I don’t know what the Senators could give up – outside of draft picks – that would gather interest around the league. Any ideas?

Well, I highly doubt that Murray asked for Cheechoo in the Heatley trade. I think it was more likely that he was a salary consideration for them to fit Heatley’s contract.

The tough part about the salary cap era is that evey team has bad contracts, and no one wants to take on anyone else’s. Guys that we want to trade because of salary reasons (Kelly, Cheechoo, even Neil) are exactly the kinds of guys no one else wants. I highly doubt anyone would even take Kovalev’s contract at his current level of production.

I think it’s far too early to say this team doesn’t have enough to make the playoffs. We’re not even 20 games into the season yet. There’s no telling what will happen over the course of a season, and this team looks a lot different with Volchenkov in the line up.

Most importantly, while I am not a fan of what Lee, Picard and especially Campoli are bringing to the table right now, I don’t know that a “trade to shore up the defense” is what the team needs most. The team has some pretty good depth coming up. Karlsson is not far off, Cowen could be NHL-ready as soon as next year, and even Patrick Wiercioch is putting up strong numbers in Denver. Once he fills out a little bit more he could be a great player for the team.

I don’t think this team is a D-man away from winning the Cup, so I’d hate to see them give up some young guys for a band-aid solution. We watched them become elite through the draft once; let’s give our new young guys a chance to develop before talking about trading them.

If the Sens are in the hunt for the playoffs, I could see Murray to deal SJ’s second rounder for a capable defenseman on an expiring contract at the deadline.

For revenue and morale purposes, this team really needs to make the playoffs. But Mark & Graham are right in that they should not mortgage their future to do that.

The team is saddled with too many bad contracts and mediocre players to make any kind of meaningful trade. If Murray is truely determined to make something significant happen, it will probably be to the long-term detriment of the team. This team isnt ready to contend yet, so BM needs to let the season play out and see what kind of players we really have.

There is a guy in Chicago by the name of Brian Campbell that will be available at soon which could be what the doctor ordered for the PP and a defenceman that can eat up close to 25 minutes+ . Regardless of what some of the experts say Brian Campbell is still one of the better defencemen in the league.
A large salary indeed but at least the Sens will be getting something in return for their investment instead of the Kovalev and Cheechoo variety. It also wouldn’t cost the Sens to deal away any prospects that would be considered to be mortgaging their future since Chicago will be looking to unload a contract with them being over next season’s supposed cap number.

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