Let's start with the good news. The new CBA is a 10 year deal. Which means that for at least another eight years, we can avoid this nonsense and focus on the sport of hockey.
All the specifics of the new CBA will be released over the next couple days but what we do know is there will be a maximum of seven years on player contracts or eight years if the deal is signed with the player's current team. We don't know the salary floor just yet, the cap in 2013/2014 has apparently been set at $64.3 million.
And while the two sides work on making this thing official (owner ratification and player approval), fans of the NHL can start to think about what the league looks like over a 50 or 48 game season. Players will flood home from Europe and the American Hockey League over the next couple days and the Ottawa Senators roster will begin to take shape.
More on this news tomorrow but for now, it feels good to write this again...
GO SENS GO!
Chirp, fantasy pool a possibility now?
Welcome back, looks like you timed it perfectly
I would love to see trades but i don't expect BM to go crazy over such a short season. Weir has been mentioned as a D who could possibly produce if he keeps up that style of play. Benoit could slip into the Sens lineup this year in a 48 or 50 game season easily. Or even Gryba who has had one of the better +/- records to fill the stay at home role. Beyond that Silf will play with Ottawa the entire season. Can't wait to see what happens
They haven't fully mentioned it but it looks like they are using the existing framework, which makes sense, why reinvent the wheel? But it sounds like they will be adding games on at the end pushing the regular season end date longer and starting the playoffs later, which is great news.
What I can't understand is the whole lottery for the draft, what is this talk about everyone having a shot at 1st overall? Can someone explain?
Not sure Murray is making any major moves before the start of the season but the Senators are in a good spot financially if they want to make a run this year.
So who's going to post the first roster prediction??
Go Sens Go!
I dont think this is entirely true, games are going to be inner-conferenc e only, that would imply a completely new schedule. Also, the end date of the playoffs will be nearly the same- early June.
Not going to bitch about anything - just glad my favorite product is back.
I like the idea of teams getting an extra year to offer players but would have liked to see 5/8 or 6/8 instead of 7/8 but anything that helps keep player movement to a minimum is good IMO. You need to allow some of course, but I already own too many jerseys of players that aren't Sens anymore.
Glad to see them fixing the $1M tag on issue as well (both with variance and contract length). I wonder what the next loop hole will be that owners/agents figure out.
Lower cap of course helps the Sens in the short and long term so that's good news too I guess.
Murray's done a great job pre-lockout getting the team in great shape fiscally. Hopefully by March we're not talking about the lockout at all except in how the Sens came out of it looking good.
Its sad, really.
But whatever... least I get to see Spezza in action this year.
Welcome back NHL... still no merchandise for me. Probably not for a long time. But we can still be friends
Redden? J Bo?
I've been watching the reports all morning, not once did I hear anything about inner-conferenc e only games, who reported that? I do believe that throughout the entire process they had the schedule makers working on updated schedules, but you can't change the pre-configured events already in place in major cities, which the majority of games are scheduled around, same with the Sens sharing the rink with the 67's. All of that was determined well in advance. I know the NHL takes presidence, but they can't change everything.
Keep readinv
Greening - Spezza - Michalek
Silfverberg - Turris - Alfredsson
Latendresse - Regin - Condra
O'Brien - Smith - Neil
Daugavins
The majority of the mix and matching will happen between the 1st 3 line LW positions, hell maybe even the 4th. It goes without saying that Silfverberg has been the hot hand in the A so he may actually get 1st line minutes with Spezza as a test to start, but don't be surprised to see Greening landing that spot if Silf starts slow, considering his play last season. And Latendresse would get some time there as a test too, it's a quick season so things will change a lot. The question will be Regin, how will he do at C or will he stay healthy? He could be pushed to Wing with Smith moving into 3rd or O'Brien taking the Center position.
I do feel Condra, given his dominating play in Germany at the third and second-tier league, will be on the 3rd line RW, but that could end up being swapped with O'Brien. And poor Daugavins will be the odd man out most nights.
5 D in no particular order as such.
Gonchar, Karlsson, Methot, Phillips, Lundin.
And Benoit will no doubt be the added 6 in a short season. 7th man will be one of Borowiecki, Gryba or Wiercioch and depending on play, could swap into the top 6 now and again.
Goalies obviously will be Anderson and Bishop based on contract, but it makes me wonder what issues the Sens may have bringing Bishop back up, does he run into issues in that regard?
Woah!!
The lockout ended. We didn't time travel back to 2002...
But congratulation on the first outrageous post of the 2013 season!
You have no idea what you are talking about
I trust that PM will give Silfverberg a look on both the top line and the second line... I can't see Murray being too happy if Silf goes bottom 6, would make no sense whatsoever.
What I'm probably most excited about is seeing how Methot and Karl fare together. That, and how much better Karlsson will be this year.
What? I think most people would agree with the majority of this prediction. But feel free to back up your statement...
Until we win the Cup... : )
I'm just curious about what we'll see happen with Andy, Bishop and Lehner. Obviously Anderson and Bishop are the ones with one way contracts but Lehner has been playing by far the most hockey lately and he's been dominating the A.
EEEEEEEYORE !
Hax ????
How did you escape your alien abductors ?
LOL...I think Oklahoma City just cried a river.
LMAO
Redden for 2 year deal at about $1M per year. Trade for JBo so that he can eat minutes with karlsson.
Thanks Mat, I read this jaydog comment and wondered where this dude came from?
I'm surprised there is a season... my thought (along with many) were that there wouldn't be one. But I'm extremely happy to have the Sens back.
The Sens had 10 players playing during the lockout.. That helps.
But right now that defense scares me (other than Karlsson of course). He will have to get used to a new defense partner in a short time.
Lundin injured his finger before Christmas... needed surgery and is out a few more weeks...
Murray will have to sign a UFA in the short term.. I can't see him bringing up 2 D from Bingo.
Silfverberg & Bishop are a given... but the question is.. who else?
I think they will start Silfverberg with Alfie & Turris. That's a threat on the ice. Teams still have to watch Spezza & Michalek... so gives the Sens the edge there. The offense should be fine.
Teams can't afford a bad stretch in a shortened season. You could be out of playoff contention pretty early.
Hax was right.. they expect to have the same weighting.. but if you win the draft lottery you move to the 1st overall pick.. there is no more moving up 5 spots.. Probably trying to avoid a 4th straight 1st overall by Edmonton.
So good to talk actual hockey and not that garbage lockout.
Welcome back Sens. Ready to book a celebration pre-game meal at Frank Finnigans...
My friend and I still have the rest of the 67's games this season plus now the NHL... I'm going to be busy.. glad I'm retired.
Thanks Chirp... for the good job keeping us sane throughout this lockout...
Now expecting your opinion on this season.. but please still keep up your Binghamton updates... They are still an important part of the Sens organization.
sounds like we'll get our regular diet of loafs, habs, sabres, and worse of all the bruins...lets hope we hit the ground running.
go sens go!!
Yeah. Why bother write that when you can just select the thumbs down option? You've gone this far, what's the difficulty in elaborating on your criticism? Its not like anything you said was outrageous. You didn't have Parise and Nash inserted in your top 9... : )
Great news to here that we can all enjoy the next 10 years of hockey without any lockout or cba talk...lol. I am kind of curious to know if any of the players coming up from Binghampton are being scratched for tonights game? Silfverberg? Do they bring up both Lehner and Bishop right away? Knowing that there won't much time to really have camp, I would think you will only see players with a definite possibility of making the team?
Not sure Florida is interested in trading JBo since he did rather well last year. Redden may find himself an opportunity for a pro NHL tryout somewhere but I hope to God its not in Ottawa. I think the page was turned and the book is closed on this one. Personally, if we are shopping for an available D, I'd get Campoli back on the cheap..
j-bo playss for calgary hahahah..
Defensively he does not have it anymore.. but you can't ignore his passing. His pass from the D zone is still good and offensively on PP could replace Kuba.
But defensively he sucks. He is also 35 yrs old.. so doesn't fit in Ottawa.
He needs 4 more NHL games to hit 1,000... so he will probably want to do that in Ottawa or Edmonton.. but not sure either team would take him -- if any team at all.
No to Campoli...
But remember last year we were talking about Hjalmarsson and Murray... both would give us some grit... but the trade market prices may be high for those guys.
WTF!!! Are we talking about Jay Bouwmeester here or is there another J-Bo I don't know about. He plays for Calgary and he was a minus -21 last season not very good in my opinion...
Everyone knew they were going to 50-50 so yes that was a big hit, but after that the PA won just about every little battle there was.
There was probably half a dozen offers made by the NHL where they were saying it was their best offer and that they were so frustrated with the players because they kept asking for more. What happened after that was the owners got pissed and stopped Barganing for a week or two until they came back with a better offer.
Fehr knew what he was doing and knew that there would be a better offer coming. Not once did the league take what they said would be off the table actually off he table. They just kept inching towards the players. My favorite was when bill daly said the contract term max and salary variance was the hill they would die on. Sure enough they went from 5 year max all the way up to 7 and 8 and from a 5% variance to a 35% and 50% on the final year. And most recently the cap of 60 million was supposed to be a huge deal for the league. Sure enough they went all the way up to 64.3 which is massive movement.
Fehr knew the league would get desperate because with a shortened season the owners pay he players the absolute minimum possible and then still get a full playoff season where it's essentially 100% profit. So there was absolutely no way they were missing out on that.
I think it's funny because Bettman knew there wasn't going to be a cancelled season and he essentially was just trying to get every little thing he could but in the end got almost nothing more than when they decided on that 50-50 split like 2 months ago. I'd be surprised if Bettman has a job at the end of this year. He got very little of what he told the owners he would
Fehr absolutely schooled Bettman in this one
Holy Crap! I don't know why I had Campbell in my mind.... Perhaps because they are both overpaid?? Need another coffee...
My bad on that Riceroni.
Too me, Wiercioch has many similarities with JBo, and perhaps a younger version of JBo. Id sooner let him try and fill the void.
And Redden is still a definite no.
I think for the Owners the key was getting to 50-50 and it stays at 50-50 throughout the deal. They also wanted to stop the cap circumventing contracts which they did.. but there is still movement within the contracts for the players.. ie 35% variance but the low end can't be less than 50% from the high end..
Now both the NHL & the NHLPA have to make up with the HRR (ie the fans and their sponsors) -- that may be harder than they expect.
Another question is... what kind of response are the players going to get when they first hit the ice.
Some NHL teams are pulling players out of AHL games.. Eberle is not playing neither is Granlund. Will Ottawa do the same with Silfverberg?
I just cant accept what they've done to us fans this year. Dont deserve a penny
I'm not sure that's the consensus out there and the 50-50 split and the 10 year CBA were huge victories for the NHL.
Personally, I think they are both losers for not locking themselves up in a room 3 months ago. The middle ground was pretty clear back then and all of this was just a waste of time.
One item I am surprised was never discussed (or perhaps it was just never brought up), is rights of players with NTC demanding trades before the end of their contracts. The Heatley debacle, and to some extent the Nash debacle were clear examples of their needing a new rule on this. Particularly as the player decision can affect team decisions during the free agency period and the draft. And in the case of Heatly, his decision should have voided the signing bonus since you could argue he purposefully declined a trade, waiting for it to kick in...
We are bound to see more of that shit if the league didn't address it in the new CBA...
I had forgotten about that.. I would have thought Edmonton, Ottawa & Columbus would want that changed considering what happened to them. But I guess those 3 teams don't matter. If it happens to NY or Toronto then the rules would be changed. Money talks.
That being said, I haven't forgotten, and do not intend to spend a cent on tickets/merchan dise/center ice this year....I suspect by next year I won't care anymore, or have decided that nobody really gives two hoots if I spend my money or not as others will be filling the seats so the only person truly suffering is myself.
Really ticked that I am so damn stubborn as I REALLY want a Silf jersey.
I was mad as hell at both sides in this lockout... but they have a sucker in me... I will be back. I may not look at the players in the same way as before.. as some of them have lost my respect.. and I'm sure that applies throughout the NHL.
Amen to that. And Fuck Toronto and NY!!
TSN panel still pegging Ottawa as a fringe team perhaps finishing 7, 8 or 9th.
MacLean will prove them wrong. I say 5th or 6th.
I highly doubt we do better than last season, you are aware that two of our D, one at least top 4 D are hurt(Cowen out for season, Lundin apparently hurt to..can't find much about it though)
I like something like this
Michalek-Spezza-Latendresse
Hoffman-TUrris-Alfie
Greening-Grant-Silfverberg
Dziurzynski-Smith-Neil
Daugavins
It would allow Silfverberg to ease into the NHL without to much pressure. Good to graduate some guys right away. Plus allows Murray some decent players to use in a trade for a good D-Man.
I'm predicting 6th or 7th. Where did TSN rank the Leafs?
The sad story is that Bingo will take the hit with Ottawa having only 4 D to suit up to start the season. Because unless BM swings some crazy ass deal that only strengthen's the team long term, he won't risk giving up alot for a quick fix, it makes no sense.
I'd expect Bingo to ship Benoit, Wiercioch, Borowiecki and Gryba from the D for the quick training camp and 3 of them will stay to cover the load until Lundin returns. Which means Bingo would be left in the hunt for filler positions having only 3 D on the roster, which makes more sense financially, than Ottawa signing FA's or trading. And you can't count out Tyler Eckford. As a late signing he's shown some upside in Bingo.
And this could sound like a dumb question but Could Ceci get called up to Bingo? Is there a special requirement for that type of move? He's not going to win anything in a 67's jersey this year and he's showing promise?
Lundin -- broken finger before Christmas -- had surgery. Out a few more weeks. Saw this on Ken Warren twitter...
Ceci's not ready. Sens can't afford too many rookies in the lineup if they want a push for the playoffs. Murray will move quickly to get a UFA D before the good ones are gone.. question is... when can they start signing UFA's after the deal has been signed? Can he talk to any agents now?
Question... will they bring up Noesen? Him and Ceci were noted when the lockout started as callups from the CHL. C
All depends how well Andy start in the net. We have two strong back-ups, who are already NHL ready. Unsure how long Cowen will be missed. May be sign a veteran defenseman to help bolster the defensive crop, which will also add much required physical presence in the back-end.
Still crying about his New York Jets ?
We still have Wideman and Blood who has yet to play a bingo game to fall back on in the meantime.
It's either NHL or CHL
HAHAHA J-E-T-S STINK STINK STINK !! hahaha
I am hoping Ottawa stays the course and gives those spots on D to Benoit and/or Weircoch,Boroco p. No point in bringing in a vet when this is a great chance to dangle some carrots to some well deserved soldiers. As for Ceci I am hoping he gets traded to a contender because playing in Ottawa is not helping his development. 67's have to trade Graovac, Ceci and even Monahan to maximise this rebuild.
Bad game by the B-Sens today. 3rd game in 3 nights -- two on the road. Lost 5-2. Tough.. Syracuse wasn't playing today -- could have gotten to 2 pts by winning one of the games in hand they had. Lehner was in net..
Played 3 games in 3 nights + the NHL news (most likely a huge distraction for some of the guys) was probably not an ideal situation... But still, 5-2 is not a score you'd expect from these guys.
They've now got a couple of days off to regroup and hopefully close the gap... If anything, at least the teams behind us are well, way behind us. The BSens not only have more points, by quite a bit, but also less games in hand on the teams 5-8th.
That's good for them.. For a young team overall they are having a great season. They will lose Bishop & Silfverberg for sure and probably one of Benoit, Weircioch, Bo or Gryba.. Just an uncharacteristi c loss today.. but understandable. Those games will happen.
@walsha: Ottawa's Milan Michalek was on the Ceske Budejovice team bus on the way to a road game when he got the call that the lockout was over. Milan asked for the bus to pull over at a gas station, said his good-byes, got his equipment off the bus and had a friend come get him.
LOVE THIS STORY!
C'mon home MM!
No one loves ya like we do....
Feckin Eh SensFans. Go Fuckin Sens!
Peluso
I was drinking tea in this cabaret
and feeling as good as Heck
when Peluso came in
I switched to gin
and put it on his cheque
1) Not saying Ottawa has any players I'd want to call up, but is a team allowed to call up a chl player for a tryout or are they now off limits?
2) Are player cap hits clawed back at all? If not Minesota could be in a sticky situation going forward.
Really pumped to watch some hockey!
Alfie plays one more year beyond this.
This is going to be a rejuvenating year for him playing with a young talented Swedish protege in Silfverberg and a much improved Kyle Turris.
If Latendresse can stay healthy I think there are a lot of people underestimating how good this guy actually is. We're still missing a legit top line winger but we have a lot of interchangeable options in the bottom 9 and I think they'll try Regin back on Spezza's wing, with an audition to Latendresse, Greening, Stone and Silf but I'm convinced that Turris and Silfverberg have a long career ahead of them on the same line.
Regin Spezza Michalek
Silfverberg Turris Alfie
Latendresse Smith Greening
Condra JOB Daug
I believe Grant will push for a spot and split time with Daug. While Stone and Zibanejad will spend more time in the A with that said if Murray completes a quantity for quality trade some roster spots will open up.
Whatever you're drinkin Meadowdawgger! Let's drink to our fuckin Sens!
give'r - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2fSGIwwlnM
-42" Dewill, feels thick eh? .... there would be a moon here, and a big rocket!"
BTW, I think that Latendresse will be a pleasant surprise to many.
1) Silfverberg, Stone, and Boro all start with the Sens. Maybe another D gets promoted because of the injuries, or the sens sign a ufa.
2) Latendresse plays on the top line to start the year.
3)we finish 6-7th.
Here it is. Go Sens Go!
I believe Wideman already played like 4 games that i know of, possibly more for Bingo. Blood on the other hand I'm not as sure about.
Turns out they were related to Gary Bettman so once the lockout was over they had other things to worry about so they let me go.
From TSN.ca:
"The NHL had hoped to change opening of free agency to July 5, but the players stood firm and it remains July 1 in the new agreement. But with a later ending to this season, free agency for this summer will start at a later date."
lol
Planning on inviting some friends from Sudbury out to Ottawa for a real hockey game.
I imagine our team won't be much better than last year. I wouldn't be surprised if we finished 9th if Buffalo plays hard like they did at the end of last season.
I like the fact that half the season is going to be interdivisional , going to be an exciting time. Means if we play well against the leafs and habs we could be the reason they don't make the playoffs
Not sure what the return would be but my guess is it would be either Paul Martin (same salary), Niskanen, or Orpik (seems unlikely). Martin would be on the books for another 2 years with a cap hit of 5mil. Ultimately, we would end up with a slightly better version of Kuba IMO.
Or does Ottawa simply let him go for a package of inconsequential prospects?
Other Free Agent Defenseman that could be a possibility:
Sean O'Donnell
Curtis Foster
Kurt Sauer
Colin White
Shaone Morrisonn
Chris Campoli
Mark Eaton
Not saying we should be taking a crack at all these guys but there are some still decent defenseman that can fill in a bottom pairing role for the Sens
My Picks would be Barker and Morrisonn that we should invite to camp to see if they have what it takes to crack the lineup. We need to give Weirchoich and Benoit some competition if they want to make the Sens team, we cant just give it to them.
To Pens: Sergei Gonchar
To Ottawa: Simon Despres
something like that as we could use Despres to build even more depth to our blueline and Despres is ready to play in the nhl
will start in mid-January. Have seen some regular posters,that we have not heard from, since the end of the playoffs,last April.
Tookie should be back soon, since his NY Jets did not qualify for the playoffs.
GO SENS GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!
Oh no he didn't
What's the deal there?
Is he expected to show up to camp?
On D, like the idea of Foster on a one year deal to play with Gonchar, he's only a few seasons removed from a 40 point campaign and can play the PP. He's had plenty of time to heal from last season and he's been playing overseas.
To bad Andy Sutton's career is over, I'd take him for a year as a stop gap.
Karlsson Methot
Foster Gonchar
Phillips Lundin/ Boro / Weir/ Benoit
Next year we have Cowen back, Weir will be ready for a bigger role potentially and or we can sign / trade for what we need.
I think Ceci is a full year of AHL development away from taking a regular shift, no sense rushing him.