First, a disclaimer: I'm just a fan, nothing more, nothing less. Unlike some fan sites (who shall now and forever remain nameless...and un-linked, at least in my sandbox) devoted to this team, I have never claimed, alluded, pretended or otherwise implied to be some kind of deep cover insider "plugged in" to the Sens front office through some nebulous "source" in order to give whatever crazy idea I happened to pull out of my ass that morning a false veneer of legitimacy.
With that out of the way, here is the crazy idea I totally pulled out of my ass this morning: Jason Spezza is as good as gone.
With no hope of doing anything this year, why bring in Comrie, who is unrestricted in July if not to re-sign him? Mike has said he wants to stay. The Bryan has said he wants to keep him. That will run $4 to $4.5 million a year. And where, pray, will that cap space come from? Just getting Pastry off the books (finally!!) ain't gonna do it. I'll give you a hint...or more to the point...eight million of them.
As much as everyone holds up Verms and Neiler as our prime trade bait, I submit to you we are in possession of a far shinier bauble...one who will certainly bring a prospect or three along with a much improved first rounder over the 28th to 30th pick the Isles will now enjoy. One whose no-trade clause doesn't kick in until July. One who, after watching him loaf his leisurely ass around the ice yet one more time Saturday afternoon, I can say in all honesty has worn out even my considerable patience with incredibly gifted yet infuriatingly incorrigible giveaway machines.
Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. But as you do, consider this: Chances are #89 won't demand a bonus if he's forced to break a sweat.
15 comments:
One thought that did flit across my mind when I heard the deal was: "they've got an ass load of centers now..." Who will play the wings, Murray? Who will play the wings?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Flawed logic my friend. Comrie is coming off a terrible season and a 40 point season the year before. He will command no more than $3 million a year.
Your irrational logic towards trading the franchise centreman, who commits as many turnovers as other top scorers in the league, is bush league and puts a glaring spotlight on your lack of credibility.
Of course, I'll eat my hat and give you props in the event Murray confirms fans worst fears and proves himself to be an incompetent GM in the league by trading Spezza.
Watch what you wish for!
There is blood in the water!
One too many guys not earning their money!
Spezza is 10M to replace so I think we'll keep him.
trade spezza to pittsburg for staal and whitney. can you imagine having fisher, comrie, and staal as our centres, paired with heatley, alfie and vermette. whitney, campolli, phillips, volchenkov, smith and lee as our d-men. finally balanced scoring and decent puck moving defencemen we also have 3 or 4 good d-men coming. pull the trigger now, pittsburg would love spezza with malkin and crosby.
Hrm. Might not be a bad idea. Consider:
1) The UFA market for #1 centres this year has no candidates. Yet people want them, we could name our price
2) That price should be high, says I.
3) Something like:a 1st rounder in 2009, a top 6 scoring winger on a damn fine contract (2-3 years, ~4m/yr), a conditional pick in 2010 (1st if they make the playoffs next year), and a damn fine defensive/goaltending prospect.
4) Hey, Spezzas don't grow on trees, seriously. Pay up!
5) Maybe St. Louis, or Atlanta, or Columbus would actually bite.
Spezza should be traded this year, because even with the rough season he's having, his value will never be higher.
Wait until draft day, you won't get as much.
Wait until he has to waive the no-trade clause and he can pick his team, you probably won't get as much.
The question is, who would take him. Teams already locking up a playoff spot (San Jose, Boston, New Jersey, etc.) don't need him. Teams missing the playoffs (Atlanta, Islanders, Colorado, etc.) are looking to get rid of players, not bring more on.
So you need to trade him to a team looking to make a push to make the playoffs this year, and has prospects to spare. Probably a team that hasn't been there for a while.
So it's probably a western team. Columbus would be a good pick. Maybe Edmonton as well. Might Phoenix want him?
Maybe Spezza to Edmonton for Penner, a draft pick and a prospect? Or maybe, if it's a salary move, maybe Erik Cole instead of Penner, since Cole will be gone in the offseason, and you would then have an extra $8 million in the summer to sign free agents.
That would also give Ottawa another top-15 pick this summer.
I had this thought myself.
It's hard to trade your No 1 centre when you don't even have a real No. 2 centre.
We now have a real No. 2 centre.
Tom: Penner had crossed my mind before, but I'd hate to trade one underachiever for another. And Cole hasn't been the same since his neck injury. Not sure he's worth it.
Anon #1: What, did Milbury take over the Pens? No WAY does Pittsburgh give up that much. You wouldn't be able to buy a torch or pitchfork within a 100 miles of Mellon.
Dutch: ...puts a glaring spotlight on your lack of credibility
Hey, hey, HEY! I've been doing this for almost two years now. There are PLENTY of posts that spotlight my glaring lack of credibility much better than this one. Do your research! Oh, and thanks for stopping by!
why wouldnt pittsburg give up there number three centre (stall) and there number 3 or 4 d-man (whitney)for a legite number one centre/100 point getter to play with crosby. i think they would take the deal in a second. look what they gave up for hossa last year and he was a rental.
Pittsburgh already has quite a bit of cash wrapped up in skilled scoring centres. Perhaps you've heard of them? What the Pens want is scoring wingers. They don't want to trade their highly paid and defensively responsible centre for an even more highly paid, defensively irresponsible centre. If you're paying $8 million to your third best centreman, you've got problems. Shero may be dumb, but he's not HAT dumb.
That's what I want my tombstone to read: here lies a dumb man... but he knew a thing or two about headgear.
Seriously, Spezza strikes me as the kind of player who would suddenly start becoming all-world as soon as he is traded somewhere. So what do you do with a player who will be great, just not for your team.
SLC:
I block your Spezza move, but I give you Pronger type $$$.
Chris Neil 1.1 in return nothing but draft picks.
Schubert .9 given to Mez for DPs.
Phil Kuba 3.0 for a 2nd rounder.
J. Smith 1.3 bought out for half.
B. Bell .5 to walk. (Liked him)
Sub Total 6.8M
CAP before Comerie/Campoli 3.2
"Total" for 1 Grade "A" kick ass number one type defenceman for next year 10 million American dollars.
PROBLEM ONE: The Ottawa Senators need a NUMBER ONE DEFENCEMAN! STOP! (30).
I was interested to read your article! Thank you!
I agree with Ed! Good article.
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