You know as dumb as it sounds because it presumes Melnyk has some foresight, I think Melnyk knows he's on very thin ice with the league and the fans. The ice is obviously already cracked wide open with the fans, but I think he's saving as much money as he can right now, and I also think he knows that he has to deliver FYOUS. Otherwise he loses the team and all of Ottawa, and becomes an even bigger clown (if possible...).
If we don't start spending more in a year from now, a big rage will begin. Bigger than we've seen before. What we've seen so far is nothing. Boycott? Public bashing of Melnyk? That's nothing compared to what we would see. People would go bananas. All that goes hand in hand with re-signing Chabot. Chabot-Brannstrom-Thomson-Wolanin-JBD-Jaros-Lajoie has the potential to be a top 3 D core in the league. If we get a bluechip forward prospect and start spending, we can actually be the best team we've ever been if we spend close to the cap. And yes, I'm including the 01-07 teams, this version of the Sens can be deeper than all of those squads.
The team is set up perfectly to succeed imo. There are ZERO bad contracts on the books in the long term for us, and lots of good prospects. Lots of future NHLers. Some will most likely be used to move up and get better draft picks, because there's just too much depth. Just one bluechip forward missing, and you know what, if Brown pans out, that one isn't even necessary.