How Are Contract Negotiations Affecting Ottawa Senators Reputation?

In order to attract quality free agents and to avoid overpaying them, a team needs to position themselves as a desirable destination for hockey players. This can be done in many ways, not the least of which is a team’s ability to compete and make their players happy.

Well, in the early and mid 2000’s, the Ottawa Senators had put themselves in such a position by putting together a competitive team that, much like the San Jose Sharks of today, were among the elite but fell prey to massive playoff failures. The pinnacle of their success was making the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, and it has been pretty much all downhill from there.

Names like Marian Hossa, Zdeno Chara, Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, and Jason Spezza have all, for one reason or another, left the Senators franchise amidst at least a little bit of controversy within the last 10 years. That is an average of one star every couple of years.

While the nature of the game is one of change and players are somewhat nomadic, the successful franchises are able to keep their core of star players together (Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston) and supplement them with quality role players who want a chance to win.

The Senators, for whatever reason, and it is tough to point out just one or two, have been unable to keep their top end talent around and happy, and the result has been a mass defection of any player who was above average in talent, and for the most part getting very little in return when all was said and done.