POLL: Are you happy with Gonchar?

Simple question. Happy with Murray's work yesterday?

Yup - after all these years of "we need a PMD" Murray finally did it and did it with emphasis. The only worrisome points are age and term, but I think Gonchar will live up to his abilities.

My answer would have been ecstatic then I wondered about whether Pittsburgh fans prefer Gonchar over Michalek AND Martin.

Huge signing, cant wait to see him hit the ice

Pretty happy. Would have been nice to have both him and Z. Michalek... but that was a near impossibility with the cap situation. I think he'll bring some good leadership to the back end and help to groom Karlsson as well. Maybe he can get through to Kovalev? Meh... dare to dream.

This is a great signing. Talk about a mentor to our yound d coming up, a la Wiercoch, Cowen, Runbladt.

Cuss yeah! I jumped of my couch and spilt my drink when I saw Gonchar landing in Ottawa!

What I'm really happy about is BM finally acknowledging that the sens need to go in another direction. "blocking shots is great, but I want the other team to block shots too". That's awesome and shows that we won't tolerate status quo any longer. Finally a bonafide puck mover, and imagine what this will do for Karlsson (and eventually Rundblad). Way to go Murray(s)!

Very happy. When I first saw it and told my kid he said "You serious? You're not pulling my leg, are you?" I think he was very happy, too.

Regarding an earlier comment from another thread? How is Pittsburgh better to day than yesterday? It's not like Michalek and Martin are meant to replace Gonchar's offence -- first of all, they probably won't, and second, that's two D versus one, so some other Pens D will not play or have his ice time greatly diminished. Neither Michalek nor Martin will get much PP time; that will be Goligoski, Letang and Malkin (playing point). And last year with Gonchar out that powerplay was as pathetic as ours. Are Goligoski and Letang ready to step it up? We'll see.

I really don't know if Martin is a great D or if he is a product of the system and Brodeur. I guess we'll see, but I'm skeptical. Also, Michalek+Martin = $9M. Gonchar would have signed for $5, maybe even less. Bring up a rookie D and you've got $3M+ to spend on a winger.

Absolutely ecstatic about this signing. I have butterflies that will not go away. I cannot wait to see Gonchar on our team mentoring Karlsson on the PP and helping out our top line with their offensive numbers and getting Kovalev back on track. If this doesn't get Kovalev going, I don't know what will. Perfect signing by Murray. I'm very comfortable going into next season.

With Leclaire playing in a contract year he should be showing us what he is capable of as he did in game 5 of the playoffs this season.

Kovalev is also playing in a contract year with a fellow russian on the team that can help him out. He could be the golden guy on the team.

I can't wait for 2010-2011! Bring it on!!!!

Pittsburgh IMO took a step back and we took a step forward with this signing, I think we're in a good spot now. I'm not sure how we'll be against Boston, but our offense should certainly be much better now. Maybe Spezza and Alfie will get back to the 90 point range.

I'm so happy, it's hard to put it into words. We haven't had an offensive D-man for a long, long time - at least not one that was a game-breaker like Gonch. Our PP will be lethal, our transition game 5 on 5 will be a lot better, he has a cannon, he's a surgical passer.

Look out, the Sens are coming next year!

I think re: Gonchar vs. ZM that ZM would have been the safer signing but the potential upside of the Gonchar signing is higher.

I also doubt that anyone especially important will get squeezed out even if Gonchar declines in, say, year 3 to the point where he's over-paid, because Kovalev, Kuba and Leclaire are all potentially coming off the books in the coming years.

I like the signing, but I also think Pittsburgh did extremely well to land both Michalek and Martin.

asq2 wrote:I think re: Gonchar vs. ZM that ZM would have been the safer signing but the potential upside of the Gonchar signing is higher.

I also doubt that anyone especially important will get squeezed out even if Gonchar declines in, say, year 3 to the point where he's over-paid, because Kovalev, Kuba and Leclaire are all potentially coming off the books in the coming years.

I like the signing, but I also think Pittsburgh did extremely well to land both Michalek and Martin.

Where's the offense in Pittsburgh though? You can shut teams down so much before you need to pot some goals. Gonchar was a major part of them scoring so much with his plays on the backend.

SpezDispenser wrote:

asq2 wrote:I think re: Gonchar vs. ZM that ZM would have been the safer signing but the potential upside of the Gonchar signing is higher.

I also doubt that anyone especially important will get squeezed out even if Gonchar declines in, say, year 3 to the point where he's over-paid, because Kovalev, Kuba and Leclaire are all potentially coming off the books in the coming years.

I like the signing, but I also think Pittsburgh did extremely well to land both Michalek and Martin.

Where's the offense in Pittsburgh though? You can shut teams down so much before you need to pot some goals. Gonchar was a major part of them scoring so much with his plays on the backend.

The forwards in Pittsburgh probably had a lot to do with how successful Gonchar was too. Career years for Michalek and Martin maybe? We shall see.

Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

Not much cream among our forwards, though.