OFFSEASON TALK: Forwards!

I'm an Ottawa Senators cheerleader and as long as our 2nd line is not a consistent, legitimate threat it doesn't matter who our 1st line Center is.

hemlock wrote:

N4L wrote:Haha, dude, I know for sure he hates Florida, not sure if I told ya that story or not but it was a while ago now. He does not want to be there.

You may have, I don't remember to be honest. The fact that he's unhappy is practically common knowledge by now. It's been spoken about for a few years now. Careers are short, and floundering in a dead market on a perennial losing team would make me want out too. Guys like him and Weiss could probably use a change in scenery.

I agree with your assessment about Weiss as well. Spezza may be more gifted offensively, but I see more elsewhere in Weiss, namely leadership, defensive awareness, speed, and overall hockey sense. Plus he's cheaper, which gives us more flexibility to perhaps pay a guy like Z. Michalek.

F'ing exactly.

If BM gets, say, 70% of Spezza's offense back in a deal for a player at 50% of the salary cap hit, plus picks/prospects/other goodies, that's a big win for the organization and a big win in the cap era. You have to get the most for each and every dollar.

Spezza > Weiss, for sure

But

Spezza < Weiss, plus pick/prospect, plus cap space for a guy like Z. Michalek, Gonchar, or Campbell.

Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

SeawaySensFan wrote:I'm an Ottawa Senators cheerleader and as long as our 2nd line is not a consistent, legitimate threat it doesn't matter who our 1st line Center is.

No wonder Ottawa doesn't trot out it's cheerleaders during intermission.

wprager wrote:Does anyone, really, think that we can do a deal for Spezza that doesn't include similar salary coming back? What are the teams that have $7M to spend on a forward, have a need for a 1st line center, and have assets (other than picks) to give us in return? I don't think such a deal exists out there.

So forget about moving Spezza to make room for Campbell, unless you are trading Spezza for Campbell. Even moving Spezza to make room for Michalek is a bit of a stretch.

If you make the trade in June, when you'd have to do it anyway, then, yes, you don't have to have a dollar-for-dollar trade. The Sens would have to take on money in any deal, obviously, but I don't think it would be impossible for them to save a bit of cap space in the process -- say, $2-3 mil, for sure.

Dollar-for-dollar deals are the product of in-season (or late, late, late off-season) deals. When teams are rejigging early in the off-season, however, the dollar-for-dollar thing is far less important. Calgary acquired Jokinen for a 1st (plus Lombardi and Prust) just last year, for instance -- it wasn't even close to a dollar-for-dollar deal.

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

Agreed. Only I wouldn't do it straight-up. Richards pending UFA status is a risk, so Dallas should be paying for that.

Spezza, Kuba, Lee, Foligno and a 3rd for

Richards, Robidas and the 11th overall pick?

Tasty chicken?

SeawaySensFan wrote:

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

Agreed. Only I wouldn't do it straight-up. Richards pending UFA status is a risk, so Dallas should be paying for that.

Spezza, Kuba, Lee, Foligno and a 3rd for

Richards, Robidas and the 11th overall pick?

Tasty chicken?

Extra Tasty Crispy.

We'll see, but that NTC could be an absolute nightmare and the nice thing about the Heatley situation is I doubt Murray lets himself get handcuffed again by a very similar sutation.

Rooney is right, July 1 is D day for Spezza, he's either a Sen or he isnt. If he is, it is for the long haul and everyone just better get behind The Sens because that wont be changing for a long time.

I kinda hope he is traded. The Spezza discussions are getting very tiresome.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I kinda hope he is traded. The Spezza discussions are getting very tiresome.

i agree and like last year with heatley almost every discussion comes around to spezza

SeawaySensFan wrote:

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

Agreed. Only I wouldn't do it straight-up. Richards pending UFA status is a risk, so Dallas should be paying for that.

Spezza, Kuba, Lee, Foligno and a 3rd for

Richards, Robidas and the 11th overall pick?

Tasty chicken?

Seems like too much for Dallas to take on salary wise. If you think it's not enough for Spezza 1-for-1, then you add a 2nd from Dallas. When can an extension start to be negotiated for Richards, cause that might be a deciding factor, in this scenario.

Dash wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

Agreed. Only I wouldn't do it straight-up. Richards pending UFA status is a risk, so Dallas should be paying for that.

Spezza, Kuba, Lee, Foligno and a 3rd for

Richards, Robidas and the 11th overall pick?

Tasty chicken?

Seems like too much for Dallas to take on salary wise. If you think it's not enough for Spezza 1-for-1, then you add a 2nd from Dallas. When can an extension start to be negotiated for Richards, cause that might be a deciding factor, in this scenario.

Why would we trade for an older, seemingly injury prone player who is more expensive and would have to worry about re-upping next summer?

In all seriousness though, how can it most conversations about the future of the team not come down to Spezza, especially right now and especially when talking about the forwards?

SDH89 wrote:

Dash wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

Agreed. Only I wouldn't do it straight-up. Richards pending UFA status is a risk, so Dallas should be paying for that.

Spezza, Kuba, Lee, Foligno and a 3rd for

Richards, Robidas and the 11th overall pick?

Tasty chicken?

Seems like too much for Dallas to take on salary wise. If you think it's not enough for Spezza 1-for-1, then you add a 2nd from Dallas. When can an extension start to be negotiated for Richards, cause that might be a deciding factor, in this scenario.

Why would we trade for an older, seemingly injury prone player who is more expensive and would have to worry about re-upping next summer?

The same reason we would trade away our most productive Center, I guess?

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

This is one of the only Spezza deals I would do - and do in a heartbeat providing Richards signs a 6 X 6 with us.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I kinda hope he is traded. The Spezza discussions are getting very tiresome.

It's not the Spezza discussion that's tiresome. It's the sheer number of defenders he has, and the belligerence / myopia / blindness with which they often defend him and/or respond to those who want to see him moved.

Anyone who doesn't see that we have a serious, tough decision to make with Spezza in the next 6 weeks, and that Spezza's play and overall development have been problematic to say the least, needs to have his head examined.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Dash wrote:Notto add coals to the fire that is the Spezza trade talk, and I am not so much an advocate of trading him, but if a great deal comes along, why not?... But anyways, don't know if the other team even would consider it or not, but what about:

to DAL: Spezza

to OTT: Brad Richards

The way I see it, Dallas gets a slightly cheaper player for next season, while Ottawa will take on a less than $1million more, but Richards becomes a UFA after that and anything is possible when that happens. Dallas also gets a younger player as well as someone who is under contract for a few more years that they do not have to worry about leaving.

This is one of the only Spezza deals I would do - and do in a heartbeat providing Richards signs a 6 X 6 with us.

(I still like my deal better because it gives us the chance to land El Nino.)

N4L wrote:In all seriousness though, how can it most conversations about the future of the team not come down to Spezza, especially right now and especially when talking about the forwards?

It makes sense to think that way (i.e., be offended by the Spezza talk) only if you think that there's no problem with Spezza's play or development, and that they're no decision to be made with him.

It's called the ostrich syndrome.