Top Six Quality Lacking!!!

by Marvellous on Jul 22, 2010 7:49 AM EDT

With the yearly stream of departures of top defencemen, the Sens have concentrated alot of their drafting resources on rebuilding the defensive depth of the team. With the decision to use the number one pick last year to acquire David Rundblad comes a current lack of depth at the top six forward position.

Spezza, Michalek, Alfy, Fisher and Kovalev and hopefuls... albeit hopefuls Regin and Foligno have potential... With one top six injury, which we can count on for sure, where will we turn for offence? We are loaded with third and fourth line bodies, but how far can we go with any of those bodies sitting with top six minutes. Hoping that Regin becomes a full time top six forward this year is a stretch... and maybe he will. Hoping that Nick Foligno with his nine goals last year becomes a full time top six forward is an even bigger stretch.

Is our new offence-from-the-defence, lead by a fragile Gonchar expected to carry the team's offence?

On the positive side, Binghamton looks to be set for a huge turn-around, and there is alot of potential for at least one of Hoffman, Butler or Wick to step up and play so well that they force their way into the Sens lineup. So, all of this leads to the question of will there be enough scoring to offset the questionable goaltending and all of the odd man rushes that will be coming our way with our new-found offensive-minded dmen... and we have alot of potential...

Whaddya think?

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Sergei Gonchar was 3rd in Pittsburgh in points

But yeah, the offensive depth blows, but that’s where we find findout who’s good and who’s not. Like Regin, he looked good last season in his first full season, who knows how the boys down in Bingo are going to look.

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by Alexander Calloway on Jul 22, 2010 10:35 AM EDT reply actions

I'm not too concerned about it

Obviously, more skill and better prospects is something every team would want, but Ottawa’s set up pretty well: Spezza, Kovalev, Alfredsson, Michalek, Fisher, and Regin are all top-six players, in my opinion. After that, Ruutu and Foligno have good skill, Kelly can step up in a higher role even if he won’t bring production, and Neil has his role. That leaves Shannon, Winchester, and likely Z. Smith to fill out the forward ranks (unless one of the kids makes the jump). That’s probably as good as last season, and with more contribution from the defence, scoring should be markedly improved.

As for the prospects, it’s better than it was, which is a move in the right direction. I’m not sure if any of Wick, Butler, or Hoffman can be top-line players, but right now they’re expected to be second-liners. We need to address the impending fall-off and eventual loss of Daniel Alfredsson on our first line, but I think we’re in good shape for 2010-11.

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by Peter Raaymakers on Jul 22, 2010 11:36 AM EDT reply actions

Amen.

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by Mark Parisi on Jul 22, 2010 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions

I just get this feeling Alfie is going to be a freak and keep producing late in his career. I keep thinking he’s going to play until he’s 42 and hopefully play captain to the next generation of this team for another 3 or 4 years. Alfie has no quit and hustles his ass off every game and I don’t see that stopping as he gets older. And unlike other Euro players I don’t get the sense that Sweden is calling him back. He lives in Ottawa and his brother lives here too, so I don’t get the impression he’s like Sundin and wants to move back to Sweden post career. That’s just my assessment from outside the situation and the type of guy he seems to be to me.

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by modsuperstar on Jul 22, 2010 10:38 PM EDT up reply actions

What I find interesting

Is that Alfie is such a unique specimen, that he defies the rules of the CBA far more blatantly than Lamoriello and Kovalchuk combined.

No other player is allowed to have a cap hit that actually goes down in the final year of his contract, but in a couple of years, Alfie will be costing the team $700,000 less against the cap.

Joe Thornton may have scored more points over the last decade, but Alfie is alone in the allowed-to-circumvent-the-CBA department. Even Crosby is forbidden to presently lock himself in for a $700,000 reduction in a few years.

Just one more way that Alfie has no comparables ;-)

by Spezzal Teams Playa on Jul 22, 2010 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions

I do feel that Alfie's time as a first line player has to be coming to an end soon

His level of play hasn’t dropped significantly because of his intelligence, but soon the team is going to have to start monitoring his minutes more closely. I would love for us to bag a top-flight RW next year to give Alfie some rest. He can finish his career on a line with Michalek and Fisher. That’s the best way for him to go out, in my opinion.

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by Mark Parisi on Jul 23, 2010 12:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Four Out of Six Were Dmen

We have picked dmen four of the last six years and the new regime has picked two dmen in a row in the first round, even with several quality forwards available. So a top flight RW by the middle of the second round is unlikely in this upcoming draft. Early assessment shows that there are about 12 – 15 legitimate top flight prospects.

They are hoping that Wick or Butler becomes that top flight RW. My sense is that if Butler can stay healthy he could be the next gunner from the right side.

by Marvellous on Jul 23, 2010 7:14 AM EDT reply actions