What does Ottawa do July 1st?

Weiss will be looking for 3M minimum.

According to Dorion, he plans on getting a depth d-man, and that's about it. I like the idea of Weise...a good replacement for Chiasson, but I dunno if we'd be getting the Weise that lead Montreal in scoring for a good portion of the season, or the Weise that couldn't crack Chicago's lineup.

So much of what we can/will do hinges on Hoffman. I believe Ceci will get resigned without much problem (the organization loves him), but Hoffman is a different case. He could end up a part of a big trade. I think if we see anything significant this off-season, it'll be Hoff or ZBad getting traded.

Ugh, yeah, Dorion wasn't mincing words, he's doing very little to nothing. Maybe a third liner and maybe a veteran D-man, but he's watching the prospect camp and thinking they can do just as well. I hope he realizes that we thought that last year too...and perhaps the year before where we barely snuck into the playoffs.

I'm starting to really cool on the idea of Eriksson, I was all about it, but the more I think of his age, plus concussion issues, plus the long term, big money contract he likely wants, I think the better route is to go by trade.

However...I can see the trade talks on hold until at least next off season when they see another year of development out of White and Brown specifically and see where Perron, Paul, Dzingel etc. are. Maybe more rests on Lazar than anyone.

I get that feeling again...that feeling we always had with Murray where basically nothing is gonna happen. Is that a good or bad thing? Who knows...but we all know we need depth. And Weise isn't the answer, we need a guy who can chip in offense, both on line 3 and in the top 6 when needed. Pony up for Brouwer (although I doubt he wants to come here).

I've been saying ^ this for months. Right SSF?

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I've been saying ^ this for months. Right SSF?

Yup. Everyone else late to the party, as usual.

I can see Ceci and Hoffman signing in the next few days. I could see Seidenberg or C. Kelly coming aboard.

dennycrane wrote:I can see Ceci and Hoffman signing in the next few days. I could see Seidenberg or C. Kelly coming aboard.

Not so fast. I just read a quote from Dorion saying that, based on development camp, he has young players that will be better in a month than a player he would get in free agency.

dennycrane wrote:I can see Ceci and Hoffman signing in the next few days. I could see Seidenberg or C. Kelly coming aboard.

No chance either of them come here.

My money is on a 3rd line RW that can play top six and a #5 d-man.

Fedor Tyutin on a cheap 2 year $5M deal
Brouwer on a 3 year $11M deal

Mac-Turris-Stone
Hoff-Zib-Ryan
Smith-Pageau-Brouwer
Dzingel-Lazar-Paul
Neil

Phaneuf-Karlsson
Methot-Ceci
Tyutin-Boro
Wideman

Darren Helm would be a great addition.

But I am leaning towards just going with what we have at forward. Nick Paul will be a beast on LW

I think seindenberg might be an interesting option. Veteran D with a cup. But how badly has he broken down? He'd be cheap though.

Some quick number crunching. Anderson's last 10 games before Phaneuf shut things down he faced an average of 30.7 shots on goal In his first 10 games that average was 33.8. The Sens got worse after their first 10 games because I'm pretty sure they were giving up around 34 shots on goal (as an in-season average) at one point. While 30.7 is still not great things to keep in mind are that Phaneuf and Ceci were getting used to each other (and Phaneuf was getting used to the new team/city/coaching staff) so I expect that number could drop even further. Additionally we also expect (hope?) for better overall play from the team based on the stronger coaching staff. Claesson and Englund will also push for spots and competition can't be bad.

Bottom line is I expect the Sens will be giving up just under 30 shots on goal per game. I don't really see a need for another bottom pairing defenseman.

Where I do see a need (other than top-six left-side depth) is in better discipline. They have to drastically reduce the number of penalties they take. The Senators have never been a rough team so their PIMs taken should be *below* the league average. That is also on coaching, at least partially. I've said this before, I'm not piling on Cameron but I just feel he was overwhelmed and overworked. And he also did some stupid stuff, too.

Flo The Action wrote:I think seindenberg might be an interesting option. Veteran D with a cup. But how badly has he broken down? He'd be cheap though.

That right there is someone the senators should be in hot pursuit of and fits the bill for what Dorion is looking for.

Add James Wisniewski to the list of UFAs available as he was bought out by the Canes. Had a season ending injury in his first game of the season with Carolina last year, and 39 points in 69 games with Jackets/Ducks the year before that.

Michallica wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:I think seindenberg might be an interesting option. Veteran D with a cup. But how badly has he broken down? He'd be cheap though.

That right there is someone the senators should be in hot pursuit of and fits the bill for what Dorion is looking for.

They couldn't find any takers for his contract at 4 mill per for him with only 1 year left so I imagine he'll come at around 1.2 to 1.5 on a one year deal. He's not far removed from being on the first pairing. Could be good on the bottom pairing.

McGinn would be a nice pick up too. Can play 3rd line minutes and a good insurance policy if Mac goes down. Means Smith would move L4 C but with Lazar and Paul on the wings that could be a really deep group of forwards. Also can't forget about that Ottawa connection.

Yeah mcginn would be a nce addition. I also like seidenberg but I think he's really slowed down to almost nothing

PTFlea wrote:Yeah mcginn would be a nce addition.  I also like seidenberg but I think he's really slowed down to almost nothing

Always my favourite read pre July 1st: http://www.thefourthperiod.com/freeagents/index.html

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

PTFlea wrote:Yeah mcginn would be a nce addition.  I also like seidenberg but I think he's really slowed down to almost nothing

Always my favourite read pre July 1st: http://www.thefourthperiod.com/freeagents/index.html

That's always more prediction than actual knowledge of who might actually be interested in said players.