On the Ottawa Senators …
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Senators GM Bryan Murray and owner Eugene Melnyk have both said that changes will be coming to the Senators this offseason after their “disappointing” season.
“I’ve started (the evaluation). After talking to Eugene, over a month ago now, we both kind of agreed we just kind of had to take a look at everything that was going on, from player development to on-ice product,” Murray told the travelling media here at the club’s downtown hotel.
“That process won’t take a long time, I don’t think. Part of the reason we’ve got everybody on the road this trip, and a couple of previous trips, is we’re just sitting around doing a lot of talking and a lot of evaluation of where we are (with) what players and what else has to happen here to make it better.”
Murray, battling Stage 4 colon cancer, will make a decision on his own future soon. Assistant GM Pierre Dorion could be the frontrunner if Murray steps down.
Coaching changes could be coming. Dave Cameron has a year left on his contract.
“We’ll go through the whole group: I’m part of it. Did I do enough? What else can we do from a management side here to help the product on the ice? We’re all going to self-evaluate here and we’ve been doing that,” Murray said.
“But, yeah, everybody, the coaching staff, without a doubt when you’re special teams are not very good, you have to look at why and what happened and we’ll sit down at the end of the year and talk to them as well.”
Murray thinks their top priority is to find another offensive forward, as well as adding a third-pairing defenseman. It won’t be easy for them to add a top-six forward.
The Oilers will be looking to trade Nail Yakupov again this offseason. The Senators had mild interest in him before the trade deadline. Jonathan Drouin is also available.
“We see the trades that have to be made to do that. That’s the hard part, you have to give up a number of pieces unless there’s an unrestricted free agent out there this summer, which I’m not sure will be the case. You have spend a little bit of your asset value to get that kind of player,” said Murray.