Lost in the hype around yesterday’s announcement surrounding the new Canadian Tire Centre, or The Wheel House as Sens fans have dubbed it, was an interesting interview with Sens GM Bryan Murray.
In the article posted on the Senators website, Murray discussed a variety of topics including the future of Daniel Alfredsson, plans for draft day, Paul MacLean’s future and how the new agreement with Canadian Tire may impact the team’s salary structure for next season.
By the way, you can read the article in its entirety here.
-Obviously still no decision from Daniel Alfredsson. The Sens have a number they would offer Alfie should he decide to return and that number is believed to be below $5 million. If Alfredsson does the unthinkable and decides to hang ‘em up, money set aside in the budget for the Captain could be used on another potential free agent.
-As I indicated earlier this week, the Sens are looking to move up in the Draft. Murray says he’s talked to at least four teams, and it’s safe to assume Nashville and Carolina are among that group. It sounds like the Sens think the most cost effective way to land an impact player this summer is to move way up in the Draft. Murray will be busy on that front over the next 11 days.
-Talk will pick up significantly in the next couple days with a General Manager’s meeting set to go in Boston this week. The Sens have let it be known they are interested in moving up and those talks are expected to heat up with all the GMs locked in a room together.
-An extension for Paul MacLean is a formality at this point. The defending Jack Adams Award winner is stickin’ around for the foreseeable future.
-Murray mentioned that he has talked to a couple teams with cap issues and as I mentioned earlier this week, the Flyers are one of those teams. Certainly looks like they’ll buy out Daniel Briere which could make things a little more difficult for Ottawa. On the open market, Briere is likely to get a contract that will be too rich for Ottawa.
-Murray also briefly addressed whether or not the new agreement with Canadian Tire would impact the team’s budget moving forward. And while it will obviously have some impact, don’t expect the team’s budget to expand a whole lot. Melnyk addressed this in his Q&A with the media yesterday as well.
-And while it wasn’t mentioned in the Murray interview, this whole casino thing really has the potential to turn ugly. Melnyk is furious with the way the process has been handled and even went so far as to threaten future investment in the city. Highly recommend watching the video at the top of the article, as Melnyk makes a number of interesting comments about the CT partnerships, the team budget and the casino.
