Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Really? I'm not sure Ottawa is the blueprint any team would want to follow as it's simply the mouse wheel of continual rebuilding as they will not commit long term to their best players. There is zero indication that Melnyk is committed to winning.
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They had a cinderella run in '16-17, and then the wheels fell off the next year. It might be a little analogous to Flames '18-19 and beyond.
The Sens made tons of mistakes along the way (like trading Zibanejad, and then trading the farm for Duchene when they were 6-8). I'm not sure OTT deserves any credit, it's not clear that they were particularly intentional in how they went about their decisions, but ultimately they've ended up on the right path considering their circumstances (better late than never).
They are mostly incompetent, but their refusal to overpay long-term chasing false dreams has worked in their favour. They pushed a lot of chips in to chase their window while they thought it might be open, but also did a decent job of recovering assets from those mistakes.
Heading into '18-19
Karlsson 28 - 1UFA
Duchene 27 - 1UFA
Stone 26 - 1UFA (after a weird 1 yr deal)
Brassard 31 - 1UFA
Boedker 29 - 2UFA (bad Hoffman trade)
Bobby Ryan 31 - 4x7.25 remaining
Anderson - 37 - already extended for 2 more years
And more bad money tied up in bad and/or older players like MacArthur (LTIR) and Gaborik (became LTIR)
Promising young players:
Tkachuk
White
Chabot
L Brown
(maybe a few others...Hogberg in G)
Pageau, Dzingel, Ceci, Demelo, Tierney mid 20s
An okay, but old forward core (weak at C), sparse defence, and uncertain future in goal.
If they re-upped Karlsson and Stone they'd basically be Nashville/SJ right now.
Like I said, there is a strong argument for re-signing Stone (and aiming for a bit of a re-tool), though it's unlikely they'd be competitive before he turns 30 anyways. Selling off was absolutely the right move given their mess of a roster.