NHL Free Agent Frenzy 2013 - Melnyk's Budget Edition

Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr. I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

he's willing. Just spend smart. Jagr isn't.

Heard that alfies first request was two years 12 M

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

he's willing. Just spend smart. Jagr isn't.

Do you think the rumours of a $50M budget aren't true then? Do you agree that our current roster is around $50M?

There's a reason we laid off a lot of staff during the lockout, and made the remaining staff go down to 80% work weeks. I agree with the "spend smart" mentality, but I think in our case, our owner is holding us back.

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

he's willing. Just spend smart. Jagr isn't.

Do you think the rumours of a $50M budget aren't true then?  Do you agree that our current roster is around $50M?

There's a reason we laid off a lot of staff during the lockout, and made the remaining staff go down to 80% work weeks.  I agree with the "spend smart" mentality, but I think in our case, our owner is holding us back.

yes I think they have that budget, but if Murray had a deal right now for a guy like Vanek, Melnyk would give the ok. A better team = more playoff games = more money for EM.

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

Explain to me why we made offers for both Alfredsson and David Clarkson, since you seem to think we only replaced Alfie's salary with Ryan's and didn't want to spend a dime more.
And we were also ready to get Bobby Ryan before Alfie left.
The reason Murray made that trade has nothing to do with $$$, he did it because the team needed good news.
If Anaheim had accepted a 2nd instead of a 1st, the deal is made before or at the draft.

LeKing wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

Explain to me why we made offers for both Alfredsson and David Clarkson, since you seem to think we only replaced Alfie's salary with Ryan's and didn't want to spend a dime more.

Just like how we were all over getting Rick Nash despite the fact he wouldn't waive his NTC to come here. It makes great PR to make plays for big name free agents when you know you won't wind up with them in the end. Can you tell me what kind of offer we put in on Clarkson, because there is absolutely no evidence that we actually made him a big offer. We apparently offered Alfie around $4M after he asked for around $6M.

Why didn't we make the Ryan trade prior to losing Alfie? Because we needed to do something after he walked, otherwise the calls for season ticket cancellations would have continued (they fielded a lot of cancellation calls on Friday). It was easy to bring in his $5M salary when we hadn't already committed $5M to Alfie.

You use 'offers' to both Alfie and Clarkson as evidence of some sort of willingness to spend money. We didn't sign either guy.

You're saying Melnyk is not willing to spend money, I say Melnyk (and Murray) are not willing to spend money stupidly.
If we gave Clarkson that kind of contract I would have puked.
Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan made sense because they were not overpayed.

"It makes great PR to make plays for big name free agents when you know you won't wind up with them in the end".
I don't get what you're trying to say. CLB's GM said we had the best offer. So we make all kinds of trade offers to teams but we know we won't get the players?  

What I am saying is that we are a budget team, somewhere around $50M. This cost us Alfie, and is holding us back from being more successful.

tim1_2 wrote:What I am saying is that we are a budget team, somewhere around $50M.  This cost us Alfie, and is holding us back from being more successful.  

they'll wait until the deadline to add more, such as a rental, so that they won't have to pay the entire salary

or they will take a player where the other team takes back money

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:What I am saying is that we are a budget team, somewhere around $50M.  This cost us Alfie, and is holding us back from being more successful.  

they'll wait until the deadline to add more, such as a rental, so that they won't have to pay the entire salary

or they will take a player where the other team takes back money

Agreed. How many previous cup winners have been $14M under the cap?

Let's not forget also that we will have to sign a bunch of good to great players starting now and during the next 2 years.

LeKing wrote:Let's not forget also that we will have to sign a bunch of good to great players starting now and during the next 2 years.

And we'll see how much Melnyk's cheapness impacts this.

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

he's willing. Just spend smart. Jagr isn't.

Do you think the rumours of a $50M budget aren't true then?  Do you agree that our current roster is around $50M?

There's a reason we laid off a lot of staff during the lockout, and made the remaining staff go down to 80% work weeks.  I agree with the "spend smart" mentality, but I think in our case, our owner is holding us back.

Can you name one team out of 30 that did not lay off staff or reduce hours?

LeKing wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

Explain to me why we made offers for both Alfredsson and David Clarkson, since you seem to think we only replaced Alfie's salary with Ryan's and didn't want to spend a dime more.
And we were also ready to get Bobby Ryan before Alfie left.
The reason Murray made that trade has nothing to do with $$$, he did it because the team needed good news.
If Anaheim had accepted a 2nd instead of a 1st, the deal is made before or at the draft.

Initially I thought the Ryan deal was done only after Alfie left, and equated that with Alfie's $$ simply being used on Ryan's contract. But upon sober reflection, it is clear that a deal like that, involving 4 players and a pick, doesn't get orchestrated in a few hours. With that in mind I have no choice other than take Murray at his word -- the deal was nearly in place but he wanted to give up a 2nd instead of the 1st; once Alfie left Anaheim knew they had him over a barrel so Murray had to agree to the Ducks' counter. It was a bit of a staring contest and Alfie's departure forced Murray to blink first.

Thanks a lot, Alfie, you just cost us a 1RP.  

tim1_2 wrote:

LeKing wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Funny to see people suggesting we try to get Vanek or sign Jagr.  I guess they still don't believe that we have an owner unwilling to spend $$$.

Explain to me why we made offers for both Alfredsson and David Clarkson, since you seem to think we only replaced Alfie's salary with Ryan's and didn't want to spend a dime more.

Just like how we were all over getting Rick Nash despite the fact he wouldn't waive his NTC to come here.  It makes great PR to make plays for big name free agents when you know you won't wind up with them in the end.  Can you tell me what kind of offer we put in on Clarkson, because there is absolutely no evidence that we actually made him a big offer.  We apparently offered Alfie around $4M after he asked for around $6M.

Why didn't we make the Ryan trade prior to losing Alfie?  Because we needed to do something after he walked, otherwise the calls for season ticket cancellations would have continued (they fielded a lot of cancellation calls on Friday).  It was easy to bring in his $5M salary when we hadn't already committed $5M to Alfie.  

You use 'offers' to both Alfie and Clarkson as evidence of some sort of willingness to spend money.  We didn't sign either guy.  

Clarkson did not have a NMC/NTC, he was a UFA, and *he* came to Ottawa of his own desire. While it may be true that he just did that to up Toronto's offer, Murray was negotiating in good faith.

i forget what thread it was but I think Jagr would be very smart actually. Still have a hole on the second line, provides great leadership, excellent work ethic, just a fun guy to be around. Hard to knock off the puck. Would create space for Turris and MacArthur.

Ev wrote:i forget what thread it was but I think Jagr would be very smart actually. Still have a hole on the second line, provides great leadership, excellent work ethic, just a fun guy to be around. Hard to knock off the puck. Would create space for Turris and MacArthur.

Can't afford him.