Xspyrit
DJ Dorion
That's also a better package than what Bobby Ryan returned, a guy who was younger, healthier and had 2 years left on his contract (gives you a lot of time to get an agreement on an extension, which is key for a city like Ottawa who is not an easy sale)
It's probably still a bit too early but Chiasson, Paul and a 1st for UFA-to-be Spezza would have been pure robbery. Those don't happen very often.
Spezza was a great player but his play in last 2-3 years get him a lot closer to Mike Ribeiro (who was bought out recently) than Steve Yzerman...
OK but this is 100% assumption based on speculations and your understanding of the situations (I see that you somewhat recongize it by saying "seems")... You (and all of us) have no idea what happens behind the scenes, what is the real market for players (HF opinions will only give you a vague idea based on people perceptions, bias and general consensus). GMs and their staff are professionals. They see the red flags for players like Spezza and Heatley and declines hurt players values. Their market value was probably really not as good as Sens fans would have liked. In the end, Sens were probably even lucky to get good players back for those guys (who quitted on the team) because of their exploits of the past... But now look at Heatley, I'm sure the Sharks would have liked to keep Michalek and their 2nd. And Spezza, imagine if he signs with another team after the Stars miss the playoffs by far (looks like it so far)...
Finally, about the Ryan trade, I don't see how anyone can assume that Murray "caved in". I'll give you an example. Let's say I rent a house that is for sale. The owner asking price is 715 000$. Let's say that I would like to buy this house but I find the price too high. I counter with 600 000$. Do you think the owner will say "okay great"? He will counter lowering the price but he has a minimum and could consider going a bit lower to get the deal done, but he is not going to sell his house way under the market price.
Anaheim had an asking price for Bobby Ryan, probably even lowered it over time (getting older, statistical regression, less years on contract), that's why it took so long for Murray to get that deal done (wanted to acquire Ryan for years). But at some point, you have to give to get, no one is going to give you everything you want on a silver platter (well, unfortunately some parents do). Murray pulled the deal because he wanted to get Ryan (and the timing was great considering other things that were happening). You have to replace players (Alfie) but you also have to appease the fans.
Silfverberg + Noesen + 1st (weak draft) is a good package but it's also not a package that would get you top tier stars. Bobby Ryan is a 2nd tier star and that's the price to pay to get a player of his caliber at a young age.
How do you know that's not what he did and was able to get Paul or a 2nd in the process, for example?
I mean you realize you are getting that assumption from... the air?
Sens got 4 assets when the norm seems to be more like 3 assets. You're going to say quality over quantity Hibbidy who blah. But for example, did you know that Chiasson (51 pts in 100 Games) outperforms Silfverberg (51 pts in 120 Games) in the NHL so far? But I'd bet a ton of money that the general consensus/assumption on this board is that Silfverberg > Chiasson by far in terms of value, particularly before the trade.
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