Lmao I love spano

I know folks like to blame everything on Melynk for demise of the Sens. A few years ago they were in the Conference Finals...no real complaints about their on ice product. Then they made the Duchene trade to improve the team...well they didn't quite work, but it wasn't because of cheapness.
Three upcoming UFAs Karlsson, Duchene, Stone weren't helping the Sens in the standings, and they wanted the options of being UFAs. Can't blame Melnyk for trading three outgoing UFAs on a unsuccessful team and the Sens certainly did OK in those trades.
Might be the Sharks were regret signing Karlsson for so much, and in time even Vegas might have regrets with long term Stone.
IMO the Sens did the right thing this year by not overpaying for UFAs. Sens will have the option of signing their own RFAs with cap money. Plus the Sens have lots of picks/prosepects from those three trades. Now if Melynk continue to be cheap, yea there is point of blaming cheap Melynk for the Sens continuing low standings. But right now, he looks like he doing a proper rebuild.

Wanna blame Melynk for being cheap fine. I would suggest more paying fans fill or near fill the arena, or are the fans being cheap by not buying tickets. Yea it's the chicken and the egg.

I hear this sentiment a lot. The sens were sucking, so why not trade their assets on expiring deals for younger players, prospects, and picks. In theory this is not a bad idea, unless you are the current Ottawa Senators. Melnyk has shown that he is not willing to spend money, and actively tries to shed it in pointless deals. He even said we will spend "close to the cap" in the upcoming era of unprecedented success, not to the cap, which is what a team aspiring for unprecedented success should do. And what happens when in all likelihood, the Senators are not perennial cup contenders? The excuse gets recycled, and they slide to the bottom of the barrel again. An effective rebuild should not involve shipping off your mid 20's superstars for picks because you had a bad season and they are due for a contract. It's not easy to win a cup, so most teams will probably go through a couple re builds before even getting a chance. Despite Ottawa's nice stockpile of assets, the way this rebuild started has left a sour taste in many sens fans' mouths due to the work of Melnyk and his trusty puppet.

Melnyk also said "he plans for the Senators to spend close to the NHL's salary cap every year for a five-year run from 2021-25." This means he intends to start a rebuild in 2025-26.

To be faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiirrr

The Leafs didn't understand that draft picks were important until like 2012. Doesn't matter how much you're willing to spend if you have no young players coming up

I've been critical of Leaf management for decades except for few brief spurts. The end of the Quinn era, Ferguson, Burke never had any appreciation of the cap or the development of young players. Now I don't what Leaf management Shanahan and his high price executives were doing when they let young Dubas be railroaded with those 3 big overpays on the RFAs deals. And Babcock...a terrible game manager and now I think the team is so turned off by his ineffectiveness, it's a bad situation for the Leafs resulting in all likelihood missing the playoffs this year.

I will speak only of the current regime since I'm actively repressing the memories of years passed.

1) This is likely Babcocks last season unless the buds go deep in the playoffs so he'll likely prove you wrong or you'll get your way. Congrats on the win-win scenario! #Keefe2020

2) I don't think Dubas got "railroaded" per se. The results are controversial as they stand today and will all depend on how the big 3 develop in the coming years and how much the cap is expected to rise. With new TV deals and additional revenue streams, there's a chance it goes way up and these contracts start looking like more of a bargain as the years go on. Since Pridham (the guy who wrote the salary cap rules) is the AGM I'm guessing that's why they were only willing to go long term on those deals.

3) Nylander is worth his contract already, In a world where Kevin Hayes exists this should be straightforward but feelings are still hurt from last season

4) Matthews is still the youngest player on the team and is easily leading them in goals. Imagine how good he will be in a few years. People are upset that he only signed for 5 years (which, and this is true, is half a decade) and had the 2nd highest cap hit in the league when he signed it. Based on previous results and his potential for growth, the contract makes sense. It's quite possible (and hear me out!) there are elite players who signed for far less than they were worth *points to Mackinnon* and we shouldn't expect our players to make the same horrible decisions.

5) Marner definitely got overpaid by at least a million. No doubt he's elite but the Tavares-effect tends to get players far too much on their next contract. Hopefully the rise in cap makes this overpay tolerable.

6) There are no terrible/dead contracts on this team that go into next season. I rather have a cumulative overpay (which is debatable) on Matthews, Nylander and Marner than one David Backes, Bobby Ryan, Milan Lucic, Andrew Ladd, Loui Eriksson, Brent Seabrook etc.

Sorry, I disagree with your theory on the Leafs RFA signings. By all league comparable the Leafs overpaid. All types of comparables were evident by somehow the Leafs management thought it was OK to make Matthews the second highest paid player in the league...with maximum term. Marner the second highest RWer. Doesn't really matter about future revenues streams....it's the current comparables that were relevant. I've been waiting for decades for a big bump in revenues. Hasn't really happened yet and no reason to think their is going to much of boost in the near future.
Not that 4.5m overpay for those three RFAs is crippling. But it sure prevented the Leafs from adding a competent Dman this season. You're right the Leafs don't have many "dead money" contracts...well besides Kessel at 1.2m
Sure you might want to make Hayes a comparison....but Hayes is overpaid and was UFA and is year later than Nylander so you are kinda proving my point. Dylan Larkin signed for 6.15m X 5 two summers ago. That was closer to Nylander comparison. Aho of Carolina and Marner had near identical stats for two seasons and Aho signed 8.5m X 5. No way a Leaf fanatic or Dubas can justify almost 11m X 6 for Marner.

I've been on the Babcock incompetence for years. He is a terrible game manager. It's not a question of me "getting my way" with the firing of Babcock. He is just a detriment to the success of the team.
Unfortunately it appears like Babcock's boss...its Shanahan, and Shanahan's executives are in retirement mode. They hired their staff, and it would look like they made a mistake if they had to fire someone they hired.

Regarding comparables is it not widely accepted that both those players (Aho and Larkin) sold themselves short? The Aho offersheet was matched immediately for a reason and you hope Larkin at least got a gift card to Little Caesar's for taking that haircut

It's not just about this years cap hit, there are many ways Dubas could have created space for the roster in the short term but he chose to keep the future in mind when he made those signings while considering the expected year over year rise of the salary cap. it's worth noting that this year the cap didn't rise by as much as expected, something Dubas (and no one else for that matter) could have foreseen at the point Matthews signed his contract. Nevertheless the cap rises year over year at a pretty good rate (it's risen 8.5 million since Matthews joined the team and as previous stated he's the youngest player on the team!) so these contracts are going to look better and better as time moves forward assuming they continue to develop. Most of the RFAs this summer signed short term, by not doing the same, Dubas may have put the Leafs in a very favourable position down the road.

There are plenty of things Babcock does that I don't agree with but he is without a doubt the best coach the Leafs have had since Pat Quinn and was a major reason for the positive change in culture in that dressing room.

We're all disappointed right now because we have high expectations that aren't being met, but there's a reason why we have high expecations. Don't lose sight of that