Grading the Senate Reform so far

This team is not going to be competitive this year or next for sure, and with most moveable assets gone the draft is the best chance to get future star players (forwards in particular). My ideal would be an Elliot-McElhinney tandem or something like that — let the kids develop chemistry on the ice and just put a body in net who’s not going to singlehandedly steal games and ruin our draft position.

From what I’ve heard, Brust has been hurt so Lehner won’t just be sitting back up – and regardless of whether it should’ve been McElhinney or someone else, Bingo needed another goalie from us since Snoopy’s still not well. Now that Lehner’s back in the AHL, he can actually play some games.

And Ryan – come on! The Elliott trade wasn’t nearly enough to sabotage the tank on its own. Especially now that we’ve traded away Campoli, I’m pretty sure the rest of the team can still play badly enough to lose despite Andy.

Thanks for this. I like the diversity of opinion in the conversation.

I will add my unsolicited feedback and give Murray a solid “A”. I give him top marks for moving guys in a classy fashion while also getting a good return. All the guys that got sent out of town landed in good situations for them and at the same time the Sens got good value and are now well positioned for the draft and beyond. The classic “win-win” scenario. I think that kind of intangible “good will” is valuable to the organization’s stature in the league(and especially amongst players) since the next couple of years might be ugly.

I am looking forward to seeing what Potulny can do and I hope the Sens re-sign Anderson, especially if he is going to ruin their tanking strategy. Lastly, I don’t mind the fact that Gonchar and Kuba ended up not getting traded. Clearly it would have been better for them to get out of a rebuilding situation, but this way they can rebuild their value next year and give the Sens some assets to trade at next year’s deadline.

I do see why Murray did it. He wanted Anderson to have a try-out. And what better situation to really test a goalie than with a really bad defence like ours? Also, when players know they don’t have to pay extra attention to their goalie, it allows them with ease to play their role better, which in turn helps the creation of relationships between the players on the ice. It helps them focus on their own mistakes and learn with out getting distracted by “OMG I need to save the goalie”.

Ideally, my win-win would be to lose games but with close scores… this is a plus for Anderson without really hiking up his price, and it’s a plus for the tank that we all want so badly.

Svatos has played 2 games (right?), even though he does look awkward, I am willing to wait and see how or if he fits. I am looking forward to seeing what Potulny will do on the ice as well.

I think Murray did do a good job of fixing some mistakes, clearing a decent amount of cap room, and bringing in picks. I would have to say that the Kovalev trade was the worst out of the bunch, I really thought he would garner something higher.

Overall, Murray has been brave and firm, and that is what the team and fans need to see for reassurance during the rebuild.

I will give him a B+. Now that I have had time to cool down and not be so pissed off about the signing (I get a bit emotional about the Sens)…here is my crazy plan:

If we are going to keep Phillips around (and expect him to bounce back) then I would be open to trading Jared Cowen.

Before you call me crazy here is my argument:
- only one of Edmonton and Islanders are going to get Larsson, and they both need a defenceman (and Colorado for that matter)
- we have pretty good defensive prospects already, and I would rate Rundblad higher than Cowen because he is playing against men rather than 16-19 year olds
- Rundblad can be a two way defenceman, he is not small like Karlsson
- if we packaged Nashville’s pick with Cowen, we might be able to get the top 2 picks in the draft

We would have Gonchar-Karlsson, Kuba-Rundblad, Phillips-Lee (or some other combo)

Or if you can trade Kuba, then Carkner…but that is a bit weak. I wouldn’t trade Kuba until next deadline.

Our top 6 could be Spezza, Michalek, Butler, Alfredsson, Landeskog, Nugent-Hopkins

And we still have the 32nd pick to draft another defenceman.

Also agree with the Kovalev deal being the worst of a pretty good lot.

I think the contracts to Kuba and Gonchar made the moves about the best that could be made. Unfortunately, Murray’s propensity to be a “good guy” on resignings meant that we had to watch really solid value transition and depth pieces go (sniff, sniff, Campoli!!) instead of those we wish could have gone. If we could have swapped a Kuba or Gonchar dump and keeping Campoli, Murray might have deserved a knighthood.

As has been discussed on other boards, i think off-season buy-outs of Kuba and/or Gonchar would be a mistake. Better to bank on them turning their game around and hopefully being invigorated by playing with a bunch of young whipper-snappers. That change in atmosphere from a miserable underperforming whale might just be enough. Then, next year we can hopefully see Cowan and Rundblad find their way into the line-up and see at least one of Kuba/Gonchar get moved.

i’m really – hopefully! – looking forward to watching our youth movement flourish. Here’s hoping Butler keeps going and doesn’t do the Regin-slump next year, that Regin regains his form, Lee continues to develop at, at least, his tortoise-like pace, that Shannon continues his surprising play, etc.

As much as I would have loved to see Kuba or even Gonchar moved, it just wasn’t realistic with their contracts. I’m not in love with the terms, but I’m happy about the Phillips extension and considering where the team will be over the course of the deal I get it.

I debated an A- because I really think he could have done better with Kovalev, but in the end I went with an A because there were two deals that wowed me: Elliott for Anderson, and Campoli and a 7th for a second and Potulny. Both are amazing deals, as far as I’m concerned, and the rest of the moves were solid.

IMO, if next year’s draft is done well, it could be the reboot this team needs. Which leaves us with a year or two to groom the picks and prospects and get back in contention. Really, I couldn’t have asked for anything more from BMur. He needed to blow up the team and he did it, while doing enough (in my mind, anyway) to keep the fans engaged next season.

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