Call your shot on Ottawa's Trades (or lack of) up to POST DRAFT

tim1_2 wrote:Ottawa's draft was totally fine.  It'll take years to figure out if they could've done much better.  Again, recent scouting and drafting has earned the benefit of the doubt.  People shat all over Karlsson and the Sens when he was drafted, people shat all over Tkachuk and the Sens when he was drafted, etc.  

It's unfortunate to have to keep trading mid round picks for filler players though.  You'd think all we'd have to do is overpay some decent free agents to fill those spots, but maybe it speaks to how much FAs are avoiding the Sens (as they should be).  

And let's not forget that it also goes the other way. Remember how stoked everyone was with Zibanejad, Noeson, Puempel, Prince. Zibanejad didn't really pan out until he was traded (and I still maintain that "kick in the pants" was needed, and he would have continued to underperform in Ottawa).  Bottom line is that you simply cannot grade a draft until 2 years -- at a minimum -- down the road.

I was actually pretty upset they didn't take couturier

Not sure if I’m late on this thread, but I think with all the quality players that are FA of some sort and the teams that will want cap help, I think we will target Josh Brown, Gudbranson and the wife-beater Watson via trade. We will want to acquire these players quickly and offer picks for them before other teams come calling for their services. We will deal with adding UFA talent later with our abundance of cap space and our ability to sell them on the plan moving forward.

Again, the one move that no one liked was Josh Towers for a 4th rounder, even though most people got the essence of the move, the price is high.

Gudbranson was a solid acquisition, especially if you listen to Anaheim fans on what they have to say about him, plus he really wants to be here. No problem with a 5th rounder for him.

Watson is a tough one. Both he and his partner had (i keep reading past tense) substance abuse issues stemming from anxiety etc. - which is a serious issue. Does that condone what he did? No, but she assumed a large part of the blame as well. Is he worth a 4th rouder. Absolutely. Read up about him and he's a pain to play against, an excellent pker and a great hitter. I can swallow the pick for that, although I'm not high on getting rid of picks like we have.

Then you look at Schmidt and you ask - why? How did they get him for a 3rd and you realize just how much money is owed there. 2 2nds for Toews without a contract? Nah. Not that the Isles preference is trading in the conference if they don't have to anyway.

Yes, Ottawa could have been in on a couple of these guys, but who's to say they weren't and the player just doesnt want to come here?

You can have an opinion about moves, but i find it quite tiresome when the same complaints about the draft or the acquisition of 3rd and 4th liners or middle to bottom pairing defencemen are sounded at every single opportunity.

Yes, we get it. You didnt like Ottawa's draft and again, we get it, you dont like their acquisitions.

We. Get. It.

i think watson has the oportunity to be a good pick up for ottawa. i'm out on if Brown will be good for us and Gudbranson is also a big question mark as to how effective he can be on the ice.
i feel like we only needed one Dman FA or trade and that should have been a vet that could play in the top 4 and instead we got two bottom pairing D. 

in that sense i don't really like it.
but i do like that the sens are trying to insulate the youth with some rougher players that will give them the opportunity to keep developing their offence. 

should we have to spend the level of picks we did? probably not.
will we be better than a bottom 5 picks? probably not.
should our prospects get better and should some of them get better opportunities to de velop on the right path? maybe and hopefully.

we are still a coule of years away from looking good.

Flo The Action wrote:i think watson has the oportunity to be a good pick up for ottawa. i'm out on if Brown will be good for us and Gudbranson is also a big question mark as to how effective he can be on the ice.
i feel like we only needed one Dman FA or trade and that should have been a vet that could play in the top 4 and instead we got two bottom pairing D. 

in that sense i don't really like it.
but i do like that the sens are trying to insulate the youth with some rougher players that will give them the opportunity to keep developing their offence. 

should we have to spend the level of picks we did? probably not.
will we be better than a bottom 5 picks? probably not.
should our prospects get better and should some of them get better opportunities to de velop on the right path? maybe and hopefully.

we are still a coule of years away from looking good.

1 year i think. Next off season is probably the time to spend some money.

Ev said we will be good this year as long as the schedule is division heavy and we play Montreal, Buffalo and Detroit more.

I think he would like a re-do in that comment from last week.

Lagoon wrote:Ev said we will be good this year as long as the schedule is division heavy and we play Montreal, Buffalo and Detroit more.

I think he would like a re-do in that comment from last week.

I never said good. I said not bottom 5

I actually don't think we'll be bottom 5. If we had decent goaltending last year we probably finish outside of the bottom 5. Will there be another Detroit next season? Unlikely, but some teams will surprise, for sure. Tampa is beat up, Stamkos is having core surgery, Cup hangover and all that. If Boston don't get Pietrangelo they will take a massive step back (older Chara, losing Krug, that whole thing with Rask leaving might affect chemistry). Buffalo? Montreal? They both got better on paper but this constant roster turnover can't be good for building a room. Florida, well, they never fail to surprise, do they.

We got a massive upgrade in goal. Gudbranson is a better Boro (Gudcop?). Zub or Brown is an upgrade over Hainsey. Maybe we'll see one of Wolanin or Brannstrom here for a full season. So, much better goalie and an upgraded defense. That should be a significant improvement.

Up front we have internal growth from Batherson, Chlapik, Balcers, White (he *has to* step it up). If White can replace what JGP brought and Stuetzle replaces Duclair's flash and offense then it's easy to see that our forwards will be at least as "good" as last season, and likely a little better. We could also see huge surprises from Norris and Formenton (over, let's say Boedker and Sabourin).

Pardon my unbridled optimism but I don't think it is entirely misplaced.

I'm pretty sure we'll be bottom 5 again. Our defence is just awful, and we have no centres.

tim1_2 wrote:I'm pretty sure we'll be bottom 5 again.  Our defence is just awful, and we have no centres.

We didn't have any last season, either. Tierney is still here, White has to improve, Norris might surprise, Stuetzle plays centre (Dorion is not the one who decides that he might start at wing). We lost Pageau, we gained Stuetzle and Norris.

wprager wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I'm pretty sure we'll be bottom 5 again.  Our defence is just awful, and we have no centres.

We didn't have any last season, either.  Tierney is still here, White has to improve, Norris might surprise, Stuetzle plays centre (Dorion is not the one who decides that he might start at wing).  We lost Pageau, we gained Stuetzle and Norris.  

If our centres are Tierney, Colin White, Josh Norris (rookie), and Stuetzle (rookie), that is a bottom 5 group. What I see there are 3 3rd line centres (Norris has potential for more but probably not in his rookie season), and then Stuetzle who can either play centre or wing, but isn't going to be hugely effective for us in his rookie year. I'd say he should probably start in the AHL where he could have more success.

tim1_2 wrote:

wprager wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I'm pretty sure we'll be bottom 5 again.  Our defence is just awful, and we have no centres.

We didn't have any last season, either.  Tierney is still here, White has to improve, Norris might surprise, Stuetzle plays centre (Dorion is not the one who decides that he might start at wing).  We lost Pageau, we gained Stuetzle and Norris.  

If our centres are Tierney, Colin White, Josh Norris (rookie), and Stuetzle (rookie), that is a bottom 5 group.  What I see there are 3 3rd line centres (Norris has potential for more but probably not in his rookie season), and then Stuetzle who can either play centre or wing, but isn't going to be hugely effective for us in his rookie year.  I'd say he should probably start in the AHL where he could have more success.  

He's going to start on the wing. Anisimov and Brown are also in the mix for the centre spots.

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:

wprager wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I'm pretty sure we'll be bottom 5 again.  Our defence is just awful, and we have no centres.

We didn't have any last season, either.  Tierney is still here, White has to improve, Norris might surprise, Stuetzle plays centre (Dorion is not the one who decides that he might start at wing).  We lost Pageau, we gained Stuetzle and Norris.  

If our centres are Tierney, Colin White, Josh Norris (rookie), and Stuetzle (rookie), that is a bottom 5 group.  What I see there are 3 3rd line centres (Norris has potential for more but probably not in his rookie season), and then Stuetzle who can either play centre or wing, but isn't going to be hugely effective for us in his rookie year.  I'd say he should probably start in the AHL where he could have more success.  

He's going to start on the wing. Anisimov and Brown are also in the mix for the centre spots.

I think they roll four lines each with a vet/physical presence to protect the kids. Three 2nd lines, and one energy line:

Tkachuk-Norris-White (Two centers, some experience in Tkachuk and White)
Stutzle-Tierney-C.Brown (Surround the star rookie with two two-way vets that can protect him)
Paul-L.Brown-Batherson (Line of big boys, had success in Belleville)
Formenton-Anisimov-Watson (Energy line)
Extra: Balcers

Chabot-Gudbranson (let's Chabot pinch up in the play and not have to deal with players in front of the net)
Reilly-Zaitsev (Two crappy PMDs... sigh)
Wolanin-Brown (Insulated minutes for Wolanin while Brown clears the front of the net)
Extra: Jaros

Abramov, Brannstrom, Chlapik, Kelly, Sokolov, Lajoie key guys down in Belleville.

Finish bottom 3 in the league.

You've just described a team that's slightly better than the Habs the least few years, where a good showing by Price meant playoffs.

.900 vs .920 is literally the difference between picking top-3 and being the #8 seed.

30 shots per game, 67 games (last season) a 20 point difference in SV% is 40 goals. And they were giving up more than 30 on average. That, alone, would give us 190 goals for, 198 against. That puts them right in line with the Islanders and Blue Jackets, both of whom were in the top half league standings.

Additionally, more faith in your goalie typically results in offensive players bring asked you take more chances, which improves your offense. If you score more goals than you let in you usually make the playoffs.

Had we done maybe 5% better on the PP and 3% better on the PK we would have pushed for a playoff spot or at least would have been in the conversation for the play-in round. Remember the Habs were on the outside looking in...

We had the league's worst PP at 14.2% Had we finished close to 19-20% we would have been around league average. Losing Duclair and Pageau will hurt in both the PP and PK departments but the PP may improve with some of the younger guys and Stutzle. And our PK may be better with J.Brown, and Gudbranson instead of Hainsey and Boro. Watson may not hurt there either. We won't get as many scoring chances without Duclair and Pageau unless Formenton and Norris play top-point on the PK.

I think we will be better defensively and offensively we're going to be hot on some nights and completely outplayed on others. I would love to see Ottawa add one more piece - either Duclair or Matt Martin, though I think the Sens think they have a good depth guy in Paul and maybe don't want to invest long-term in Duclair with their prospect pipeline, keeping in mind Pinto, Thomson, Brannstrom, JBD, Sanderson will probably be pushing for spots next season. And then there's Abramov who could steal a spot this year too.