Management Rate Staios so far

[bicboi64]

So far I give him a C, but its hard to judge what he's done and this thread needs to be revisited in the future.

Trades

• A Tarasenko for a 3rd and 4th. We either get draft picks or we get nothing, that's what happens when you sign a vet on a high caphit who controls where he goes.
• A- Korpisalo, Kastelic, and 25th overall for Ullmark. If it had a $7 million aav extension it'd be an A+, but I get why we didn't get it. Being able to acquire a Vezina calibre tender while moving Korpisalo was a unicorn deal. Yes we had to retain and Ullmark might not extend, but we had to get rid of Korpisalo. Team morale would've been killed from day 1 if we kept the Korpse.
• B Chychrun for Jensen and a 3rd. Jensen fills every need of ours, he's a steady but declining vet version of the guys we wanted (Roy, DeMelo, Pesce, etc.,,). But its hard to stomach how the 12th overall and 2 second rounders have turned into Jensen and a 3rd. Washington is spending like no tomorrow to get Ovie to the goal-scoring record. I wish we would've gotten more, even if its their's or Boston's 2nd, or a roster guy like Dowd. Washington is in a cap squeeze and wish we had more.
• F Joseph for future considerations. This move is utterly ass. If Joseph is moved because he's part of a problematic core, that's stupid considering he's a side piece of the core. He's a good PK guy that can play throughout the line up. He's better than his apparent replacement (Amadio), and his contract isn't overpaid unlike other guys on the roster. This was a Dorionesque move.

Signings/ FA management

• B Gregor signing. Fair deal for a 4th line vet guy,
• C Amadio for 3 years at $2.6 million aav. He's a vet with a ring, but he's not particularly fast, not above average defensively, doesn't PK, got more PP time in Vegas, and is just as average as you can get. We had a better version of him in Joseph and this is a downgrade.
• D Perron 2 years @ $4 million aav. Perron is a PP merchant who we signed because of the intangibles nonsense. He's tough to play against because he's a dirtbag and he's going to be a liability for us by getting himself suspended. He score above 0.5ppg because he played with stars and he's going to continue to decline for us.
• C Pinto extension. We had all the leverage. We've already made the upgrades in net, D, and in the forward core to be competitive. We needed this extension to be a homerun similar to Batherson's deal, not a short sighted cost savings extension. On a 4-5 year, Pinto would've cost us less than what Lundell, got and we'd have benefitted so much more. In 2 year, Staios will have to make some difficult decisions because of this. It's nice that its not an 8x8 deal, but that doens't mean you go the opposite way.

Drafts

• C Yakemchuk. We had a better RD who is less shite defensively but he doesn't fit the boomer mould of tough and rough guys. I hope Yakemchuk becomes our stalwart 1RD, but he doesn't have the potential Parekh had and is so much more high risk.
• C Eliasson, seems like a Ben Rogers 2.0 and drafting so many players above 6ft2 that all seem to have that 'physicality' looks like such a poor strategy.

It's far too early to assess any of this and we also have to acknowledge how handcuffed Staios is due to Dorion's Milbury level mess ups. I can't wait for Staios to overhaul the scouting department and have more of his inside men on the organization so we can truly see what his reflection of the team is. So far, i'm not the most optimistic.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Ullmark trade was great value. Don't love trading for him without an extension but dumping Korpisalo in the deal makes it a no brainer move.

Chychrun trade was poor value. Probably passed up better deals involving futures (I"d guess a couple 2nds max) to opt for the package involving a 2nd pairing RD, which I can understand. None of the top RD available on July 1st were going to sign here, and the need for one was tremendous. Disappointing we couldn't get something nice along with Jensen but I'm not that upset.

Amadio at 2.6M is solid. He'll be a good 3rd liner for this team. Should have signed him regardless of what we did with Joseph, even though people keep linking the two for some reason.

Don't love Perron at 4M. He's old and declining. Would have much preferred we kept Joseph, not traded the 3rd to dump his contract (which is better than Perron's) and used the extra 1M in cap space to either extend Pinto long-term instead of bridging him, or used the extra money to overpay a decent bottom pairing D like Hakanpaa/Miller to solidify our bottom pair.

I obviously don't love the draft we had. Have been saying for awhile Yakemchuk wasn't the BPA at 7 and the Sens picking him doesn't change my mind on that. Eliasson in the 2nd round and not picking a player under 6'2 is classic Sens. They don't give a crap about hockey IQ and put way too much weight on size, toughness and physicality. Staios was handed this scouting staff and obviously it's difficult to replace them mid-season, so I don't put a ton of blame on him, but if he doesn't replace the scouting staff before next season I certainly will. Time for the dinosaurs to retire after 4 bad drafts in a row.

Overall I'd give him a C. Not great, not terrible, just ok.

 

[aragorn]

I think he has done everything he said he was going to do or needed to do.
1. Acquire a legitimate #1 goalie - Ullmark G
2. Acquire a top 4 RD - Jensen RD
3. Acquire some scoring for the bottom six - Perron RW/LW
4. Acquire bottom six players who are hard to play against - Amadio RW & Gregor C/LW
5. Needed to draft a good young RD - Yakemchuk RD
6. Wanted more size on defence - drafted Eliasson LD
7. Wanted to clear some cap space - traded Joseph LW & Chychrun & didn't re-sign Kelly or Brannstrom
8. Kept an NHL vet to mentor Kleven & JBD - Hamonic RD
9. Needed to re-sigh Pinto an an affordable price - he did that
10. Needed to improve Belleville & make them more competitive - he may have done that too
- and he still has more to do IMO

 

[Micklebot]

Ullmark trade was great value. Don't love trading for him without an extension but dumping Korpisalo in the deal makes it a no brainer move.

Chychrun trade was poor value. Probably passed up better deals involving futures (I"d guess a couple 2nds max) to opt for the package involving a 2nd pairing RD, which I can understand. None of the top RD available on July 1st were going to sign here, and the need for one was tremendous. Disappointing we couldn't get something nice along with Jensen but I'm not that upset.

Amadio at 2.6M is solid. He'll be a good 3rd liner for this team. Should have signed him regardless of what we did with Joseph, even though people keep linking the two for some reason.

Don't love Perron at 4M. He's old and declining. Would have much preferred we kept Joseph, not traded the 3rd to dump his contract (which is better than Perron's) and used the extra 1M in cap space to either extend Pinto long-term instead of bridging him, or used the extra money to overpay a decent bottom pairing D like Hakanpaa/Miller to solidify our bottom pair.

I obviously don't love the draft we had. Have been saying for awhile Yakemchuk wasn't the BPA at 7 and the Sens picking him doesn't change my mind on that. Eliasson in the 2nd round and not picking a player under 6'2 is classic Sens. They don't give a crap about hockey IQ and put way too much weight on size, toughness and physicality. Staios was handed this scouting staff and obviously it's difficult to replace them mid-season, so I don't put a ton of blame on him, but if he doesn't replace the scouting staff before next season I certainly will. Time for the dinosaurs to retire after 4 bad drafts in a row.

Overall I'd give him a C. Not great, not terrible, just ok.

I don't get why people link Perron and Joseph, to me Joseph ties in more with Amadio.

Perron imo will be a good top 9 player. he's smart, good along the boards, and competes hard. No issues with that signing for me.

I agree with you wrt the Chychrun trade, it was probably our best option to get a RHD after all the good options made it clear they were going to sign elsewhere. As much as I'd have preferred to outbid Jersey on Pesce, you can't force a guy to come here. I like Jensen as a fit, and while I'd have loved to get more of a return out of chychrun, the market dictates what you can do, and sometimes your options are take what you can get or don't do anything. the later was not an option imo.

Where I have an issue is the combination of signing Amadio at 2.6 and paying a 3rd to dump Joseph at 2.95. I prefer Amadio by a touch, but I wouldn't trade a 3rd plus Joseph for him, we should have just stuck with Joseph unless there's some underlying rationale that I'm unaware of.

Wrt Yakemchuk at 7oa, while he wasn't my preference, he was absolutely in that range. Two of Bob's scouts had him in the top 5, so even if you assume we were one of them, it's not like this was out of nowhere. He was a valid option, I'd have preferred Silayev though. As for Eliasson, that came out of nowhere for me, but I've been fooled before, so I'll see how it plays out, feels a bit like Pinto who was ranked anywhere from mid 2nd round to late 3rd round when we picked him 32nd, they fell in love with something and grabbed a guy most didn't have that high, time will tell I suppose but I'll give them the benefit of some time before judging.. I loved their picks in the 4th round.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I don't get why people link Perron and Joseph, to me Joseph ties in more with Amadio.

Perron imo will be a good top 9 player. he's smart, good along the boards, and competes hard. No issues with that signing for me.

I agree with you wrt the Chychrun trade, it was probably our best option to get a RHD after all the good options made it clear they were going to sign elsewhere. As much as I'd have preferred to outbid Jersey on Pesce, you can't force a guy to come here. I like Jensen as a fit, and while I'd have loved to get more of a return out of chychrun, the market dictates what you can do, and sometimes your options are take what you can get or don't do anything. the later was not an option imo.

Where I have an issue is the combination of signing Amadio at 2.6 and paying a 3rd to dump Joseph at 2.95. I prefer Amadio by a touch, but I wouldn't trade a 3rd plus Joseph for him, we should have just stuck with Joseph unless there's some underlying rationale that I'm unaware of.

Wrt Yakemchuk at 7oa, while he wasn't my preference, he was absolutely in that range. Two of Bob's scouts had him in the top 5, so even if you assume we were one of them, it's not like this was out of nowhere. He was a valid option, I'd have preferred Silayev though. As for Eliasson, that came out of nowhere for me, but I've been fooled before, so I'll see how it plays out, feels a bit like Pinto who was ranked anywhere from mid 2nd round to late 3rd round when we picked him 32nd, they fell in love with something and grabbed a guy most didn't have that high, time will tell I suppose but I'll give them the benefit of some time before judging.. I loved their picks in the 4th round.

This has to be a "person" thing imo. To pay an asset to dump an almost equal player in cost and position tells me they clearly wanted Amadio in and Joseph out for the people they are.

 

[DueDiligence]

The Joseph deal is the one I simply don't get. There was no deadline to do this.

It's simple. Sens management wanted him gone for reasons we might not ever find out.

 

[aragorn]

I don't get why people link Perron and Joseph, to me Joseph ties in more with Amadio.

Perron imo will be a good top 9 player. he's smart, good along the boards, and competes hard. No issues with that signing for me.

I agree with you wrt the Chychrun trade, it was probably our best option to get a RHD after all the good options made it clear they were going to sign elsewhere. As much as I'd have preferred to outbid Jersey on Pesce, you can't force a guy to come here. I like Jensen as a fit, and while I'd have loved to get more of a return out of chychrun, the market dictates what you can do, and sometimes your options are take what you can get or don't do anything. the later was not an option imo.

Where I have an issue is the combination of signing Amadio at 2.6 and paying a 3rd to dump Joseph at 2.95. I prefer Amadio by a touch, but I wouldn't trade a 3rd plus Joseph for him, we should have just stuck with Joseph unless there's some underlying rationale that I'm unaware of.

Wrt Yakemchuk at 7oa, while he wasn't my preference, he was absolutely in that range. Two of Bob's scouts had him in the top 5, so even if you assume we were one of them, it's not like this was out of nowhere. He was a valid option, I'd have preferred Silayev though. As for Eliasson, that came out of nowhere for me, but I've been fooled before, so I'll see how it plays out, feels a bit like Pinto who was ranked anywhere from mid 2nd round to late 3rd round when we picked him 32nd, they fell in love with something and grabbed a guy most didn't have that high, time will tell I suppose but I'll give them the benefit of some time before judging.. I loved their picks in the 4th round.

Good post. We don't talk about it a lot, but if there was to be a redraft on Pinto IMO he would be a 1st rder now for sure. He's got size, he's well rounded, solid defensively, good at faceoffs & will put up some solid numbers offensively & given he is only 23 yrs old will only improve with time & some added weight/muscle.

 

[bert]

It's simple. Sens management wanted him gone for reasons we might not ever find out.

Thats fine the season doesnt start until October. They arent playing or together right now and they paid alot to get rid of a guy that should have positive trade value. There was no rush to do it. I complimented other concepts and moves they have made. I think its ok to evaluate each move on its own a blanket evaluation isnt necessary. The forward group lacks alot of speed already and they added slow players into the top 9 and took one out. Its concerning.

 

[operasen]

Andlauer is building a brand. He needed to move past Dorian and did so when the time accorded a reason to do so. That allowed for Staios to step in and build that brand. These first two steps should not be marginalized as they have set the tone.

After allowing time to study what was in the basket left by Dorion, DJSmith and company were replaced by JMartin, Alfie and company to install some systems and to give feedback on the viability of the players. Their observations as well should not be marginalized.

After that time elapsed, a new coach and staff was assembled. We need to assume that both sets of coaches (Alfie being on both lists) would have impact into the decision-making tree as to what the specific issues were and the potential solutions to solve them. Now the clock is really ticking.

I think Staios has handled the whole story in a very professional manner. He was able to make the Ullmark trade on a level no-one though would be possible. And getting out from under the Korpisalo debacle was a huge plus.

He was trapped in a system he did not create with long-term core contracts eating up CAP space and an injury situation (NOrris) that is still playing out. Add to that the need to change the chemistry and get the brand established and its easy to see how difficult the whole package was shaping up.

He obviously wanted an experienced RD player now for Chychrun, instead of future draft capital. He made that happen the best way be could. Not the flashiest, but better than the LD/RD mix that existed.

He understood that certain players, while still playing a small part, were not the players he wanted for the Senators brand as they were not improving and often hurting the team as a whole. These are really tough decisions to understand. And he needed the cap space to improve the total group. He understood that they were just not achieving their potential or impacting the team positively and let them go or traded them away for minimal return. I wish Brannstrom, Joseph, and those guys well. Too bad it didn't work out here for whatever reason, but that was on them, not Staios.

He brought in veteran and complementary players to add to the team chemistry. He did this on a shoestring budget that still allowed him to spend appropriately, not splashy. They can be positioned to make a difference.

He handled the Draft and we will see what the fallout is over the next years, but at least we drafted new talent. Yakemchuk should be fun to watch.

He signed Pinto to a reasonable bridge deal. Pinto could very well be our No1 centre. He has become a core producer in the top 6. He makes the possibility of a 1A / 1B scenario as to top lines.

He signed some good talent for Belleville and who knows if any of the Belleville Sens will actually make the Ottawa Sens (Ostapchuk, Crookshank, Jarventie, Gaudette, Guenette, others?).

I am reasonably impressed with the list of accomplishments to date and all accomplished within the quick time-frame that was the last few months. I am sure there is still more to come (Andonovski today). Nice job. Impressive.

​

 

[Micklebot]

This has to be a "person" thing imo. To pay an asset to dump an almost equal player in cost and position tells me they clearly wanted Amadio in and Joseph out for the people they are.

The only other thing I can think of is we identified a need to be harder to play against, and Joseph, while he does bring other elements of value, isn't hard to play against (same reason we moved on from Brannstrom)

 

[Micklebot]

Good post. We don't talk about it a lot, but if there was to be a redraft on Pinto IMO he would be a 1st rder now for sure. He's got size, he's well rounded, solid defensively, good at faceoffs & will put up some solid numbers offensively & given he is only 23 yrs old will only improve with time & some added weight/muscle.

Pinto might have a shot at going top 10 in a redraft, we (myself very much included) all questioned the pick at the time with high skill guys like Kaliyev, Brink and Afanasyev on the board.

Especially in the 2nd round and later, I'm always willing to give a year to see how a player progresses before I pass judgement.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

The only other thing I can think of is we identified a need to be harder to play against, and Joseph, while he does bring other elements of value, isn't hard to play against (same reason we moved on from Brannstrom)

Ya, that seems plausible. I would definitely agree in the context of Brannstrom.

 

[BoardsofCanada]

We all agreed that this team was talented but too soft, and very mistake prone. Staios has addressed this with Ullmark and a few two-way veterans that are going to make us much harder to play.

As good as Chychrun is offensively, he did make a lot of mistakes defensively. Hopefully Jensen is an improvement there. Perron worries me a bit because of his age and foot speed. I don't know much about him but hoping he's a good addition.

What disappointed me was the return for Chychrun and Joseph. I thought Chyc would return a 1st rd. at least. And why we had to attach a 3rd to Joseph, I don't understand. So as good as Staios did with Ullmark, he got raked in the Chychrun and Joseph deals.

I also want to add, I am loving management/ownership's investment in the B Sens. It's great the way they are adding vets to that group. They should be a good team next season and that will help the overall development of guys like Sogaard, Halliday, Andonovski etc.

 

[aragorn]

Pinto might have a shot at going top 10 in a redraft, we (myself very much included) all questioned the pick at the time with high skill guys like Kaliyev, Brink and Afanasyev on the board.

Especially in the 2nd round and later, I'm always willing to give a year to see how a player progresses before I pass judgement.

Agree, Pinto just seems right now anyway to be a much more rounded player, solid defensively for a young guy & opportunistic offensively. He has the size & good defensive play to slow Mathews down especially as he matures & gets stronger & he can play on the PK or PP with that blistering shot from the circles. I won't be suprised if he centres Tkachuk & Batherson again to start next yr but having said that I also see the need to spread the size & talent around.

 

[aragorn]

If there is one thing that this development camp is showing me, it's that they want this team & these players including everyone in their org that they need to improve their compete level & be much harder to play against. They clearly want a bigger team, a tougher team & a team that doesn't take nights off or shifts off & competes for every inch all the time.

 

[Micklebot]

What disappointed me was the return for Chychrun and Joseph. I thought Chyc would return a 1st rd. at least. And why we had to attach a 3rd to Joseph, I don't understand. So as good as Staios did with Ullmark, he got raked in the Chychrun and Joseph deals.

What do you think Jensen would return in a trade? A guy like Savard got a first not that long ago as a pure 20 min a night playoff rental. 2 years of Jensen is worth at the very least a 2nd+ imo.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

What do you think Jensen would return in a trade? A guy like Savard got a first not that long ago as a pure 20 min a night playoff rental. 2 years of Jensen is worth at the very least a 2nd+ imo.

There was some discussion amongst Edmonton fans about shoring up their D with a deadline acquisition after they just cleaned up at forward, and the options likely available were posted... not promising. Consensus was you're probably looking at something like a 1st for Savard again this year with such slim pickings. I'd think the same could apply to Jensen, especially if he were dealt this year with a reasonable AAV 2nd year attached.

 

[Stylizer1]

Bust until proven otherwise.

 

[Flamingo]

I'm just surprised that a lifelong Habs fan buys an NHL club and builds it like it has to compete in the Western Conference in the 2000s.

 

[DueDiligence]

The only other thing I can think of is we identified a need to be harder to play against, and Joseph, while he does bring other elements of value, isn't hard to play against (same reason we moved on from Brannstrom)

The thing I noticed most about Joseph was how inconsistent he was . On his good days he looked like a sure second liner and on his bad he looked like a barely passable 4th liner. Certainly a lack of focus and commitment.

 

[thinkwild]

I feel if I were to vote: 3- coulda done better, I guess i would mean- I wish we could have got more. Reality failed to live up to my wishes? Therefore the issue is that Staios could have done better, not that I could have evaluated more realistically.

I don’t think there has to be some character issue that applies to Joseph, it is just that the new guys have identified certain characteristics that are more important to them for building a winner.

We need to get off to a good start this year. Im not sure we should hang on to players the new management wants to move on from just in the hopes that maybe if we wait we can get a better offer.

Is getting a 5th rounder say, instead of paying a 3rd rounder way better asset management that is more important to optimize than giving a new identity a chance to get off to a good start?

Chyc is about to get 8 years and more than $7mil. I don’t think we want to do that. We could do it just in the hopes that then maybe finally someone will pay a 1st for him within the next couple of years. But doing that in the name of asset management seems to miss the bigger more important picture of team building. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn.

I’m not sure pointing to a failure to maximize “asset management” based on what we wished market value and our leverage would be is necessarily highlighting a failure to do what’s best for the org. It’s only a part of the picture and not always the most important part.

 

[Boud]

I'm fine with everything other than the Joseph trade that was very odd because he's one of those players that actually gives full effort every night. Must've been something else with him that they decided to give assets to unload him because it doesn't make any sense.

Amadio is fine.
Gregor is a good add.
Ullmark is a great add if we can re-sign him. If not then it's a late 1st for 1 year of a starting goalie which is meh given we might have to start over in the offseason.
Coaching is impossible to judge now but seems like a average to below average selection from the pool of available coaches.

Roster still lacking depth for the 4th line and bottom pairing so hope he will fix that.

 

[Tuna99]

I don't get why people link Perron and Joseph, to me Joseph ties in more with Amadio.

Perron imo will be a good top 9 player. he's smart, good along the boards, and competes hard. No issues with that signing for me.

I agree with you wrt the Chychrun trade, it was probably our best option to get a RHD after all the good options made it clear they were going to sign elsewhere. As much as I'd have preferred to outbid Jersey on Pesce, you can't force a guy to come here. I like Jensen as a fit, and while I'd have loved to get more of a return out of chychrun, the market dictates what you can do, and sometimes your options are take what you can get or don't do anything. the later was not an option imo.

Where I have an issue is the combination of signing Amadio at 2.6 and paying a 3rd to dump Joseph at 2.95. I prefer Amadio by a touch, but I wouldn't trade a 3rd plus Joseph for him, we should have just stuck with Joseph unless there's some underlying rationale that I'm unaware of.

Wrt Yakemchuk at 7oa, while he wasn't my preference, he was absolutely in that range. Two of Bob's scouts had him in the top 5, so even if you assume we were one of them, it's not like this was out of nowhere. He was a valid option, I'd have preferred Silayev though. As for Eliasson, that came out of nowhere for me, but I've been fooled before, so I'll see how it plays out, feels a bit like Pinto who was ranked anywhere from mid 2nd round to late 3rd round when we picked him 32nd, they fell in love with something and grabbed a guy most didn't have that high, time will tell I suppose but I'll give them the benefit of some time before judging.. I loved their picks in the 4th round.

I think Staois sees he can realistically path to build a team that can have a .575 win percentage and make the playoffs. I don’t think he’s trying to build a team that plays at .600% and 100 points - all these acquisitions are to have a lineup that will battle for every puck and be a team that makes the the playoffs by limiting shots, good PK, with just enough scoring and a goalie is the star of the team.

my main concern is offense from the blue line and do we have enough guys that get pucks on net

 

[The Expert]

Would have gone with 3.5 but went with 3.

 

[DrEasy]

I'm fine with everything other than the Joseph trade that was very odd because he's one of those players that actually gives full effort every night. Must've been something else with him that they decided to give assets to unload him because it doesn't make any sense.

Amadio is fine.
Gregor is a good add.
Ullmark is a great add if we can re-sign him. If not then it's a late 1st for 1 year of a starting goalie which is meh given we might have to start over in the offseason.
Coaching is impossible to judge now but seems like a average to below average selection from the pool of available coaches.

Roster still lacking depth for the 4th line and bottom pairing so hope he will fix that.

Yeah, if we can't extend Ullmark we better make the playoffs this year at least.