Post by Ottawa Senators on Aug 8, 2023 12:07:06 GMT -6
This offseason has been no shortage of slacking off for GM Mike Bell. After a dissapointing end to the season that saw Ottawa poised to be the overall No.1 team and president cup champion to a near collapse and sliding out of that 1st overall position to a quick exit in the 2nd round at the hand of the Cinderella team of Colombus, it was clear that priority No.1 was to solidify the defensive core with more experience. So GM Mike Bell got on the phone and tried but to no avail in getting a Dman. The market was to expensive in assets being demanded at that point.
Then came the draft and that 5 million dollar 2nd round draft pick. The bank account was fat and with this year draft being one of the deepest and most promising in years, GM Mike Bell decided to add to the futur in purchasing picks which got us some great promising prospects for the futur.
Then came the UFA market which we knew from experience that it was going to be crazy and oh boy did it not dissapoint. We had our bank account to help and we weren't going to come out of that UFA market without a defenseman. We had our sight set on one defenseman in particular, namely Jacob Slavin, still in his Prime at 29 years of age with a 78PO and after a 6 million offer with a massive 10 million dollar SB (to help bring the annual salary down for futur cap purposes), he accepted a 4 year deal to come play in Ottawa.
Then came a surprise and a trade, that sent highly touted prospect defenseman Kevin Korchinsky to Ottawa, which now pretty much gives us 2 of the best upcoming prospects of offensive defenseman in the league at the moment with Pavel Mintyukov.
After a successful past year, we have no less than 5 UFA's this year who we will be looking to either sign or move. Saddly we won't be able to keep everyone due to cap purposes and GM Mike Bell will not sacrifice the futur of this team. We believe we have the pieces to go deep in the playoffs and with the likes of Beniers and Tolvanen getting more ice time, we will have no choice but to move some of the big names on our team.
To summarize this offseason spending, no more than close to 15 million dollars has been spent for both futur and immediate help. This will be an interesting year in Ottawa.
Then came the draft and that 5 million dollar 2nd round draft pick. The bank account was fat and with this year draft being one of the deepest and most promising in years, GM Mike Bell decided to add to the futur in purchasing picks which got us some great promising prospects for the futur.
Then came the UFA market which we knew from experience that it was going to be crazy and oh boy did it not dissapoint. We had our bank account to help and we weren't going to come out of that UFA market without a defenseman. We had our sight set on one defenseman in particular, namely Jacob Slavin, still in his Prime at 29 years of age with a 78PO and after a 6 million offer with a massive 10 million dollar SB (to help bring the annual salary down for futur cap purposes), he accepted a 4 year deal to come play in Ottawa.
Then came a surprise and a trade, that sent highly touted prospect defenseman Kevin Korchinsky to Ottawa, which now pretty much gives us 2 of the best upcoming prospects of offensive defenseman in the league at the moment with Pavel Mintyukov.
After a successful past year, we have no less than 5 UFA's this year who we will be looking to either sign or move. Saddly we won't be able to keep everyone due to cap purposes and GM Mike Bell will not sacrifice the futur of this team. We believe we have the pieces to go deep in the playoffs and with the likes of Beniers and Tolvanen getting more ice time, we will have no choice but to move some of the big names on our team.
To summarize this offseason spending, no more than close to 15 million dollars has been spent for both futur and immediate help. This will be an interesting year in Ottawa.
