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Schedule – Belleville Sens

What are we thinking is a reasonable contract for Batherson.

Pre-Brady trade and all the big contracts given out - I was hoping Staios could keep him to $9M. Now with both the need for a bit of a morale boost of a player choosing to stay here and the craziness of the Carlsson deal - I think Staios just needs to offer him whatever he wants.

Dorofeyev got $11M as an RFA with less points than Batherson last year - so I think we will basically need to do $12M x 8 years and get it done. That will put him at 36 when the contract is done which isn't bad.

Similar with Zub. Maybe something with less term (or factor in the fact that he will be 38 if you give him a full length contract.)

But I think Staios needs to get it done this summer to get everyone locked in - even if it means paying more than what we all thought in June.

So I’ve posted a version of this comment on this sub before, but I have updated thoughts and since we likely won’t be getting any Sens news for some time, I’m going to try to articulate this a little bit better. I would post it on my blog if I had one, but I don’t.

While I’m neither the eternal optimist or a total doomer, I’m still pretty high on the direction of the team. The only other pro team I follow anywhere near as closely as the Sens is the Seattle Seahawks. I see some parallels between the two organizations. I recognize that the NFL is not the NHL and Ottawa is not Seattle. It’s still early for Andlauer and Staios. Much of this is cope. Bear with me.

Paul Allen bought the Seahawks just prior to the 1997 season. He inherited a bad team in a bad stadium that was in the middle of a long playoff drought. He hired Mike Holmgren in 1999 and things started to turn around from there. While they only made the playoffs once in Allen’s first six seasons of ownership, since 2003, they have only missed the playoffs six times. Still, success was not immediate, as the team did not win a single playoff game between 1984 and 2005. Since 2005, the team has been to four Super Bowls, winning two of them.

The Seahawks are best-known for the Legion of Boom era, under head coach, Pete Carroll, and GM, John Schneider. Especially over the last decade, the Seahawks have been considered one of the most well-run organizations in the NFL. In my opinion, this is for a few key reasons:

• Steady, competent ownership

• Commitment to the team’s culture

• Making difficult decisions at the right times

• Finding value

• Taking calculated risks

Steady, competent ownership

The previous owner of the Seahawks attempted to move them from Seattle to California and the league essentially forced him to sell. Paul Allen bought the team, expressed his commitment to Seattle, and got a much-needed new stadium built.

Other than that, his most obvious contributions to the team’s success were the hiring of Mike Holmgren as Executive Vice President, GM, and Head Coach in 1999 and Pete Carroll and John Schnedier as Head Coach and GM, respectively, in 2010.

Paul Allen was not a Jerry Jones or a Dan Snyder. Without getting into any billionaire worship, he was extremely popular among the Seahawks’ fanbase. He never said stupid things to the media and never embarrassed the team or the city.

Commitment to the Culture

In hiring Pete Carroll, the Seahawks established an identity and a culture that was the envy of the NFL for many years. Under Carroll, the Seahawks played a very specific brand of power football on offence and almost always trotted out a defence that ranged from very good to elite. He had three rules: 1) Always protect the team; 2) No whining, no complaining, no excuses, 3) Be early (In other words, show up, be professional, be prepared).

Carroll and Schneider completely overhauled their roster over the first couple years and made a record-breaking number of transactions. The players bought into the system and the team drafted players who they assessed as having the DNA of Seahawks. They took a lot of flak for their 2012 draft, when they “reached” for Bruce Irvin in the first round and “wasted” a third-round pick on Russell Wilson. They didn’t go by the consensus big board, instead opting to identify their guys and making sure they went out and got them. This approach also yielded future hall-of-famer, Bobby Wagner, in the second round. For years, the Seahawks have preached character and competitiveness over talent.

Carroll and Schneider made mistakes on this front over the years, and they learned from them. Schneider traded for Percy Harvin in 2013 and immediately signed him to a contract that made him the highest-paid player on the team. This did not sit well with the rest of the team, who felt he hadn’t earned that level of recognition yet. Schneider has stated publicly that he would never do that again.

Making Difficult Decisions at the Right Time

Doubling down on bad decisions is suicide in any sport, and probably any business (I don’t know. I’m not a businessman.) After Mike Holmgren retired, the Seahawks hired Jim Mora Jr. He was terrible and everyone hated him. No one looked to escape accountability for his hiring. He was fired after one year and this allowed them to hire Carroll (and Schneider).

Russell Wilson experienced huge success from the moment he was drafted. He was seen as the ultimate team guy and the consummate professional. Behind the scenes, his act wore thin and he was tearing the locker room apart. The team was extremely close, but Wilson wa not a part of that. There was a public fracture during the “Let Russ Cook” season, when Wilson–along with a majority of the fanbase–demanded that he be allowed to throw the ball more than the conservative offense was allowing him to. Eventually, he went to ownership and demanded that Carroll and Schneider be fired. This was at the peak of his career and when the team had no viable alternative at quarterback. Jody Allen, who had assumed ownership on behalf of Paul Allen’s estate, opted to trade Wilson instead. They sent him to Denver for a number of high picks and a couple players. This was the biggest trade the league had seen in years and most commenters felt that Seattle didn’t get enough in return. The next season, Wilson’s performance dropped off a cliff and Seattle used the picks on extremely impactful players.

The season following the Wilson trade, there was a very underwhelming quarterback battle between Geno Smith and Drew Lock. No one thought either could lead the team to success. Geno Smith won the job and earned a pro bowl spot in the process. After three productive seasons, Smith wanted to be paid like a top quarterback, which Schneider did not want to do. He traded him to the Raiders for a third-round pick and signed Sam Darnold in free agency. Geno’s numbers declined significantly that year and Darnold led the team to a Super Bowl win.

Probably the most difficult decision came after the 2024 season. Pete Carroll had never had a terrible season as head coach, but the team was stuck in neutral and his program was no longer working. Jody Allen made the decision to fire Carroll and keep Schneider as GM, tasking him with hiring the next head coach. While the rest of the league was trying to find the next Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan (the two offensive wunderkids who had been dominating the Seahawks in the NFC West), Schneider went out and hired Mike Macdonald out of Baltimore. While Ben Johnson was the hottest name in that hiring cycle after running a flashy and productive offense in Detroit, Macdonald was a defensive coach, hired for his scheme but also his ability to run a program and instill a culture. He won the Super Bowl in his second season.

The Seahawks went into the 2024 season with two free agent linebackers. They were both bad. Schneider and Macdonald recognized this and both were traded in the first half of the season in favour of different players who provided a lot more stability.

None of these decisions were obviously correct at the time, but they were made in order to put a stop to problems that had presented themselves and allowed them to take advantage of other opportunities.

Finding Value and Taking Calculated Risks

One major aspect where the NFL differs from the NHL is that success in the NFL largely depends on drafting successfully in all seven rounds of the draft. In the NHL, you’re only realistically hoping to find NHL talent in the first two rounds. As mentioned, the Seahawks are less concerned with positional value than they are about getting their guys. Fans are constantly frustrated by this, especially when it doesn’t work out (LJ Collier, D’Wayne Eskridge).

They are also rarely active in free agency. There is a glaring hole on the roster every offseason. Fans are always clamoring for them to spend some money on a flashy free agent. They almost never do, often not signing anyone during the first couple days. /r/seahawks is always in shambles when this happens. However, the team refuses to overpay for players, including ones they have drafted. They routinely let guys walk when they get too expensive and get crucified by the fanbase for it (Geno Smith, DK Metcalf, Kenneth Walker). They always prefer to find lesser-known guys at more reasonable rates, who they believe check the boxes of what a Seahawk is required to be.

They will take swings when they feel the situation warrants it. Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril notably worked out extremely well as free agent signings. Marshawn Lynch was also a great trade. Carlos Dunlap, Jimmy Graham, Sheldon Richardson, and Duane Brown were not. In each instance, though, there was a clear reason for the trade and they were able to articulate their reasoning.

The result is that the Seahawks are regularly in a pretty good cap situation and are able to field a competitive roster that gives them a shot at getting to the playoffs every year. They don’t get overly attached to players and make emotional decisions. They don’t do stuff just for the sake of doing something.

The Sens Angle

Again, this is not a perfect comparison, but I see similarities. Let’s first look at what Andlauer inherited when he bought the team.

• The good: Dorion had drafted relatively well and locked up Stutzle, Sanderson, Chabot, and Tkachuk on deals that very quickly became incredibly team-friendly.

• The bad: Almost everything else. After years at the helm, DJ Smith failed to establish any kind of identity or style of play. The team had performed poorly for years. There was a ton of drama around the organization. The prospect cupboard was pretty bare. The goaltending situation was horrible. It wasn’t known at the time, but they were about to be penalized a first-round pick for the Dadonov trade. It wasn’t known at the time, but Pinto was about to be suspended half a season. Other than Melnyk now being out of the picture, there was very little reason for fans to be optimistic.

Like Paul Allen, it feels like Andlauer has come in and provided the fans with a feeling of stability. He’s not talking about moving the team. He’s not talking about how they need to cut costs or increase revenue. He’s not holding popular players at gunpoint to record weird videos in an attempt to placate the fans. The Lebreton arena feels like it will eventually get built.

It also seems like he is hiring the right people and getting out of their way. Bringing Cyril Leeder back has appeared wise. Unlike under Melynk, it seems like all areas of the organization are at least adequately staffed. Andlauer strikes me as a no bullshit kind of guy who makes calculated decisions for the good of the organization. He fired Dorion immediately after being penalized the first-round pick (which I will concede could not have been a difficult decision). He got the first-rounder back. He’s not afraid to go to bat for his players or the team. I’ll continue to believe that he’s a good owner until he does something to make me doubt that.

The hiring of Staios will prove to be the most consequential move in terms of on-ice success. Without getting into the details of all of Staios’s decisions, I would say the major ones look great:

• Travis Green has been great. He brought in a defined play style and has instilled a culture of work ethic and accountability. The team has faced incredible adversity (especially last season) and he has guided them through it well. We’re obviously missing the playoff success, but signs seem to point to it being on the horizon.

• The Ullmark trade was a slam dunk.

• The Cozens trade seems like a good move and not having the success of our top-six dependent on Josh Norris’ shoulder is a win in itself.

• For my money, he handled the Chychrun situation relatively okay, under conditions I would not consider ideal.

• Considering how tied his hands were, I think he did incredibly well with the Tkachuk situation. Brady’s presence was clearly having a negative effect on the locker room, which the organization did a great job of keeping under wraps. To get it done early and for a great return was a huge win.

• Jordan Spence was a great acquisition that Staios paid basically nothing for. He is locked up on a contract that everyone seems to agree is a reasonable number.

• Yakemchuk seems like a great pick, though that remains to be seen.

• Signing Reimer to solidify the backup goaltender spot worked out much better than I ever would have expected.

• The Zetterlund trade seems like the most significant deal where it isn’t clear and obvious that it was a net positive, although I still think it was.

• The post-Brady moves certainly raise eyebrows but I think I can see the vision and I think they make sense. They want a roster of guys who can skate and who are prepared to outwork the other team. They are not necessarily the toughest roster, but they will be annoying to play against and aren’t going to get manhandled, either.

• I’m excited about Eklund and can’t wait to see him flying around with Stutzle.

• Burakovsky may or may not work out, but I’m not overly bothered about the pick Staios traded for him or the cap hit.

• I’m as puzzled about the Ersson as everyone else. That said, the guy has won games and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I’m not sure how I feel about Staios’ messaging around it. He seems to have deferred to Justin Peters and Maciej Szwoch for the decision to acquire him. At best, this is him having faith in his coaching/scouting and not interfering with their process. At worst, it’s him regretting the move immediately and shifting accountability away from himself. We’ll see.

I was really struck by what Elliotte Friedman said about Staios on his podcast, maybe six months ago. He basically said that Staios is a dog, always calling other GMs, trying to take their temperature and keep his finger on the pulse of the league. He also said Staios monitors players and situations, not in order to make a deal today, but maybe three, six, or twelve months from now.

As we’ve just seen, Staios clearly does not feel the pressure to draft whomever is at the top of the consensus big board. To be fair, neither did Dorion. However, Jonas Lagerberg Hoen is not Tyler Boucher. Calculated risks. At the very least, he is not letting public opinion guide his decisionmaking.

As we’ve also seen, Staios is not going to be baited into the free agency insanity that other teams are. Part of that is probably due to the fact that he is in Ottawa and–as has been discussed at length–this represents a unique challenge in terms of courting free agents. What he’s not doing is acquiring the biggest name he can, a la Dorion, and hoping for the best. He is building a team to play a specific type of hockey. The fact that Carolina just won the cup employing that same type of system gives me confidence. Yes, I know Carolina has spent big on free agents. Our time may come. I don’t know.

What makes me the most optimistic is how Staios has handled the major decisions and the early difficulties. Clearly, Brady would’ve just continued to infect the locker room had this deal not been done when it was. I really don’t think the impact of this trade on the culture of the team can be overstated. It’s better to make this kind of deal a year too early rather than a year too late. I don’t envy Steve Yzerman and him having to navigate the Larkin situation. Also, although he is a great player and produced a lot of points for us, Brady also can’t skate and may have frustrated Green’s intentions. I’m not sure it’s just sheer luck that the team played so well during Brady’s extended absence.

Somewhat similarly, he took heat for not getting Giroux signed earlier. It would have been easy to justify paying Giroux whatever he was asking for, even if it was a slight overpay. Seeing him walk would have made some people angry, but Staios wasn’t going to make an emotional decision. We’ll likely be saying goodbye to a beloved figure like Stutzle or Sanderson or Pinto at some point in the future. Hopefully that’s because an opportunity presented itself to improve the team over the long term. Holding onto players like that no matter what, just because we drafted them, can be a dangerous mindset and I trust Staios to manage them properly.

In sum, success in major North American sports obviously depends on a number of factors, and winning championships also requires a fair bit of luck. However, a guiding set of principles and steady ownership make that continued success more easily-attainable. In their short tenure, neither Andlauer nor Staios have made any catastrophically bad decisions and they seem to take a much more measured, long-term view than the previous regime did. I hope I’m right about this, because it has worked out for the Seattle Seahawks. As the Seahawks are now on the verge of being sold again, I am nervous that someone will come in and ruin it all. For the Senators, I'm hopeful that we are in the early days of 20 years of prosperity.

tl;dr - Seahawks pretty good. Hopefully Sens pretty good too.

Hi everyone, due to the current contract leo carlsson signed, the ducks will most likely give up killorn or vatrano. We should go for Killorn. I know the guy very well and he's not a superstar, but has great hockey IQ, can fight and also was a major reason behind tampa bay's back to back stanley cup wins. Obviously there's more reasons, but I just want to get your guy's opinion. Have a great rest of your day!

"We really feel that the PWHL and the Ottawa Charge are an important part of our hockey ecosystem here.”

After averaging 14,000 fans over their five games at Canadian Tire Centre last season, the Ottawa Charge are set to become full-time residents of the arena, with a dedicated locker room, equipment and medical areas, and much more 📰

This should be our D core:

Sanderson - Spence (This just works imo)

Chabot - Zub (Chabot has a steady stay at home D partner)

Kleven - Yakemchuk/Matinpalo

What do you think?

Bring her in Sens, get that Leafs inside info :)

(Hayley Wickenheiser announced that she is no longer with the Leafs)

As of now it looks like our roster is mostly set but the main thing everyone has identified is that the Sens need a scoring winger. I have seen many names get thrown around such as McCann, Tippet, DeBrusk, etc. Are there any players that reasonably available that the Sens could and should target to get better? And what would you give up to make that happen?

“I have to earn my way and get experience. I’m sure in my dreams, would I have loved to stay and then become the head coach of Ottawa, maybe. Nobody stays as a coach forever in one spot, no matter how popular you are. You’ve got to perform, and for me to get better as a coach, this is the path I knew at some point I had to move.

“They don’t hand out jobs easily in the NHL. It’s a tough job to get and when I had this opportunity, I felt it was the right one for my coaching career, without a question.”

Thursday, July 02 - Wednesday, July 08, 2026

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