we’re not giving up picks for old, overpaid players, how many times do we have to say we have no interest in byron

Every team says no

If that first was still #9 tampa would consider but its not so they decline

Over his past 2 seasons Byron has .48 points per game, .22 goals per game.
Over his past 2 seasons Anisimov has .45 points per game, .23 goals per game.
Yet Ottawa fans seem to understand, other than at trade deadline, in the final year of his contract, it will cost us to move Anisimov.
Please stop pretending a team is going to pay you to take on Byron's THREE remaining seasons.

Do you speak for all Senators fans?

Let's be clear: while I'm a Habs fan first I'm also a big Sens fan. So maybe you don't like the idea of picking up a local guy in Byron. Okay sure, you don't want him, fair enough; it's clear what your position is. If this was a strict cap dump with zero ramifications the Habs could easily send him off to the Kings or Devils and probably get more than a 4th even in a flat cap era.

How on earth are the Sens going to get better if they don't have any veterans who actually play well? They can't just have prospects only that just eventually get better with more experience. Byron's not a throw-away contract. If you actually think that you're not actually paying attention. In the last 3 years, his PPG has been .45 playing usually on the third or fourth line for Montreal and in penalty killing roles. In the last 2 years, Colin White's PPG has been .48 playing on the first or second lines and playing in power play roles. If you consider the roles they're playing Byron is better than White and cheaper.

So having said all that, I don't understand your point at all. The Sens got rid of Zack Smith and intentionally added more salary in picking up Anisimov. Byron is a player who costs less, as you yourself pointed out had more PPG than Anisimov in the past 2 years, is a veteran leader (which is something that the Sens could really use; he's an assistant captain with the Habs), is really fast and is really good defensively. If you don't want him sure. We'll either keep him (no desire to get rid of him other than to make this scenario work) or find another team very easily.

What's the Lightning's plan for signing Sergachev and Killorn?

I have said this on Byron to Ottawa posts probably 20 times and have yet to have a Sens fan disagree with me. The only reason to bring him in would be to add another veteran presence to the team up front, but an old guy who’s been around for a while is something we can easily find in free agency from a guy who will be cheaper and not cost assets to acquire (Richardson, Thompson, Boyle, Brouwer, etc.), or we can take a cap dump on from a team looking to dump a guy who could still be a serviceable bottom six guy, but just happens to be making too much money. Not worth giving up an asset to help a divisional rival with their cap issues.

Fair enough. Good luck. We'll see how it goes.

Let's not pretend Ottawa is going to have a hard time finding veteran players/leaders this off-season. It's likely there'll be teams that will PAY US to take them. If not, we can do what we did last season, bring in guys like Hainsey and Ennis, who cost us NO PICKS, only what we signed them for on ONE YEAR deals. Ennis was amazing; 33 points and 14 goals in 61 games. He cost us $800K and we acquired a 5th rounder from EDM for him at the deadline. THAT is what a smart rebuilding team does. What you're suggesting is something else.

I'm suggesting a 4th rounder for a guy who's an assistant captain with a better team who's a good veteran local player and who, unlike just about anyone else coming to play for the Sens right now, would actually welcome playing in Ottawa. Please don't take this so seriously. It's an idea. You don't like the idea. Okay fine; I can live with that. We're all just throwing darts at a board anyway; none of us can predict the future. Most Habs fans (myself included) really like Byron. Good luck playing to the floor for the next few years.

Hahaha. You're hilarious. If I'm taking it too seriously why are you the one taking cheap shots? Ennis wasn't traded to Ottawa, he CHOSE to play for us. And I bet he's happy he did. He had his best season in 5 years and will certainly be rewarded for it in his next contract. Other players notice stuff like that. Connor Brown, Duclair, Ennis... all of them having a resurgence in Ottawa. As I said, if Byron was in the last year of his contract, Ottawa would love to have him. But with 3 years remaining - NOPE. Take all the cheap shots you want, you know I'm right.

That was probably a cheap shot on my part and I should be more careful; sorry about that.

I do want the Sens to be better sooner rather than later and do think Byron could help them rebuild because I don't think they can do it with just 1-year cheap veterans to play with the young players. Ottawa's got a great prospect pool and will be good again for sure sooner rather than later, but we'll just have to agree to disagree that this is a bad way to do it. One thing to keep in mind is a problem the Habs had this year: too many picks in the late rounds. It's a real problem because what happened with the Habs is that they had so many later round picks in the past few years that when they got time to sign they didn't all get contracts because they're a max 50 that NHL teams can have at any one time. In other words, the Sens actually can have too many prospects; and this year they also have 3 first rounders and 4 second rounders. If the goal will be to sign most of those picks, there won't actually be space for many third and 4th rounders unless they find a diamond-in-the-rough.

Thank you. I appreciate the apology. Even when I don't agree with someone's post I love talking hockey with knowledgeable and passionate fans, which you clearly are. Byron is a good player. This just happens to be the first season in a cap crunch that teams were not prepared for. And Ottawa with so much cap space, and so many picks and prospects, are going to have an insane amount of options available to them. I'm hoping they really think things through before taking on vets with longer contracts. I don't think hockey (or the world) is going back to normal any time soon and every move by Dorion should be done with that in mind. Until we chat again - agreeing to disagree.