hope opponent's feed you your franking teeth boy.

Unreal.

Now ask me again what I think of the trade. It's gold. Because tools with this kind of attitude is exactly what we don't need.

Punk Donkey Meszaros

And this time, it's not meant to be amusing in any way whatsoever.

Wow...I'm glad I got that off my chest...I was franking seething.

Well I gotta say I'm glad it worked out the way it did with the news that Mesz probably didn't want to be here anyway. Picard a pick and Kuba is a nice return for Mesz IMO. Good riddance Mesz if it's true you didn't want to be here. I guess my wife's game worn, signed Mesz Jersey will spend it's life in a shadow box from here on out.

504Heater wrote:I can't believe it, I just can't believe what I read this morning. He wouldn't sign what sounded like pretty damn close to 4 million a year with the Sens because he didn't want to be paired with Jason Smith?

Are you kidding me? All his young career he's been paired with the best, Chara, Redden, times with Phillips and Volchenkov - and yet he was only good when he was flanked by the big, protective body of Chara. Put him with Redden and he sucked. Sucked. And now, he turns down a 3.5 X 5 - and then apparently a 4 million a year contract to go to Tampa? Using the number 4.5 million as a threat and an offer sheet as an added threat...Wow, then he signs a 4 million dollar deal within a day there.

This is one of the biggest kicks in the pants I've ever gotten as a Sens fan. If I were Jason Smith, I'm looking for my first opportunity to absolutely put this little punk's teeth right down his throat for him. You won't have a tough partner in TB - it's impossible. I hope opponent's feed you your franking teeth boy.

Unreal.

Now ask me again what I think of the trade. It's gold. Because tools with this kind of attitude is exactly what we don't need.

Punk Donkey Meszaros

And this time, it's not meant to be amusing in any way whatsoever.

That was quite the rant Heater, and I couldn't have said it better myself. I share your anger on this and we absolutely do not need a guy like that on our team, I'm happy we found out before it was too late. We won this deal straight up! They end up with a loser and we ended up with guys who want to win.

SensGirl11 wrote:
That was quite the rant Heater, and I couldn't have said it better myself. I share your anger on this and we absolutely do not need a guy like that on our team, I'm happy we found out before it was too late. We won this deal straight up! They end up with a loser and we ended up with guys who want to win.

I'm quite pissed. I don't know if we won the trade, I don't even care at this moment.

504Heater wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:
That was quite the rant Heater, and I couldn't have said it better myself. I share your anger on this and we absolutely do not need a guy like that on our team, I'm happy we found out before it was too late. We won this deal straight up! They end up with a loser and we ended up with guys who want to win.

I'm quite pissed. I don't know if we won the trade, I don't even care at this moment.

There's no question we won this trade. Every expert the past few days has said Meszaros is not even close to being that good. Don't

jamvan wrote:
There's no question we won this trade. Every expert the past few days has said Meszaros is not even close to being that good. Don't

I totally agree. I'm super happy with this trade.

jamvan wrote:
There's no question we won this trade. Every expert the past few days has said Meszaros is not even close to being that good. Don't

I know he's not worth what we got back, but...man...

Maybe Murray should've just shut his trap about this, but I feel like we all had a right to know that the main setback was his pairing partner.

Well if he's as selfish as some have said then it makes sense right? How is he supposed to pad his stats next to a guy like Smith?

504Heater wrote:

jamvan wrote:
There's no question we won this trade. Every expert the past few days has said Meszaros is not even close to being that good. Don't

I know he's not worth what we got back, but...man...

Maybe Murray should've just shut his trap about this, but I feel like we all had a right to know that the main setback was his pairing partner.

Aren't you glad to know what in fact went down. Meszaros now reminds me of a Yashin but with only half the talent. Meszaros will get eaten alive as their #1 defenceman, just wait and see.

You know something caught my attention in the article and I've been wondering about it, but how did Meszaros know who his partner was going to be on D and why did everyone assume it was going to be Jason Smith? Isn't it the coach's job to determine line combinations and defensive pairings?

This makes me believe that maybe money wasn't the sole hold up in this contract negotiation. Maybe he wanted guarantees of playing time, pairings, etc.....