It has not even been a week since the request for proposal submissions were made to the NCC for the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats, but we have already seen the mayor express disappointment with the number of submissions, Eugene Melnyk question the credibility of the competing DCDLS proposal for including an arena in its submission and now, a citizen and investigative researcher has formally launched a complaint “with the Competition Bureau over the LeBreton Flats redevelopment, raising concerns about collusion between the two competing teams and the secrecy of the process.”
In other words, this process has provoked the most Ottawa-esque reaction possible.
Yes, according to the Ottawa Citizen, a researcher named Ken Rubin has filed a complaint “raising concerns about collusion between the two competing teams and the secrecy of the process.”
I mean, sure, it’d be great if the world had a lot more transparency and you could fish the truth out of people.
I’d probably start by asking questions like, “Mr. Murray, what were the reasons behind or how does one even go about offering Jared Cowen an eight-year contract extension?” or “Bryan, on a scale of one to ten, how many times does Mr. Melnyk call you concerning trade proposals that he read about on Hfboards? Wink if it’s a ten.”
So yeah, it’d great if there was more transparency involved and the NCC provided insight on why other prospective bidders, four of whom were invited to submit RFP proposals after the RFQ submissions, failed to submit bids.
But, collusion?
I’m not buying it.
Even writing this, I don’t really want to give Rubin more attention than he deserves (but if you’re really interested in learning more about him, you can do that by reading this), especially since he admitted that he has no evidence of collusion and in an interview last week, Melnyk seemed to be genuinely surprised (and irked) that DCDLS would even include an arena in their proposal.
Like Melnyk, I believe that the presence of an arena in each of the respective proposals should not be seen as collusion, it should probably be viewed as a threat to Melnyk’s future as the owner of the Ottawa Senators.
“I’ll be honest with you and I didn’t say this in the scrum, but to be honest with you, it to me was more disappointing because I know they’re lying. It’s as simple as that. Whether it’s in their submission, I have no clue. I don’t know. I didn’t see their submission and certainly, whomever leaked this, shame on them because it’s totally misleading. If I really press this really hard, I could but I don’t want to see them disqualified because frankly, they could be disqualified for this. You can’t go out and say something just simply isn’t… I’ll be honest, (it’s) a lie: a) you need a hockey team. This one is not for sale nor will it ever be. Not in my lifetime and I don’t think the kids want to give it up either. Then okay, so you don’t have a hockey team, but you want to build an NHL arena? So I call Gary Bettman up and I said, ‘Are we awarding another franchise to Ottawa that I don’t know about?’ It’s impossible. You can’t. There can only be one team in Ottawa and commercially, I don’t know what they’re thinking. But there’s not going to be two… they’re can’t be two teams without me. And I haven’t had any talks with anyone. I’m not interested in talking to anyone and I certainly wouldn’t play in that building because we don’t control the building.”
If this is how the first few days are going, just imagine how the next few months and years are going to play out regarding LeBreton. Good lord.
Dzingel All the Way to Ottawa
Thanks to Bobby Ryan reaggravating an injury to his broken finger, the Senators announced this morning that Ryan Dzingel has been recalled from Binghamton.
Dzingel was one of Ottawa’s seventh round selections (204th overall) in the 2011 NHL Draft. Interestingly, only seven players were drafted after Dzingel in that draft and one of those players just happens to be Ondrej Palat.
Dzingel has never appeared or earned an honorable mentionable in one of ESPN Insider’s Corey Pronman top 10 prospects lists for the Senators since his draft year, but give credit where it’s due, he has made significant progress as a player in each year since turning pro.
The 23-year old Dzingel, who leads Binghamton in scoring (seven goals and 22 points in 26 games), should make his NHL debut tomorrow night against the Florida Panthers. If he draws into the lineup, he will mark the seventh of Ottawa’s ten 2011 draft selections to play in an NHL game.
Other New and Notes…
– Speaking of ESPN Insider’s Corey Pronman, he reviewed and provided scouting notes (note: paywall) for each member of Team Canada before the start of the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championship and he had this to say about Senators defensive prospect Thomas Chabot:
“I’ve been slow to jump on the ‘Chabot is a top-end prospect’ bandwagon. But I’m much more on board now, in particular due to his improved defensive play this season, though he remains an offensively tilted kind of guy. Chabot’s skating is ridiculously good. Combined with his offensive IQ, he gains the zone off the rush with high frequency, and can be an offensive catalyst for this squad.”
Nails, much?
– Mark Borowiecki will not have a disciplinary hearing for yesterday’s hit on Brian Boyle.
– No update has been provided on Cody Ceci’s undisclosed upper body injury that he sustained during yesterday’s game. He may not dress for tomorrow’s game, which would see Jared Cowen draw back in.
– The 36:34 that Erik Karlsson played in yesterday’s game set a new NHL regular season high for the 2015-16 season. It smashed Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s mark of 33:46 and bested Karlsson’s previous high of 33:15 by more than three minutes.
– In light of the injuries and how exhausted the players must have been after that game, coupled with the fact that the team could easily look ahead to the holiday season, Tuesday’s game against the Panthers has a big two points on the line. It feels odd to say that considering how early it is in the season, but with the Atlantic Division as congested as it is, and with teams like the Lightning and Panthers gaining ground on those above them, Ottawa could wind up outside the playoff picture shortly.
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