would take 9 of 9 from the flames

Nice team....But how you're going to pay the RFAs next season.

Would be solid, but there's little to no chance that Stone would have ended up extending. Pageau probably would have though!

I know it's really unfortunate Stone didn't want that. This was his team to take if he wanted. And out of the 3 big UFAs we had that season, Stone was the one guy I genuinely thought would stay. The fact we didn't get much of a return for what I believe is a top 10 player in the league just hurts even more. Thats a trade I won't get over any time soon.

not to mention Zibanejad

Our RFAs are not going be like Toronto's and demand the world!

Honestly I’m happy with Greig. Would take his 3 years of upcoming ELC over paying Pageau that much for that long.

Stone trade I wish I could take back but he didn’t wanna stay thru a rebuild, even though it would’ve been a short one had he stayed

Thanks for not answering the question. You don't think Tzachuk, and Batherson won't want fair value on their next contracts?

Tkachuk hasn’t surpassed 60pts yet so you might be able to lock him for 8 x 8.

Batherson maybe 6 x 6.75

I'm not as regretful about the Zibanejad trade as most other people are. At the time, yes Zibanejad was improving points wise every season, but it really felt like he was plateauing. He was very inconsistent and showed up to camp every year out of shape. The sens were tired of being a bubble team and wanted a more experienced top 6 centre, and desperately wanted a left handed centre.

The two years that Brassard played for Ottawa, I think he was better than Mika's first two years in New York. Big game Brass was also a massive part in their playoff in 2017 and that run was the best hockey memory for a lot of Sens fans and I wouldn't trade that run for anything.

While it looks bad now because Brassard is not nearly the same quality player as Zibanejad, we traded Brassard when he was still pretty good and got one of our best goalie prospects in Gustavsson and Thomas Chabot's future D partner, JBD, in return.

So yeah, that trade doesn't haunt me. Also who knows if Zibanejad would've broke out like that in Ottawa. It took 3 years after being traded. A lot of things could be different

I agree with Tkachuk at 8x8. But I don't think he'll get more than 8 so if anything it'll be lower.

And Batherson has been my guy since juniors but I think he'll take less than 6.75. I was thinking more 6 x 5.5. He'd play for free if he had to

Yeah I know the Pageau move made sense, especially at the time when it seemed like that pick would be a lot higher than it ended being (though I do like Greig). But just thinking how well these two guys would fit on this team right now hurts a little

Thanks for answering. Yep the Sens could be caught in a tsunami of RFAs signings, which might lead to future cap problems. Not that there is anything wrong with that.....if the signings are fair. Just means you have too many good young players. I've maintained that the Leafs overpaid their 3 young RFASs 4.5m too much. Sure wish the Leafs had that cap

That's some revisionist history about how things went down. The Summer before that season when he was still an RFA, Stone's camp was reported to want a long term deal, but the Sens weren't really playing ball. He ended up filing for Arbitration, but they got the deal done the day before. Stone's number heading into Arbitration was 9mil, which mean he was really expecting way less because that's how Arbitration works. The Sens not only could have had Stone on a long term deal, they probably could have had him for below 9mil.

I'm happy with where the Sens rebuild has gone up to this point, but until they win the Cup, the Mark Stone trade will always be an unjustifiable mistake to me. He should be wearing the C in Ottawa right now.

We could’ve got Lundell or Askarov if Isles didn’t make the play in 😩

Yeah, big loss of a very underrated player. I kind of see Batherson as a potential Stone 2.0. I love watching him play.

I love Batherson, but he won't be close. I understand from a stylistic perspective, but Mark Stone is arguably the best winger in the league, and a top 5-10 player in the League. I think Batherson can be a consistent 30/60 guy, but Sens fans are way too eager to throw around comparisons to Stone.

Something interesting to think about is what if we just had an average 2017-18 season instead of that absolute disaster. Would the whole roster been torn apart? Probably not. And we still had some decent prospects before starting the rebuild (Chabot, White, Batherson, Formenton, Brown, Paul, etc.). I wonder what the roster would've looked like with these prospects implemented into the old core and how the team would look now. I'm really happy with what the team is now but man that 3 year stretch was painful

I think Batherson can be better than a 60pt player. First full year and he’s on pace for 50+ ? Once he’s very consistent, he can put up 70 imo