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Stone and Duchene will stay.

wprager wrote:Stone and Duchene will stay.

Stone should be resigned long term before his arbitration date. I dunno what to think with Duchene...if he enters the season without a new deal, I won't like that one bit.

Duchene is like Ryan was. We have up too much to let him walk. They will do what they can to re-sign him. He also has a lot to prove, one of the things he has to prove is that he's not a troublemaker and a good team guy.

wprager wrote:Duchene is like Ryan was. We have up too much to let him walk. They will do what they can to re-sign him.He also has a lot to prove, one of the things he has to prove is that he's not a troublemaker and a good team guy.

Great business model.

wprager wrote:Stone and Duchene will stay.

You have no way of knowing this.

Lagoon wrote:

wprager wrote:Stone and Duchene will stay.

You have no way of knowing this.

Reading back through posts many of the same arguements can be said about EK. They have too much tied up in him to let him walk, but I still ask why hasn't he signed the contract that Ottawa offered. It was almost 2 million more than what he agreed to in Tampa...so?

Stone and (and I believe Duchene) are tied to EK. Stone has said to some privately that he is waiting to see what the team looks like before he decides long term. Could be posturing, but I believe (and no one has physically told me this) that he wants to see what happens with EK and the team. Things could all change if they offered him 6x8.5 a year but I doubt Ottawa would do that. In fact, if Ceci gets ore than 5 million from the arbitrator I wouldn't be surprised to see him shipped out of town.

Lagoon, you're opinions confuse me. You seem to be on the side that Stone and Duchene will walk or at least you don't like the suggestion that they will stay, but with EK you post that he is staying and point out those that said he was leaving yet is still here.


This team is in financial trouble, and the Gene is working for a solution. Season tickets were between 6-7K last year, and it's speculated that the current numbers are less than that (around 5k). Which means the Gene has less money in his vaults to spend right now than he normally would.

the fan base will do one of two things: 1) force melnyk to sell -or- 2) force melnyk to relocate. I don't think there is an appetite to relocate Ottawa as the fan base has been strong in the past. Melnyk selling the team will come at a price to fans - likely losing Stone, Duchene, and Karl. Simply put melnyk can't afford to pay these guys given the support and backlash he is getting from the fan base. On the flip side, the fans won't support melnyk and it will become even worse if any of those three guys are moved out. As a fan, I intent on spending $0 on supporting the team this year. While I will cheer for the team, I will not directly put a cent in Melnyk's pocket. I'd imagine that's the overall sentiment of the fan base. But I am directly contributing to the downfall of this team. It's unfortunately a catch 22.

If Melnyk sells the team that would be a trigger for everyone to re-sign.  Of course of he waits too long to sell, yes, we could lose star players.

Lagoon just wants everyone to preface every post with "IMO". Screw that. I've never come out and said I had *any* connection to anyone on the Sens. The closest I have is my brother in law who rents his cottage to the Habs' AGM and plays a round of golf with him in the summer. So no-one needs to be constantly reminded that my posts are opinions. Good ones, but still opinions.

Me wanting Tkachuk in the lineup this year is not an opinion, by the way.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:the fan base will do one of two things: 1) force melnyk to sell -or- 2) force melnyk to relocate. I don't think there is an appetite to relocate Ottawa as the fan base has been strong in the past. Melnyk selling the team will come at a price to fans - likely losing Stone, Duchene, and Karl. Simply put melnyk can't afford to pay these guys given the support and backlash he is getting from the fan base. On the flip side, the fans won't support melnyk and it will become even worse if any of those three guys are moved out. As a fan, I intent on spending $0 on supporting the team this year. While I will cheer for the team, I will not directly put a cent in Melnyk's pocket. I'd imagine that's the overall sentiment of the fan base. But I am directly contributing to the downfall of this team. It's unfortunately a catch 22.

Yup, catch 22 for sure.

But what are we supposed to do? Give him money while he squeezes the franchise? That’s not how it works. Hopefully the NHL steps in and forces a sell at one point. I don’t think they want Ottawa to relocate especially with a downtown arena so near to happening. This will be a turnaround story for them.

I’ll tell you one thing though. They don’t care about helping this franchise win and in their eyes I imagine they’d rather see Kalrsson, stone and duchene contribute to the imagine of the league with other teams so they ain’t going to « help »us out.

We’re on our own until Melnyk sells.

I almost never gave him money before. Over the last 25 years I've bought maybe four Family 4-Packs, my wife got me a pair maybe another 3 times, and one year she got me a pair of tickets to 4 games (they lost the first 3 and then the last one was the OT winner against the Penguins where they were down 0-3 - best have I've seen live by a mile). I've also gone to a number of games when I got free tickets.

I don't think you have to spend money to be considered a fan. The time and effort you put in counts for something, too, even if it doesn't benefit Melnyk or the NHL.

And if the season tickets are low around 6k that's still a lot of people paying up.

So just seen this morning Stone asking 9 and send offered 5. That's a slap in the face if you ask me he should make around 8

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:So just seen this morning Stone asking 9 and send offered 5. That's a slap in the face if you ask me he should make around 8

that's not what they'd actually offer him if this wasn't arbitration. It's just how arbitration works.

Ev wrote:

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:So just seen this morning Stone asking 9 and send offered 5. That's a slap in the face if you ask me he should make around 8

that's not what they'd actually offer him if this wasn't arbitration. It's just how arbitration works.

That's right...teams have to come in with the lowest offer they can try to formulate logic for. Baseball arbitration is much better, where the arbitrator has to pick one of the proposed deals. It forces players and teams to be more realistic.

And yeah, I'd be fine with giving Stone $8M x 8 years or something resembling that. The one thing I'd want more detail on, and the Sens would have this, is how much of a concern are his knee/leg injuries that he's had the last couple of years.

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:So just seen this morning Stone asking 9 and send offered 5. That's a slap in the face if you ask me he should make around 8

that's not what they'd actually offer him if this wasn't arbitration. It's just how arbitration works.

That's right...teams have to come in with the lowest offer they can try to formulate logic for.  Baseball arbitration is much better, where the arbitrator has to pick one of the proposed deals.  It forces players and teams to be more realistic.  

And yeah, I'd be fine with giving Stone $8M x 8 years or something resembling that.  The one thing I'd want more detail on, and the Sens would have this, is how much of a concern are his knee/leg injuries that he's had the last couple of years.

I preferred the old system where the arbitrator rules by selecting one of the two offers. Why? it meant that a stupid low offer like the sens for Stone would be discounted right away, just as Ceci's side for a more than x2 upgrade in salary. Ceci is not a 6 million dollar player, but more like the 3.35 million Ottawa offered. I'd be fine with 4 million a year for him, that's a 1.2 million upgraded from the 2.8 (on average) his last contract was.

i think players are nuts to go into the room when the team is presenting it's case. All it really does is give an opportunity for bad feelings. You've payed or are paying your agent to represent you, so let them hear all the bad stuff and just tell you the result. I've yet to hear a player who was ok with what was said, everyone in some way was offended by something (whether a small detail or larger ones) said by the team.

I don't even think I want to pay Ceci $3.35M. I also believe that Ottawa mis-casts him in a shut down role, and he should be used more as an offensive D-man with some PP time to boot (I guess he may get the PP time if Karlsson is shipped out).

I would love to hear what arguments his agent is going to present as to why he should get $6M. His 19 points? His -27? His near league-worst CORSI?

9M for Stone is nuts. dude is crazy.

For one season? He had better PPG than Ovechkin, on a team that couldn't score. You realize that on a long term deal he would ask for a lower AAV in exchange for security.

wprager wrote:Duchene is like Ryan was. We have up too much to let him walk. They will do what they can to re-sign him. He also has a lot to prove, one of the things he has to prove is that he's not a troublemaker and a good team guy.

Except Duchene came into Ottawa and played amazing hockey. Despite being near pointless for the first while in Ottawa, he still managed 49 in 68. Best forward we've had since Alfie IMO (although an argument can be made for Stone).

Keeping Stone and Duchene is KEY for this organization. More Duchene than Stone if we need to go in one direction.