Silver Nuggets: An Executive Leadership Team, a mock draft, and draft parties
As noted here yesterday, the Ottawa Senators have decided not to renew the contract of longtime president Roy Mlakar, and owner Eugene Melnyk has installed what is being called an Executive Leadership Team in place [Ottawa Senators official website]: Cyril Leeder, one of the 'three amigos' who brought NHL hockey to Ottawa, will take over as president, while Erin Crowe will become executive vice-president and chief financial officer and GM Bryan Murray will add the title of Executive Vice-President to his business card.
Interesting take over at The 6th Sens, where Nichols suggests that Mlakar may have been putting pressure on current and former GMs when making hockey decisions. Any other conspiracy theories out there?
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Followers of this blog and any other on SBNation will be excited to hear that James Mirtle at From The Rink will be hosting SBNation's first-ever mock draft! Beginning June 16, three teams will make a selection each day until the NHL entry draft finally arrives on June 26.
Silver Seven will be making a selection on behalf of the Ottawa Senators on June 18; who do you think the Sens should pick when ninth overall rolls around?
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Speaking of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, exciting news for people with little to do: Join one of Chris Kelly or Alex Picard for an officially-sanctioned Draft Party! Kelly will be part of a 'hotstove' at Local Heroes on Bank Street, while Picard will be doing the same at Boston Pizza in Gatineau. More information here.
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Speaking of people will little to do, at least one NHL executive believes that Dany Heatley (whose trade request may very well have come out of boredom) will get a good return for the Senators [Ottawa Citizen]. Thank goodness. I hope the deal happens soon so I can stop focussing on the spite and begin looking forward to a new NHL season, full of promise and players who haven't said they don't want to play here.
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Is Heatley going to Boston? I doubt it, but Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron would give the Senators some pretty respectable depth on the Sens' top two lines.
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Turns out Jim Balsillie's bid to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton isn't going to go through, at least not for now. So with the makeitseven.ca campaign on temporary hiatus, can we focus on the makeitfive.ca campaign already?
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Do you think the Ottawa Senators have made some terrible signings in recent years? Some people do. But as bad as Mike Fisher's $4.2M per season contract might look, it's nowhere near Eric Duhatschek of The Globe and Mail's top-ten worst contracts in the league today. Hilarious note: Wade Redden tops the list, followed by two more New York Rangers contracts. Awful.
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As sad as it is to think that no Ottawa Senators' draft pick has ever won the Stanley Cup, it could be worse. A couple of Sens picks made NHL.com's list of best picks numbered 1-30 overall. Or at least made the Honourable Mention (Marian Hossa) or Up and Coming (Erik Karlsson, Andrej Meszaros) sections, anyway.