Senators Plans Change Constantly As Team Mulls Changes
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio on Wednesday morning on the Morning Skate with Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin and was asked what direction the Ottawa Senators could go in for their head coach and their core players’ future.
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** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
Gord Stellick: “That’s why I will morph to Ottawa’s situation; Jacques Martin is always a caretaker-type coach. We were chatting with Dan Rosen last hour, and I’m just saying, Elliote, why not? Look at the Rick Tocchet model. That last year besides the poor treatment of Bruce Boudreau, they got their guy in with young talent with about a third of the season to spare and look at the results this year.
Might Ottawa, whether it’s Patrick Roy as Craig Button threw out there. Whether it’s Craig Berube, who’s out there. Whether it’s anyone else. Might they be looking to do that rather than waiting it out? And the Jon Gruden type or whatever in the offseason going in that direction might they have changed their plans?”
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Elliotte Friedman: “The one thing I think, the one place I really think they may have changed their plans, Gordo is with the core team. I think that’s one thing that they’re kind of going through right now. You know, like, there’s a lot of talk about Chychrun. I know they considered him part of the core. But he’s got a contract extension that they have to deal with. Like, they can extend him starting this summer.
So I kind of wonder if those conversations are gonna lead into bigger thoughts about, you know, for example, do they break up some of their core? That, to me, is the question now. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, right now. But I do think that’s the question.
The one thing I do know about Ottawa, and their plans have changed from time to time, so I’m always wary of that is that they wanted to wait to talk to people this summer.
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And I think that means Gruden probably more, not just him, but I think it does mean him. And unless that’s changed then I don’t see them doing their coaching situation early.
Now, again, Ottawa has called the audibles before, so you always have to be prepared for it. But I do know Gord that they thought it would be a mistake to rush into this. One thing that they have said on and off the record is that they know that one of the most critical things they get right in the next little while is their head coach and Gordie, I think they would regret it if they felt there were people they could talk to who they couldn’t get their hands on until this summer, and they passed it up.
But again, like I say, they’ve called audibles before and you have to understand now that this is kind of this organization’s DNA. They may plan for one thing, but they’re not afraid. To change their minds.”
