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Senators general manager Pierre Dorion appeared on TSN 1200\u2019s \u2018TGOR\u2019 Monday morning as part of the organization\u2019s annual preseason media tour.<\/p>\n
The other day I took a look at his comments and those made by the Senators\u2019 new COO, Nicolas Ruszkowski, during their appearance on CBC Radio\u2019s Ottawa Morning, which you can read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The format is straightforward. I\u2019ve embedded the audio of the entire interview at the bottom of this post, but a full transcripton of Dorion\u2019s comments can be read below.<\/p>\n As always, I\u2019ve included my thoughts in bold<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Enjoy.<\/p>\n On why Dorion failed to make appearances on the radio station last season\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI think from our side of things, we knew that our season wasn\u2019t going very well and we just felt that it was probably the right thing to not pile on with our lack of success. For that, I think, myself as a second-year GM, I learned a lot from it. I think you have to let your fans know what is going on through your head as a hockey operations group and we definitely learned from it. I can tell you whether it\u2019s good or bad, I think we have a lot of passionate fans and we have to inform. We have to inform them of the route we are taking. I know this isn\u2019t the popular choice as far as a rebuild, but at the same time, us being available \u2013 not on a daily basis but on a more frequent basis \u2013 is definitely something that we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting to hear Dorion speak on this point because at last spring\u2019s town hall sessions, the organization made a concerted effort to blame the media for their portrayal of the news and the developments that occurred during the course of the season. Terry Marcotte, in particular, was singled out for breaking news the Senators were looking to leverage Karlsson\u2019s availability in an effort to dump the remaining term and dollars left on Bobby Ryan\u2019s contract.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Senators finished with one of the worst records in the NHL last season, so it\u2019s not really surprising for the team to receive criticism in the press or on social media\u2013 especially since a lot of the damage was self-inflicted.<\/strong><\/p>\n As Mike Kelly illustrated in a piece today and a number of individuals have pointed out over the last two years, there have been a number of easily identifiable indicators illustrating that last year\u2019s success and Eastern Conference Final appearance may have been a high water mark, but it wasn\u2019t truly indicative of the team\u2019s talent level.<\/strong><\/p>\n This team painted itself into a corner by making easily avoidable mistakes that were principally driven by the owner\u2019s desire to make the more competitive, sell more tickets and maximize the revenue streams.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fans can absolutely get behind the premise of a rebuild, but I think where the struggle will be is the organization convincing fans that they have the wherewithal to actually build a sustainable winner.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to ignore the nagging suspicion that the owner, who admitted that he cut the front office to the bone and threatened to do the same with the players if attendance didn\u2019t improve, is onboard with a massive shift in philosophy simply because the team sees it as the path to contention. Maybe it\u2019s more than coincidence that the team is cutting back payroll with an escalating cap, Melnyk\u2019s designs of seeing things through to LeBreton\u2019s redevelopment and a work stoppage possibly being around the corner. The concern is that this rebuild is simply a disguise for the organization to cut costs everywhere, lower the expectations of this fan base and allow Melnyk to bank as much revenue as he can.<\/strong><\/p>\n On how hard it was to trade Erik Karlsson and why they did it\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI thought we were going to talk about (Daniel) Carlsson, the kicker who missed the two field goals yesterday. You know what, these decisions aren\u2019t taken lightly. We drafted Erik Karlsson as a 5\u201910\u201d, 157 lb. defenceman a long time ago \u2013 over 10 years ago \u2013 and this was not a decision that was taken lightly. But for the benefit of our organization, it\u2019s something that we felt we had to do in a rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea of trading Erik Karlsson to help the rebuild makes sense if Karlsson was moved for a return that included some high-upside return that the organization could actually build around as a foundational piece. With six assets, the Senators acquired quantity, but they failed to acquire safely projectable upside. The two prospects they acquired are considered mid-tier prospects and the two draft picks they acquired are nice, but may not necessarily translate into the kind of high-end prospects that this organization desperately needs at a juncture where the team doesn\u2019t own its 2019 first rounder.<\/strong><\/p>\n Chris Tierney may be an alright depth player who can slide into the top-six now that Jean-Gabriel Pageau is out for the foreseeable future with an Achilles injury, but when the team is projected to be bad, who gets excited over adding depth players to the parent NHL roster? <\/strong><\/p>\n DeMelo was an unrestricted free agent that the Senators could have signed for literally just money two months ago. <\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe some fans want to see some assets that can play right away, but if they\u2019re not of the high-upside variety, who really cares? It\u2019s not like this team has struggled to draft or develop third liners or depth defencemen. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n On whether this is a quantity over quality trade and whether there was ever an opportunity to get more quality\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cNo, obviously we try to get quality pieces. We feel we\u2019ve gotten the quality pieces in a guy like Chris Tierney, a guy like Josh Norris and hopefully down the road in a guy like Rudolfs Balcers. Also, we think the first rounder, whomever it might be in 2019 or 2020, will be a quality piece down the road. Obviously there have been names thrown around\u2026 when we tried to acquire Matt Duchene, we told them that there were five guys that were off the table. You can figure out who they are \u2013 Chabot, White, Brown, Batherson and Formenton. In their case, there really was one younger player off the table. I won\u2019t say his name, but it was a non-starter for them. And when discussing with other teams, it was a similar case. A lot of teams had maybe one or two non-starters. For the fact, what was difficult is we gave permission to some teams to talk to Erik about a contract extension and at that point in time, Erik didn\u2019t seem that he was interested in talking to a number of teams about a contract situation. It almost became that this was a rental type of deal with a possibility if they ever signed him that we got other pieces in the deal and that\u2019s how he we tried to build this deal with a lot of teams.\u201d<\/p>\n The assumption is that the player Dorion is referring to is Timo Meier. Considering the \u201ccharacter<\/a>\u201d questions that hampered Ryan Merkley\u2019s draft value, there\u2019s not a chance the Senators would consider bringing him into the fold.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s not a surprise to see Dorion throw the Karlsson camp under the bus for not helping the Senators out by agreeing to negotiate with interested teams. The Senators were never going to come out ahead in a hockey deal or in terms of the optics. By hanging the poor return on Karlsson\u2019s unwillingness to negotiate, Dorion\u2019s essentially trying to relieve the organization from blame. Fans will see through this. <\/strong><\/p>\n On whether it bothers Dorion that there could be a lot of misinformation out there in regards to returns and how it could make him look bad if a rumoured return is not fetched\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWithout a doubt it\u2019s frustrating because you know if ever a certain name would be put on the table, you wouldn\u2019t hesitate to make a deal. There would be no doubt from our side of things, but the lack of sometimes credible information that\u2019s put out there and that\u2019s (the world) where we live in \u2013 the social media world that\u2019s expanded from where it was two or three years ago to where it is now. It becomes frustrating because people say, \u2018Well, you got to do this and do this,\u2019 well obviously it\u2019s not always the case. So it\u2019s frustrating, but we feel we\u2019re really happy with this return. Watching Chris Tierney yesterday make four or five great, underrated hockey sense plays\u2026 his chemistry two days ago with Stone and Tkachuk \u2013 first time playing together. The intention is for them to play as a line on Wednesday when we play the Leafs, but that could change as the game goes on, but we\u2019re really happy with Chris Tierney in our future lineup for the next three years. We control\u2026 he\u2019s got two years (left) on his contract and then an extra RFA year being a July 1st<\/sup> birthday. So we\u2019re really happy with that return. We\u2019re really happy with a guy like Josh Norris who was a big part of the World Junior team last year and a big part of Michigan. (He\u2019s) a high character player and the way that the game is going, a great skater and a (guy with) a great shot. We\u2019re happy that when he\u2019s in our lineup, he\u2019s someone who\u2019s going to be able to help us win. We\u2019re happy with the return on Ruldofs Balcers. He was their best prospect on their farm team. We feel that we got their best prospect outside the NHL as far as in the junior ranks or amateur ranks in Josh Norris and we feel we got their best prospect (off) their farm team. And at the same time, we feel we got two players that are going to help us win this year in Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo. And on top of that, you add a first and a second (round pick). We think San Jose is going to make the playoffs this year, but it\u2019s a high second. If they miss the playoffs, it could be a (lottery) pick. So we\u2019re happy with this return and if they sign (Karlsson), we get another pick. So all these pieces put together, we\u2019re really happy with the return. Sometimes\u2026 it\u2019s unfortunate that Josh Norris is not at his peak because then maybe fans would be more excited, but watch Josh Norris play for the World Junior team \u2013 for the American team \u2013 this year. Our scouts saw him in the summer and they felt he took a huge step. Not just a little step, but a huge step and whether he\u2019s a second or third line guy or whether he\u2019s a seventh forward or a fourth forward, we feel comfortable he\u2019ll be a good player for us.\u201d<\/p>\n The saddest part of the offseason isn\u2019t that Erik Karlsson got traded, it\u2019s that Dorion\u2019s referencing a few subtle plays in training camp to play up Tierney\u2019s value. Tierney\u2019s a fine player, but in a rebuild, he\u2019s exactly the kind of asset that the Senators should be looking to inflate his value and flip to maximize his value. Obviously with Jean-Gabriel Pageau on the shelf, the Senators will have the opportunity to play Tierney with some decent forwards and on special teams. With any good fortune, his offensive numbers will be boosted and management could procure more assets that could help the Senators\u2019 rebuild efforts.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Senators did not get a Norris Trophy winner in exchange for Erik Karlsson, but they did get a Norris.<\/strong><\/p>\n Stop me if you have heard this before, but Josh Norris is just the latest in a laundry list of prospects that the Senators have who has two-way upside. Like a number of the Senators\u2019 other forwards like Alex Formenton and Colin White, there are concerns that the offence may not play up at the highest level to allow him to play in a top-six role.<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing wrong with drafting or developing good third line players, but for the Senators\u2019 rebuild to ultimately be successful and take a lot of the pressure off of management, the Senators will need to procure some elite prospects to build around. <\/strong><\/p>\n On whether the team\u2019s other impending UFAs will be moved out in the name of a rebuild\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve identified core veteran players that we\u2019d like to keep as part of the rebuild. You just can\u2019t put a bunch of kids in a rebuild or else it\u2019ll be a total failure because a lot of the kids or good prospects can\u2019t just be put in the lineup without a good surrounding cast. So obviously a lot of the pending UFAs, if you look at Stone, Duchene, Dzingel, Wideman or Paajarvi (?), whatever role they might be moving forward, of course we\u2019d like to keep them. I think everyone knew that we had this big task that we had to do in trading Erik Karlsson, but at the same time, we know that we have to keep some veteran guys. We were close on a very long-term contract with Mark Stone. Very close and it didn\u2019t turn out, but we knew that we had from January on until the end of the (season) to try and sign him and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to try and do.\u201d<\/p>\n The pitfalls of a rebuild are more difficult under the current CBA. Not only do players test unrestricted earlier than ever before, players coming off entry-level contracts make more money faster than they ever have, meaning there is a lot of pressure on management groups to not only identify who they want to move forward with, but ensure that these players are supported properly with the right mix of players. Teams that overpay for past performance and intangibles or teams that misidentify core players are destined for problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n For a team with limited resources like the Senators, it\u2019s imperative that the team finds way to help mitigate these problems. No teams or executives have unblemished records, but the Senators simply have to do a better job of identifying and recognizing problems before they start. The impulsive tendencies of their owner have helped lead to personnel decisions that were easily identifiable and ignored all the inherent risks and because of it, management and ownership are complicit for putting this team in an unenviable position. But, rather than accept responsibility for it, the organization is placing the blame on the Karlsson contract negotiations at Erik\u2019s doorstep.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now without Karlsson in tow, it\u2019s easy to look at the situations of Mark Stone and Matt Duchene and wonder why they would ever want to stay here under the current circumstances. After the bitter departures of likeable veterans like Karlsson and Turris, who have helped shine a light<\/a> on how much influence ownership has on the hockey operations decisions, why would they want to stay? <\/strong><\/p>\n On Mark Stone being wide open to the idea of signing a long-term extension\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cMark Stone? Mark Stone is wide open to it. I\u2019d rather you hear it from him than from me. I think that\u2019s more accurate and fair. I\u2019ll speak on behalf of the Ottawa Senators\u2019 hockey operations (department) and we\u2019ll let Mark Stone speak on his behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep in mind that management had encouraging words at this time last year about a contract extension for Kyle Turris. Now with Karlsson having moved on, it\u2019s easy to wonder why Stone would want to stay if everyone with any high-end skill is headed out the door. By the time the team\u2019s competitive again, Stone will be leaving his prime. <\/strong><\/p>\n