Is Murray still trying to swing a deal?

just a short post to say that both the Braintrust are getting whispers of Murray working his phones and trying to work a deal (or perhaps one is already in place).
I can only speak for myself, but I cannot seem to get anything concrete in terms of who and who is being shipped out.

Schubert and McAmmond are obvious odd men out by all accounts, and then there's Murray supposedly chasing an offensive D man.

Thoughts? And i'll keep digging and chasing my tail.

Who's left to chase as far as "offensive d-men" beyond Schneider? I guess Bouwmeester is theoretically out there... but not very likely.

exactly, and I don't think we'll see Bow moved until the deadline, if he's moved at all...

It's strange.

I'm wondering if what I'm hearing, coupled with the Bulin rumors are coming full circle?

Cronenbergfan wrote:exactly, and I don't think we'll see Bow moved until the deadline, if he's moved at all...

It's strange.

I'm wondering if what I'm hearing, coupled with the Bulin rumors are coming full circle?

yup...but I'm not so sure that we're trading goalies...

Look at it this way....does anybody think that Lee, Picard, and schubert will ALL be in the lineup at the same time? would you feel comfortable seeing that lack of experience making up half our D? ( insert response here)______________. Exactly! so of them is gonna go and it won't be Lee or Picard

Oh, I have a feeling McAmmond and Schubert won't be sens for too much longer...

I see.....would this be a reliable "feeling" ?

makes total sense

Cronenbergfan wrote:exactly, and I don't think we'll see Bow moved until the deadline, if he's moved at all...

It's strange.

I'm wondering if what I'm hearing, coupled with the Bulin rumors are coming full circle?

There's no way in hell we add Bulin. Too much money for a small upgrade, if any at all. Croney, I don't see a move happening until after the season opens.

I agree. I'm just a big conspiracy theorist, so building momentum is fun, sometimes!!

As for a move coming, I think there is one, or more perhaps, but Murray and Hartsburg probably want to see how some perform in those pre-season games first or shortly after the official opener before making a final decision.

Either way, things are certainly heating up.

That's a good question regarding offensive PMD's out there that are available and are inexpensive. And of course, not all of them are considered major players.

Cory Murphy (FLA)?
Ville Koistinen (NAS)?
Andrew Ference (BOS)?
Warrener (CAL)?
Eriksson (CAL)?
F. Kaberle (CAR)? (CAR has ( defence on the main roster right now)
Sopel (CHI)?
Lebda (DET)?
Skoula (MIN)?
Zidlicky (MIN)?
MTL has a surplus, though I cannot see a deal between the two teams
PHI likely has a few too many (Hatcher out, and with Parent out of line-up, still at 6)
Morris (PHX)?
TOR also has a lot of defenceman fighting for a spot, again see MTL
VAN has 8 D on 1-way deals
WAS over cap, if Nylander isn't moved they might need to look elsewhere, and Pothier is on LTIR.

DashRiprock wrote:That's a good question regarding offensive PMD's out there that are available and are inexpensive. And of course, not all of them are considered major players.

Cory Murphy (FLA)?
Ville Koistinen (NAS)?
Andrew Ference (BOS)?
Warrener (CAL)?
Eriksson (CAL)?
F. Kaberle (CAR)? (CAR has ( defence on the main roster right now)
Sopel (CHI)?
Lebda (DET)?
Skoula (MIN)?
Zidlicky (MIN)?
MTL has a surplus, though I cannot see a deal between the two teams
PHI likely has a few too many (Hatcher out, and with Parent out of line-up, still at 6)
Morris (PHX)?
TOR also has a lot of defenceman fighting for a spot, again see MTL
VAN has 8 D on 1-way deals
WAS over cap, if Nylander isn't moved they might need to look elsewhere, and Pothier is on LTIR.

This is a good list, but I think it's Adrian Aucoin.

....and that's the second time in the last half hour I've heard his name whispered.

It's a perfect fit too.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=724&hubname=nhl-flames

And the Flames have 8 NHL ready D-men on their roster and they're over the cap by a million.

504Heater wrote:....and that's the second time in the last half hour I've heard his name whispered.

It's a perfect fit too.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?id=724&hubname=nhl-flames

And the Flames have 8 NHL ready D-men on their roster and they're over the cap by a million.

Cap-wise, Aucoin is a better fit than Schneider, but I don't know if I'd say 'perfect' for us.

Optimistically, I'd peg our current cap space at about $4.5 mil (the $3.2 mil at NHLSCAP.com + the $1-1.5 mil we're going to save, presumably, when we cut down our roster). Factor in reserve money for injuries, call ups, etc., and the best case scenario is that we've got something like $3 mil to play with. That's best case, and that's provided that Murray and Melnyk are comfortable operating that close to the cap, which they traditionally have not been.

Aucoin makes $4 mil. We'd have to move something like another $1 mil in salary (Neil?) minimum. And then we'd be left with 7 D plus Schubert. There's no way I'm giving up Lee or Picard for Aucoin, and there's no way CGY will want to bring back significant salary (Kuba, Smith, etc.). So that would mean we'd have to make at least one more move afterwards.

So I'm not so sure that's 'perfect.' It's possible, but it would take some work.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: don't count Phillipe Boucher -- whose considerably lower salary makes him more attractive -- as totally out of the picture yet. DAL has 6 D, plus Mark Fistric waiting in the wings, who, after Boucher's injury problems, played a lot last season and handled himself quite well. Rhobidas has improved his offensive game, too, and Niskanen is emerging as a good puck-mover / PP QB. I'm not saying that this is for sure, but it strikes me as likely that DAL might want to make room for Fistric, and that they might be looking to get some return on Boucher, a guy they probably aren't going re-sign.

rooneypoo wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: don't count Phillipe Boucher -- whose considerably lower salary makes him more attractive -- as totally out of the picture yet. DAL has 6 D, plus Mark Fistric waiting in the wings, who, after Boucher's injury problems, played a lot last season and handled himself quite well. Rhobidas has improved his offensive game, too, and Niskanen is emerging as a good puck-mover / PP QB. I'm not saying that this is for sure, but it strikes me as likely that DAL might want to make room for Fistric, and that they might be looking to get some return on Boucher, a guy they probably aren't going re-sign.

I mean more like it's a perfect fit for what Murray's looking for, but yes, the more I do the #s, the more unlikely it appears it would be.

However, I would give a lot to have Boucher on the Sens.

I'll 2nd that broken record. I want him as well.

DashRiprock wrote:That's a good question regarding offensive PMD's out there that are available and are inexpensive. And of course, not all of them are considered major players.

I would love to have Murphy from Florida as well, but that pinhead Martin is in charge, so I doubt we'll have much luck there.

BigRig77 wrote:

Cronenbergfan wrote:exactly, and I don't think we'll see Bow moved until the deadline, if he's moved at all...

It's strange.

I'm wondering if what I'm hearing, coupled with the Bulin rumors are coming full circle?

yup...but I'm not so sure that we're trading goalies...

Look at it this way....does anybody think that Lee, Picard, and schubert will ALL be in the lineup at the same time? would you feel comfortable seeing that lack of experience making up half our D? ( insert response here)______________. Exactly! so of them is gonna go and it won't be Lee or Picard

I know its crazy and I'm not saying I'm for it, but Lee could get a SERIOUS return. Its never really been considered and I'm not sure how out-of-the-question it is..?
We know Phillips and Smith are here to stay 100%
We assume Volchenkov and Picard are here to stay 95%
We can't really imagine Kuba waiving his NTC again and he really wouldn't get us much...
So that leaves Schubert and Lee. One gets us a good return; one gets us a great return.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm not ruling it out...