Fail for top pick. Come back with a contender next year!
 

With Murray bringing up player from the Ahl instead of making trades shows that the team is ready to drop for a top pick.

In my opinion, this year has been very unlucky for ottawa senators players and if, in this short season, the team would find themselves in the bottom 3 it would be great for the team for years to come.

I am not hoping to select a defencemen but a top end, top 6 forward this team needs especially with the loss of Alfie in the next years.

Thoughts?

This is probably what will happen and I'm 100% fine with that.

Professional athletes will never quit or give up, unlike some of their fans. :shakehead

Same.

No they wont.

Doubt we're turned into a contender over the offseason, even with the addition of a top-3 pick. I don't think we have the depth up front we need yet, and there's still work to be done on the blueline (esp. with Gonchar departing).

Lol.. Never said I was giving up but from what I can tell ottawa will be more of an ahl team this season playing vs NHL teams. Murray will not trade the farm for a quick fix while in a rebuild. Just stating the facts. Not giving up.

So drafting third makes us a contender and drafting tenth does not?
No guys, that's not how it works.

On the opposite, if we somehow get into playoffs this year with the team we have right now, this will make us a contender for next year immediately.

Nor should they.

However, my hopes that our current line-up will be sufficient to pull off a winning season are small to non-existant. Not a happy scenario right now.

You never know of course. I hope they fight and pull a troll off every now and then.

A top 3 pick would be a great start to becoming a contender.

As well, from what I've seen in the past, teams that drop for top picks usually become Stanley cup champions after bottoming out. Ie Chicago and Pittsburg. I am not saying lose to win but gaining top players and add them to our core will do us some good.

The team will be fine. We're not tanking, we'll still be competitive. No one will replace karlsson, we'll just be playing a diiferent way. The wins will come and i'm guessing we'll be fighting for 8th

It's not just the draft pick, but the return of Spezza, Karlsson and Cowen, possible FA additions, trades, and the maturing of players like Turris, Silf, Zibby, Stone, Noesen etc. that will make us a contender next year.

You guys don't need a top pick to succeed. Brian Murray is an excellent judge of talent.

Didn't the Sens miss the playoffs after their SCF run and then ended up picking Erik Karlsson?

It's funny, because I can see the attraction of a top 5 pick. But if we do fall there it just means all of our supproting guys suck. If this depleted team can be respectable for the rest of the season (yes even finishing 9th), it'll mean that the additions of Spezza, Karlsson, Cowen etc. will make us that much better.

If we made the playoffs you guys would be upset :laugh:

Getting a game breaking player such as a Patrick Kane, or toews, Malkin or Crosby turns bad teams into contenders in a short period of time.

If we could luck out and get either a McKinnon or drouin... This team would get a big boost.. A much needed boost up front.

This. But the team still lacks a top winger. Especially with the lose of Alfie in a year or two

Fighting for eight is the worst possible situation.

You don't make the playoffs without your top 2 players out for the season.

That would be pretty cool to come back with Seth Jones and Karlsson on D next year. We only have to miss the playoffs to get a chance at first overall.

The players won't give up, but I think it's more than likely that we miss the playoffs and a good pick is the upside of the bad hand that we've been dealt.

The latest rankings have come out and Sean Monahan has dropped again as well. We know Murray likes his 67's.

I want a top pick like probably the majority of this fanbase but the last thing I want to see is this team 'tank'. Tanking implies that the organization attempts to lose games in order rig their lottery odds. IMO the Oilers and Avalanche have done this in recent years and Karma has come back to bite them with a vengence. Both teams are still a mess despite tons of top young talent arriving.

We will win or lose with the guys in the organization and be a better team for it.

We would take Jones if we somehow got into the top 3. I would bet my car on that. Not that I think we will get a top 3 pick, but if we do, feel free to bring this post up haha.

Drouin would be quite nice, but we would have one of the best top 4's in all of hockey is Jones develops right. Could you imagine this:

Cowen - Karlsson
Jones - Methot

Rearrange that aroud any way you want and it still makes me wanna cream my pants. Hell, we still have Ceci, Boro, etc to fill out the bottom.

Thats two dfd's with size, and two possible premeire two way d's. Either one could possibly play 30 minutes any night but they wouldn't have to.

Its a total pipe dream though. Andy is too good to let us be worse than the Jackets, Oilers, etc.

i think we wait and see how it goes, once the deadline comes around if we are clearly not a playoff team you start to make some deals, i know its a good draft but i feel we need to start packaging something like gonch and prospect to upgrade that prospect to a younger guy that can play and do well next year, we have all these prospects and not all of them will be able to play for us (just on numbers) so putting two or three together for a real good young guy that can play, if we are 4th last in league at deadline say then you really look to add one young good d man for next year and one good forward for next year, wether you trade andy or not is on what you can get for him, if the blackhawks goalies get worse you may try something like andy gonch for hjalmarsson and saad (i really havent watched them play this year so add to what ever side) something like this would give us pieces for next year and allow us to just have to add maybe a free agent and we would be able to be a pretty good team

Aint even mad about what happens. We better beat the Leafs tomorrow though.

While I understand we take the BPA & drafting another great player regardless of position adds to our depth of assets, I get the feeling that Seth Jones RD will want to be the #1 defenceman for whatever team drafts him.

In Ottawa he would be behind Karlsson RD & it could turn into another Chara/Redden or Webber/Suter thing. We need a 2nd pairing RD & we have one in Ceci RD & a 3rd pairing in Gryba RD or Sdao RD. We also have some decent left shots in Cowen, Wiercioch, Methot, Lundin, Phillips, Boroweicki, Claesson etc... I wouldn't mind another very good left shot though like Darrel Nurse.

Spezza isn't out for the season but that's not the point I was making.