Ottawa Senators off-season talk

lol you take an internet forum so seriously

Not really, you just bring the discussion down to a level where it's almost unbarable.

Eager's fantastic but he's due for a raise this summer. You need guys like that to win, come on Big Ev, you're just messing around.

C'mon now, he's not the second coming of Steve Yzerman.

It's a bonus that Chicago has a guy like Eager in the lineup, but let's not get carried away.

Exactly.

stempniaksen wrote:C'mon now, he's not the second coming of Steve Yzerman.

It's a bonus that Chicago has a guy like Eager in the lineup, but let's not get carried away.

He's still a really solid player who fits in perfectly on that team. Even Richards said last night just how tallented of a player Eager is. He's a former 1st round pick and is, like I said, one of the best skaters in The NHL. The guy set the mark in 2002 at the prospects for fastest skater, add in the fact he's about as powerful and forceful a guy with his skating ability, it's actually scary. The guy skates exactly like Milan Michalek. On a lot of teams he's a 3rd line player.

He along with a few other guys dont make the finals with just Kane (who's been invisable most of the playoffs) Sharp, Toews, and Buff up front.

Ottawa's 4th line got burned and were unable to play even 3, 4 mins later in ther series and it hurt The Sens. You can almost look at that a one of the main reasons they gave up that lead in game 6. No one to give the PKers, PP players a break when needed. You replace Z.Smith with Eager, it changes a lot on that Hawks team.

stempniaksen wrote:C'mon now, he's not the second coming of Steve Yzerman.

It's a bonus that Chicago has a guy like Eager in the lineup, but let's not get carried away.

Yeah, he's a 4th liner though. He's the guy that you throw out and he'll make something happen every shift while your stars catch their breath. If you have someone in that role who just sucks, like let's say Hollweg, then you're a shallow team and your depth will kill you.

That's how I see it anyway.

Obviously if you compare him to a Hollweg or something he's gonna be considered awesome, but almost every playoff team has some guy who can be just as good as Eager. Philly has a guy like Asham or Laperierre while Ottawa has a Kelly or Neil to play that role.

I'm not saying Eager is a plug, but I can name atleast 10-12 guys on that team who have played a bigger role than Eager in getting to the finals. Which is to expected anyway since he's a 4th liner.

stempniaksen wrote:Obviously if you compare him to a Hollweg or something he's gonna be considered awesome, but almost every playoff team has some guy who can be just as good as Eager. Philly has a guy like Asham or Laperierre while Ottawa has a Kelly or Neil to play that role.

I'm not saying Eager is a plug, but I can name atleast 10-12 guys on that team who have played a bigger role than Eager in getting to the finals. Which is to expected anyway since he's a 4th liner.

Absolutely. Both guys who play important roles and guys I would comapre to Eager.

Obviously guys like Toews, Keith, so on play bigger and more important roles but the fact of the matter remains that without the right chemistry and basically eveyr position, teams wont win. Look at SJ and Ottawa from the early part of this decade, no expierence or toughness on the 3rd and 4th lines.

It cant be understated just how tough it is to play 4, 5 mins a night in a game with that much emotion. It's tougher from a mental standpoint then anything the 2nd and 3rd lines do. You have to be a special player in a sense to be effective in that role. It's not jsut Eager, it's Asham, Laperierre, Neil, Malhotra so on.

Eager is a good player and better then a 4th liner, but that's his role in Chicago and he does it perfectly.

Wow,Campbell to the Sens is the worst possible idea. Not only he is overpaid, but he is one of the worst playoff performers in the entire league - 3 assists in 15 playoff games for him this season and he looks scared out there.
Eager - local boy, bottom 6 forward. I bet Murray will be in the running to sign him

stempniaksen wrote:C'mon now, he's not the second coming of Steve Yzerman.

It's a bonus that Chicago has a guy like Eager in the lineup, but let's not get carried away.

You know who is though? Toews... Now there's a bromance!

Tobias wrote:Wow,Campbell to the Sens is the worst possible idea. Not only he is overpaid, but he is one of the worst playoff performers in the entire league - 3 assists in 15 playoff games for him this season and he looks scared out there.
Eager - local boy, bottom 6 forward. I bet Murray will be in the running to sign him

Campbell is playing hurt, that's been pretty clear since the playoffs started.

Tobias wrote:Wow,Campbell to the Sens is the worst possible idea. Not only he is overpaid, but he is one of the worst playoff performers in the entire league - 3 assists in 15 playoff games for him this season and he looks scared out there.
Eager - local boy, bottom 6 forward. I bet Murray will be in the running to sign him

Watch out, you may get flamed for that!

Tobias wrote:Wow,Campbell to the Sens is the worst possible idea. Not only he is overpaid, but he is one of the worst playoff performers in the entire league - 3 assists in 15 playoff games for him this season and he looks scared out there.
Eager - local boy, bottom 6 forward. I bet Murray will be in the running to sign him

Eager to the Sens is not going to happen. Any upgrades to the forwards would be via trade and would be to the top-six. Assuming we sign Cullen, our top six looks like:

Regin-Spezza-Michalek
Cullen-Fisher-Alfredsson

Even if Cullen doesn't re-sign here Kovalev slots right into that spot.

That leaves us with six spots for: Kovalev, Neil, Ruutu, Kelly, Winchester, Smith, Butler, Wick, Foligno, and Shannon (and dare I say Cheechoo), not to mention there could be a surprise like Greening, Keller, Hoffman or St. Pierre pushing for a spot.

This opens the door for a trade for a guy like Campbell who a) is playing hurt right now, b) would solve all of Ottawa's PMD and PP issues c) would be a stable 1-2 dman to have on the team and a great mentor for Karlsson, d) was almost signed a few years ago by Ottawa, and e) adds vet experience to what's certain to be a very young Sens team in the next 1-3 years especially on the defensive end. In retrospect if you can add Campbell via trade and/or sign Michalek, our defence is instantly improved for the foreseeable future and would let guys like Wiercioch, Cowen, and Gyrba develop properly instead of being thrown into the NHL right away. Confidence can be the make or break factor for younger players and this move would buy Ottawa a lot of time to properly develop their young defencemen. Campbell's term may be a bit hard to swallow I agree but it's the benefits outside of his play that also go a long way. Still, I'd aim to sign Michalek for a 4 year $15 million contract and let the kids play.

Personally speaking, if a forward were to be added to our team from Chicago it would be Ladd or Versteeg.

I can also see Ottawa making a move for Penner as I've brought up before. Perhaps something like Kovalev, Foligno, and Lee for Cogs and Penner IF Edmonton can convince Jagr to come back but I'm pretty sure he's signed in the K next season. Still stranger things have happened...

It will be interesting to see what happens with Ottawa in the next 3 months, IMO there will be a lot of changes but who knows.

N4L wrote:It will be interesting to see what happens with Ottawa in the next 3 months, IMO there will be a lot of changes but who knows.

I see one or two UFA D signings and the same guys on forward but with more competition with the kids and stuff.
I seriously doubt Murray won't mess with that line up. Despite losing in the 1st round, the team chemistry and general feeling from players is very good.

I think there will be a serious case of statud quo this summer.

Other than the Volchenkov thing I think we'll be going into next year with a similar roster.