UPDATE: Jason Smith retires; door open for Erik Karlsson?

SensFan71 wrote:

Sens19 wrote:I have a question: Why are we buying out Daniel Alfredsson?

that was a buyout of his earlier contract, since they renegotiated another extension, his previous contract had to be bought out.

Oh ok thanks for clearing that up

Sens19 wrote:

SensFan71 wrote:

Sens19 wrote:I have a question: Why are we buying out Daniel Alfredsson?

that was a buyout of his earlier contract, since they renegotiated another extension, his previous contract had to be bought out.

Oh ok thanks for clearing that up

no problem at all.

Philips
Volchenkov
Campoli
Kuba
Picard
Schubert
Karlsson

With the retirement of Smith the Sens blueline looks a little soft to me. Philips, Volchenkov and Schubert are the only physical and punishing defencemen on the team. And with Schubert not even guaranteed a spot on the team - either as a forward or a defenceman - Is Murray now in the market for a big physical type defenceman? I can't think of anyone from Bingo who fits the bill.

Snuh wrote:Philips
Volchenkov
Campoli
Kuba
Picard
Schubert
Karlsson

With the retirement of Smith the Sens blueline looks a little soft to me. Philips, Volchenkov and Schubert are the only physical and punishing defencemen on the team. And with Schubert not even guaranteed a spot on the team - either as a forward or a defenceman - Is Murray now in the market for a big physical type defenceman? I can't think of anyone from Bingo who fits the bill.

Wait until you see Karlsson step up, he might be small but he is anything but soft. You dont need a whole bunch of bangers out there. Picard will eventually pick up the phyiscal play as well IMO. Also, I think you might see a much more agressive and physical Brian Lee if he somehow cracks the lineup.

our favourite Sens Blogger over at HB has the link up for the presser announcing Smith's retirement, love the little flash of Alfie going through the screen with a grin on his face.

N4L wrote:Wait until you see Karlsson step up, he might be small but he is anything but soft. You dont need a whole bunch of bangers out there. Picard will eventually pick up the phyiscal play as well IMO. Also, I think you might see a much more agressive and physical Brian Lee if he somehow cracks the lineup.

Agreed. You need a good mix on D, as you do with a whole team. As an aside, Lee has a baby face but a pretty big body.

N4L wrote:

Snuh wrote:Philips
Volchenkov
Campoli
Kuba
Picard
Schubert
Karlsson

With the retirement of Smith the Sens blueline looks a little soft to me. Philips, Volchenkov and Schubert are the only physical and punishing defencemen on the team. And with Schubert not even guaranteed a spot on the team - either as a forward or a defenceman - Is Murray now in the market for a big physical type defenceman? I can't think of anyone from Bingo who fits the bill.

Wait until you see Karlsson step up, he might be small but he is anything but soft. You dont need a whole bunch of bangers out there. Picard will eventually pick up the phyiscal play as well IMO. Also, I think you might see a much more agressive and physical Brian Lee if he somehow cracks the lineup.

It would be nice to see those players step up into a more physical role, but you can't really replace the type of player that Smith once was. I can't see Karlsson or Picard putting the fear into opposing forwards when they go into the corners. If the D stays the way it is I think you would see the end of the Philips/Volchenkov combo. Have to spread out the big hitteres/shot blockers.

If Regin, Karlsson and Lee make the line-up... and we move Schubie for a pick or prospect... our 22-man roster has $1.19M in cap space. Not much of a difference.

Snuh wrote:

N4L wrote:

Snuh wrote:Philips
Volchenkov
Campoli
Kuba
Picard
Schubert
Karlsson

With the retirement of Smith the Sens blueline looks a little soft to me. Philips, Volchenkov and Schubert are the only physical and punishing defencemen on the team. And with Schubert not even guaranteed a spot on the team - either as a forward or a defenceman - Is Murray now in the market for a big physical type defenceman? I can't think of anyone from Bingo who fits the bill.

Wait until you see Karlsson step up, he might be small but he is anything but soft. You dont need a whole bunch of bangers out there. Picard will eventually pick up the phyiscal play as well IMO. Also, I think you might see a much more agressive and physical Brian Lee if he somehow cracks the lineup.

It would be nice to see those players step up into a more physical role, but you can't really replace the type of player that Smith once was. I can't see Karlsson or Picard putting the fear into opposing forwards when they go into the corners. If the D stays the way it is I think you would see the end of the Philips/Volchenkov combo. Have to spread out the big hitteres/shot blockers.

Why would you see the end of that combo? Kuba is about as solid a D man as you can find. He isnt phyiscal but he is great defensivly, moves the puck well, and is our best D man right now. A Train and Phillips are fine as a duo. Campoli and Kuba will be fine together as well, Karlsson and who ever else on the 6th pair to start the year. Everything is ok on the back end in Ottawa and in goal.

shabbs wrote:If Regin, Karlsson and Lee make the line-up... and we move Schubie for a pick or prospect... our 22-man roster has $1.19M in cap space. Not much of a difference.

well then my plan wasn't thought through very well, that means we might have to look at moving a guy like Kelly (gasp) to get more cap space and move a guy like Smith in his spot. Bass can go back to bingo as someone corrected me and told me he is on a 2 way.

Yeah, Bass and Z. Smith are both on 2-ways.

N4L wrote:Again, it's time that things should be earned in Ottawa, not given to them like Spezza and Meszaros were. There is absolutly nothing wrong with a guy like Regin working his way up the ladder.

Meszaros definitely earned his spot on the roster that first season. Don't forget, he ended up part of an all-rookie team featuring Ovechkin, Crosby, Lundqvist and Phaneuf.

I'd say he earned it more than Karlsson appears to be.

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:Again, it's time that things should be earned in Ottawa, not given to them like Spezza and Meszaros were. There is absolutly nothing wrong with a guy like Regin working his way up the ladder.

Meszaros definitely earned his spot on the roster that first season. Don't forget, he ended up part of an all-rookie team featuring Ovechkin, Crosby, Lundqvist and Phaneuf.

I'd say he earned it more than Karlsson appears to be.

There's been an increase in blaspheming here lately.

davetherave wrote:Right on...Duncan Keith, for example, isn't exactly The Incredible Hulk...Karlsson's a VERY smart and smooth d-man.

Right now, though, Keith is several levels above Karlsson defensively.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:Again, it's time that things should be earned in Ottawa, not given to them like Spezza and Meszaros were. There is absolutly nothing wrong with a guy like Regin working his way up the ladder.

Meszaros definitely earned his spot on the roster that first season. Don't forget, he ended up part of an all-rookie team featuring Ovechkin, Crosby, Lundqvist and Phaneuf.

I'd say he earned it more than Karlsson appears to be.

There's been an increase in blaspheming here lately.

bee started it, I say we blame him

SensFan71 wrote:

shabbs wrote:If Regin, Karlsson and Lee make the line-up... and we move Schubie for a pick or prospect... our 22-man roster has $1.19M in cap space. Not much of a difference.

well then my plan wasn't thought through very well, that means we might have to look at moving a guy like Kelly (gasp) to get more cap space and move a guy like Smith in his spot. Bass can go back to bingo as someone corrected me and told me he is on a 2 way.

Not sure what Murray's gonna do... if we move Kelly and Schubert for picks/prospects and assume Regin, Z. Smith, Lee and Karlsson all make the line-up, a 22-man roster ends up with $2.761M in cap space and looks like this. But what are the chances of all that happening...?

SeawaySensFan wrote:

asq2 wrote:

N4L wrote:Again, it's time that things should be earned in Ottawa, not given to them like Spezza and Meszaros were. There is absolutly nothing wrong with a guy like Regin working his way up the ladder.

Meszaros definitely earned his spot on the roster that first season. Don't forget, he ended up part of an all-rookie team featuring Ovechkin, Crosby, Lundqvist and Phaneuf.

I'd say he earned it more than Karlsson appears to be.

There's been an increase in blaspheming here lately.

All I'll say is that I've watched Karlsson pretty extensively in the WJC and in the SEL, and while there are aspects of his game that are pretty damn impressive, I don't anticipate he'll be as good as Meszaros was in his rookie season.

Now, granted, he may have taken many steps forward this off-season (which is hard to tell until he starts playing again) but I'd be lying if I said that when I last saw him (SEL playoffs) he didn't have a lot of work to do defensively.

On another note, is anyone concerned that we just lost quite a bit of leadership in the locker-room?

Especially with Heatley potentially returning, is this going to be a good environment for youngsters like Karlsson?