These deals are very lopsided in Ottawa's favor
1. Amadio might already have negative value, paying a 3rd to "get rid" of joseph and then sign that contract was a Dorion-level bad move. Hamonic has no value as well. Zegras for a 2nd? No chance
2. Giroux and Jensen are good vets but Ritchie is a top prospect, a highly competitive 2-way forward with skill. Plus that 1st... That said, it's the closest among the 3 proposals
3. No chance Tkachuk could return Byfield and Clarke. I mean, if Staios can pull that out, I'd build a statue for him
1. No team is taking Zegras at nearly 6M/year without sending back salary. a) The Ducks still save money from the proposed deal. b) You underestimate the NHL GMs old boys club's allergy to character issues. c) Turris and Filatov, just to name those two, had similar pedigree and returned no more than a 2nd round pick (ours is slated to be high). d) Lastly, if you actually watch some Ducks games, you'll see that Zegras is completely disengaged out there and clearly waiting for a change of scenery/trade (reminds me Duchene in his last days in Colorado). He has scored 8 goals and 22 points in 50 games over the past two seasons. No team is paying a 1st for that.
2. Two years ago, Giroux returned Owen Tippett (10th overall pick with great tools, finding his way in the NHL) + 1st round pick (2 drafts out, turned out to be 32ov) + 3rd round pick when moved from PHI to FLA. Giroux had put up 18 goals and 42 points in 57 games at the time of that trade and has scored at a better rate throughout his time tenure in Ottawa. That's on top of being a proven leader, extremely skilled, etc. Giroux + Cousins for Ritchie + 1st round pick (most likely late and 2 drafts out) is far from outlandish.
3. RFA M. Tkachuk returned Huberdeau (coming off of a 115 points season) + Weegar (proven top pairing D on a President's trophy winning Panthers team) + Cole Schmidt + 1st round pick. Now, Brady is not as good as his brother, but he's also very different, very unique and signed for 4 more years at an extremely reasonable deal. While he's not a great fit for us at this point in time (happens to be the best piece to move in order to jumpstart a reset), I think you're greatly undervaluing our top players in general. There's no one like Brady in the NHL and GMs will pay through their noses if he ever hits the block. Byfield has great tools, upside and can really skate, but he hasn't cut it at C in the NHL so far, has tunnel vision a la Norris and not the greatest IQ. Despite some defensive shortcomings, Clarke has immense potential, but LA would 100% give him up to acquire a unicorn that automatically becomes their best player and is poised to take the C mantle over after Kopitar after retires. It's a steep price, but not one that's out of the reach of a competent GM (which, granted, we haven't had in a long time, between Dorion and Staios' one and only BIG test so far (the Chychrun trade, which he lost)).
4. The guys you're referring to were all signed under one agreement and with one goal in mind: help the Ottawa Senators win. How about we stop being the naive good organization, that's the NHL player's hanging spot to slack and repeat rehearsed cliches like they mean them, and actually commit to the one thing that matters most in the NHL. Winning. There's been very little of it this season and over the previous 7 and if the trend continues, there SHOULD be consequences to the players that are paid handsomely to help the team WIN. The organization that has humiliated us in every possible way over and over again (the Vegas Golden Knights) has completely grasped this concept. Only money and winning talk. If offered a fair market contract, no notable UFA is going to be anymore turned off by Ottawa than they already were because we shipped the likes of Amadios, Cousins' and other marginal UFAs dragging asses out of town due to poor performance.
forums.hfboards.com
).
