Five Thoughts for Friday: To Be (Here) or Not To Be (Here)

It's Friday, and you know what that means: time for everyone's favourite alliterative rapid-fire thinkpiece! Here are five of my current thoughts.

1. He Doesn't Want to Be Here

As you likely heard, Alex DeBrincat has submitted his 10-team trade list. Prevailing wisdom is that, despite the best efforts of this team's players on long-term deals (a couple of whom are also American) and the young core (a couple of whom are American), he's looking to get out. What does this tell us about the team's culture? Well, it's likely nothing at all. Let's remember that DeBrincat had no say in being sent to Ottawa. I wouldn't be surprised if the Blackhawks traded him because they had a pretty good idea he wasn't going to sign anything more than a one-year extension to walk him to UFA. It's possible that previously DeBrincat made a decision (likely along with his spouse) about where he'd want to play the bulk of his career, where they'd like to raise their kids, etc. Ottawa wasn't on that list, and a year with Tkachuk, Norris, Giroux, Chabot, Stützle, ... didn't change that. It's probably not even an indictment of Ottawa's Cup chances in the near term.

Of course, Ottawa could decide he's an own-rental and play the year with him. They could bet that they'll convince him, once new ownership is in place, that it's worth committing to this group. The 10-team trade list is sometimes a formality. But at this point the most likely outcome appears to be a trade, and that doesn't reflect poorly on the Sens at all. I don't really begrudge DeBrincat either, because if I had a chance to decide where I was going to work the next 8–9 years of my career, I'd probably take it too. And when I was making that choice, I might want to know who my boss, and my boss' boss, were going to be. Maybe I'm too nice to the guy. Maybe I'm vibing too hard to worry about someone who doesn't want to stick out the vibes. But also maybe I find it hard to obsess over a player after watching Alfie, Karlsson, and then Stone all leave.

2. They Do Want To Be Here

Meanwhile, we're now 25 days after bids for the Sens ownership were due. Bruce Garrioch did a deep dive yesterday, telling us that everything's the same as it has been:

• Everyone's still in the process; that's the Andlauer, Kimel, Apostolopoulos, and Sparks groups
• Galatioto Sports Partners aren't saying anything, probably because they want everyone to stay committed to the process
• The Apostolopoulos bid is north of $1B, but Andlauer and Kimel seem interested in raising their bids if it helps
• Everyone's frustrated
• We still don't have an idea of when it will end

An interesting wrinkle Garrioch pointed out is that, because Melnyk's estate was primarily in Barbados, this makes it a little more complicated to buy a team that's based in Canada. It is annoying from a fan perspective that this is going to drag on into the summer, meaning we won't have new owners for the draft, for free agency, times when it would've been good to get the new team in place. It'll be nice to have new owners in place, I was just hoping that if it was going to take more than a month, that bids would've been due in mid-February or something.

3. Winging It Without DeBrincat

So, let's assume DeBrincat gets shipped out. Dorion would likely target a winger in the deal, but if not, who might take DeBrincat's spot in the top six? The depth chart on LW isn't great. Either you're moving Shane Pinto or Ridley Greig to the wing, or else you're playing Mathieu Joseph, Egor Sokolov, Angus Crookshank,... Roby Järventie... ... Viktor Lodin......... yeah, that's not gonna cut it, especially if there's even one (1) injury next year. On the UFA front,  guys like  Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O'Reilly who likely wouldn't sign here, JAmes van Riemsdyk and Gustav Nyquist who seem to be past their prime, Pacioretty who's coming off a long injury, and then maybe someone like Jason Zucker or Tomas Tatar or Michael Bunting (who, admittedly, would be hilarious). Looking at that list, it's hard to envision the top six not being worse next season unless a DeBrincat trade brings back a winger. A younger, productive player with team control. A DeBrincat-type, if you will.

4. Sweat-Free Finals

I've been enjoying watching these playoffs, since teams I'd most hate to see win (Toronto, Boston) are out. The finals have been super entertaining. You've got the outrageous skill of Matthew Tkachuk and Sasha Barkov on one side. You've got incredible depth of Vegas on the other—did you know Chandler Stephenson had 65 points in 81 games this year? And that he had 64 points last year? Folks talk about underrated players a lot, but I think Stephenson might actually be underrated.

We've seen pretty goals, ugly goals, great saves, chippiness, everything you want in a series. I also watch this series and think, the Sens do have that top-flight skill, they just could use some depth. Even for goaltending, nobody thought Sergei Bobrovsky or Adin Hill could be Cup-winning goalies, but they've led their teams this far. Especially Hill and Brossoit prove you don't have to go out and get a name-brand goalie, you just need solid enough goaltending. After years of watching the Sens' weak defence get bailed out by Craig Anderson, it might be nice to see reliable goaltending behind a much-more-solid defense corps.

5. Ploy to Annoy

We're not even done the playoffs, and we already have some seemingly never-ending stories in Sens-land. It got me wondering, which has the potential to become the most annoying? Obviously the ownership debacle is dragging on a long time. The DeBrincat trade rumours will be annoying until a trade happens. There's also the continual storylines of the Sens potentially getting a new GM, getting a new coach (two things that likely depend on ownership), or getting a new goalie. So, as my final thought, I'm putting this as a poll. Which of these will be the most irritatingly repetitive storyline of the summer?

(To see the results of the poll, click "Results Summary" once you've answered.)