How much rope does DJ Smith have? [UPDATE: None]

[Golden_Jet]

The owner didn't


Kind of hard to characterize the tear down as a 5 year plan when the org itself doesn't seem to have had that in mind.

That was fools gold, didn’t think it was realistic then.

 

[Micklebot]

That was fools gold, didn’t think it was realistic then.

Lofty expectations to be sure, but a resonable expectation might have been year to year progress towards that goal, I don't think we lived up to internal expectations, or more modest expectations, but the point is when the team isn't characterizing the rebuild as a five year tear it down to the studs process, it's disingenuous to frame a question as though that was always the plan.

 

[bicboi64]

I didnt even realize the first 13 of first 17 are at home or something.

He has 10 games. If we arent in winning percentage, he's gone. Like NyQuil said, I can't believe he's here (in different words).

Didn't expect that. If DJ can get his shit together, he can build a lot of goodwill getting a winning record together at the start

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

The owner didn't


Kind of hard to characterize the tear down as a 5 year plan when the org itself doesn't seem to have had that in mind.

COVID put a wrench into the timeline. We all know that

 

[Micklebot]

COVID put a wrench into the timeline. We all know that

Did it? We went out and spent big on Dadonov and Murray, other teams were squeezed out by the cap because of the freeze. Easy to blame Covid for our struggles, far harder to actually substantiate it.

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

Don't you hate it when a global pandemic only impacts your favourite hockey team? Shit, there are 30 other teams out there that don't suffer, just us. Why god?

 

[Big Muddy]

Did it? We went out and spent big on Dadonov and Murray, other teams were squeezed out by the cap because of the freeze. Easy to blame Covid for our struggles, far harder to actually substantiate it.

Let's put COVID and all the other Melnyk era stuff behind us. That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm hoping the owner and our team has a successful season and we make the playoffs. And, I really hope we don't get swept in the 1st round either. It would be nice for our new owner to get some playoff revenue so he can feel good about investing more money in the following years.

And, I think it's high time for results and the excuses to end. I'd think Mr. Andlauer is thinking the same way and scheming for ways for this organization to be successful.

 

[Micklebot]

Let's put COVID and all the other Melnyk era stuff behind us. That's what I'm hoping for.

I'm hoping the owner and our team has a successful season and we make the playoffs. And, I really hope we don't get swept in the 1st round either. It would be nice for our new owner to get some playoff revenue so he can feel good about investing more money in the following years.

And, I think it's high time for results and the excuses to end. I'd think Mr. Andlauer is thinking the same way and scheming for ways for this organization to be successful.

with the roster we have, playoffs are a minimum imo, we're a cap team, 16th highest cap hit in the league before extending Pinto,

Time to turn the page, I agree. This is a team built to win going forward

 

[JD1]

with the roster we have, playoffs are a minimum imo, we're a cap team, 16th highest cap hit in the league before extending Pinto,

Time to turn the page, I agree. This is a team built to win going forward

Well, based on the cup odds you posted in the other thread, seems like the bookies agree with you.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

The owner didn't


Kind of hard to characterize the tear down as a 5 year plan when the org itself doesn't seem to have had that in mind.

I’m shocked that the owner and the management was selling Hope for upcoming seasons during the rebuild…. You can take whatever the owner said as solid gold fact if you want, and when his management backs him up…. Wow another shocker… take their word as the absolute carved in stone garentee if you want.

we all knew that there was going to be at least five years of not making the playoffs, if some did not, then they haven’t seen a complete rebuild before.

I guess perhaps the owner and management should set the bar as low as possible, and drive down STH sales for future seasons.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Don't you hate it when a global pandemic only impacts your favourite hockey team? Shit, there are 30 other teams out there that don't suffer, just us. Why god?

I like it more when it creates brain fog for some people too

firstly, as you know we were finishing a rebuid and needed good vets. we were trying to attract better players and their families to move to Ottawa.... this did not go over well. most wanted to stay put. Canada was not a great place to be for COVID at the time.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

I think most people can agree that the Matt Duchene trade on Feb. 22, 2019 (to Columbus) was pretty much the beginning of the complete rebuild, from the ground up strategy, as PD eventually stated that he and the owner discussed “the plan” and they were targeting the 2020 entry draft, and were going to accumulate as many picks possible to stock the shelves with prospects.

Many other trades were made after that, as part of “the plan”.

The Duchene trade was 4 1/2 years ago.

DJ Smith was named head coach of the Sens about three months after the Duchene trade.

To be making the claim that DJS has 4 “losing seasons” as head coach and should have been fired after this past season, or when Andlauer set foot in the CTC as the new owner, are not acknowledging that no matter who was HC once the rebuild was begun, are not really living in the real world.


That said.
Now the clock is ticking, and probably began ticking last September….. and if not for the injuries, to more than a couple of key players, for extended periods of time, DJS has been granted a stay of execution.

It is time to put up, or shut up, for DJS…. If he survives past the US Thanksgiving break, or at the very latest Christmas…. He will finish out the year.

If the Sens are not in playoff spot by Christmas and DJS has not been shown the door…. Then PD knows he himself, will be replaced, so PD is under pressure too.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I think most people can agree that the Matt Duchene trade on Feb. 22, 2019 (to Columbus) was pretty much the beginning of the complete rebuild, from the ground up strategy, as PD eventually stated that he and the owner discussed “the plan” and they were targeting the 2020 entry draft, and were going to accumulate as many picks possible to stock the shelves with prospects.

Many other trades were made after that, as part of “the plan”.

The Duchene trade was 4 1/2 years ago.

DJ Smith was named head coach of the Sens about three months after the Duchene trade.

To be making the claim that DJS has 4 “losing seasons” as head coach and should have been fired after this past season, or when Andlauer set foot in the CTC as the new owner, are not acknowledging that no matter who was HC once the rebuild was begun, are not really living in the real world.


That said.
Now the clock is ticking, and probably began ticking last September….. and if not for the injuries, to more than a couple of key players, for extended periods of time, DJS has been granted a stay of execution.

It is time to put up, or shut up, for DJS…. If he survives past the US Thanksgiving break, or at the very latest Christmas…. He will finish out the year.

If the Sens are not in playoff spot by Christmas and DJS has not been shown the door…. Then PD knows he himself, will be replaced, so PD is under pressure too.

Duchene trade was the beginning of the rebuild? That doesn't really add up. If that were the case, it would have been much wiser to have just sold off Turris for something like the package Colorado got for him and not trade your top draft pick along with other picks and a 1st round prospect for a 2 year rental.

If you're referring to the potential logic of Dorion taking a last kick at the can knowing what was looming, you would trace back further to the Zibanejad trade.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Duchene trade was the beginning of the rebuild? That doesn't really add up. If that were the case, it would have been much wiser to have just sold off Turris for something like the package Colorado got for him and not trade your top draft pick along with other picks and a 1st round prospect for a 2 year rental.

If you're referring to the potential logic of Dorion taking a last kick at the can knowing what was looming, you would trace back further to the Zibanejad trade.

Well the Sens lost in the ECF in 2017, and at the beginning of the 2017/18 season they acquired Matt Duchene, as a means to strengthen the teams chances to go deeper in the playoffs that season.

well that did not work, as they finished below everyone in the EC except Buffalo.

so the next season 2018/2019 was probably the last kick at the can, and if memory serves me correctly… the story goes that PD travelled down to Barbados and presented “the plan” for a complete rebuild to the owner, after it was apparent the Sens were well out of the playoff mix, and with Duchene on an expiring contract, and an impending UFA in July of 2019…. The owner bought into the “the plan” and Duchene was traded to Columbus.

Most see this as the clear sign the rebuild (“the plan”) was underway… targeting the 2020 entry draft.


It anyone else wants to point to some other point in time when “the plan” was put into motion…… please feel free to enlighten us.

 

[HSF]

COVID put a wrench into the timeline. We all know that

COVID should have helped us . Great time to collect talent that was squeezed out by a flat cap

 

[Howitzer27]

if this team isnt in a playoff spot at Christmas i think everything in head office thats not the copy machine is getting tossed.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

COVID should have helped us . Great time to collect talent that was squeezed out by a flat cap

Should have... but didn't

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

if this team isnt in a playoff spot at Christmas i think everything in head office thats not the copy machine is getting tossed.

Not the Xerox!!! Please!

 

[Beech]

COVID put a wrench into the timeline. We all know that

his statement made perfect sense. ...Feb. of 2019..

The 2015 draft had:
Chabot... Highly regarded. Assumption was Norris caliber
White...highly regarded...assumption was Selke caliber
"the Jail bird"....6 foot 5 " scorer... assumption was a power forward
Chlapic.... 6' 2" center, point producer
Wholanin...D man projected to be a solid #5/6
Joey Dacord...projected #1 or # 2 goalie

2016 draft
Logan Brown...projected stud #1 center

2017 draft
Bowers, Formenton, Batherson

2018
Tkachuk showing signs of star
JBD..projected as a top pair D man
Kevin Ma..projected #1 or #2 goalie

EM was going on what he assumed and what his Hockey ops were promising... Heck, we all would have.

No one saw that many would fizzle.... of the12 on here, only 3 have achieved success. In 2019, EM was staring at 12 probable's..

YEA, he figured 2 years later... bam.. 12 studs, success. Norris was in the system. Brannstorm was a highly regarded 18/19 year old.

EM and Dorion must have been on the verge of tears by 2021 when they realized that of the 12 picks and Norris/Brannstrom... so 14 all told. Only 4 would really develop.

By 2021/2022 EM was dying and could not hold anyone responsible or cut of heads.

 

[HoweHullOrr]

I think most people can agree that the Matt Duchene trade on Feb. 22, 2019 (to Columbus) was pretty much the beginning of the complete rebuild

?

I would think when they moved Karlsson in Sept. 2018 most people knew the rebuild had started. When a team moves its best (franchise) player, that's an obvious & objective starting point for a rebuild.

 

[Ice-Tray]

No, because the team set expectations. In 2019, GMPD said: “Next year, we need to start contending for the playoffs. Two years from now, we need to be a playoff team. Three years from now, we need to be a team that contends in the playoffs.”

And sure, we can point to COVID and a flat cap as complicating factors here. But let's not act like it was unreasonable to feel like we should have been competitive by now.

COVID killed the chance of a warchest that Melnyk had earmarked to spend on his glorious FYOUS. It wasn’t just about cap, it was about broke owner didn’t get any gate receipts for a couple season and had nothing to spend.

You can’t just complain that FYOUS wasn’t followed by pretending that the pandemic didn’t have massive implications on our team based on the financial and ownership circumstances.

It’s extremely unreasonable to expect for them to have been more competitive based on that alone.

I mean can people really rip Melnyk for being broke and meddling when it suits, and then complain that we weren’t spending during the pandemic with arenas closed to fans?

Plan went to shit the moment finances went to shit. The whole FYOUs was built on running a cap floor team during the rebuild while banking money to spend when it was time to rise. Either he expected this to be a constant cycle based on spending banked cash and the cashing out to do it all over again, or he expected to die and wanted the rise to coincide with his daughters getting the team and potential new owners getting a premium product.

Either way, no one should be holding Anyone to comments made pre pandemic as though world altering events aren’t a reasonable mitigating factor. Just seems like grasping at straws.

New ownership should mean that we don’t have to run such schemes in order to have a competitive team.

 

[Golden_Jet]

?

I would think when they moved Karlsson in Sept. 2018 most people knew the rebuild had started. When a team moves its best (franchise) player, that's an obvious & objective starting point for a rebuild.

Stone and Duchene being traded at 2019 trade deadline is probably the bottom. So 19:20 season first full season of rebuild., with every main piece gone.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Did it? We went out and spent big on Dadonov and Murray, other teams were squeezed out by the cap because of the freeze. Easy to blame Covid for our struggles, far harder to actually substantiate it.

There is a reason why it’s easy to blame COVID for the demise of the FYOU schedule.

Murray and Daddy don’t chance what was very clearly a cheaply run team during a team of no gate receipts.

A much harder job is trying to substantiate a different story.

 

[SENATOR]

The NHL coach has to be intolerant to players who do not care to play good defence.
For example Chabot and Batherson. Batherson is in the league of his own. Dropping him to the third line does nothing for him. He has to be put down a la Tortorella style. DJ is running a country club not a team.

 

[Golden_Jet]

There is a reason why it’s easy to blame COVID for the demise of the FYOU schedule.

Murray and Daddy don’t chance what was very clearly a cheaply run team during a team of no gate receipts.

A much harder job is trying to substantiate a different story.

I blame the FYOUS schedule as bad, because it wasn’t a reasonable timeline, just a timeline to make fans feel happy, for those that bought it.