Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Your right about all that Rooney except that if McAmmond goes down to the Minors it means no one wants him at his current salary and would likely clear waivers. If he didn't clear waivers then that means he's totally off the books so, if they went the route of sending him down they'd probably be pretty happy to see him get picked up on the way down. Assuming he does make it down, which is probably the most likely scenario, assuming of course they wanted to go that route, then he would most likely never see another game as an Ottawa Senator unless there was sheer devestation due to injury.
Also he did say we could pay him CLOSE to 4 M and in my books 3.5M is getting into the close range but that's a matter of opinion. Also is does that 21 man roster include McAmmond? Could we also not find a way to get down to a 20 man roster like they wanted to do the first year of the new CBA?
Or instead of sending McAmmond to the minors... we trade him, which is the obvious answer. Jamvan was saying why trade him when you can send him to the minors? I'm saying, why give him away for nothing on waivers / pay him his full salary to play in the AHL -- which is what would happen if we tried to send him to the minors -- when you can get something, anything in return for him via trade? Trading him is the answer that makes the most sense of all if we don't see him playing for us. Sending him to the minors does not make any sense at all.
My personal ideal 20/21-man roster would not include McAmmond:
Foligno/Winchester (.85/.55) - Spezza (7) - Heater (7.5)
Vermette (2.76) - Fisher (4.2) - Alfie (4.414)
Foligno/Winchester - Kelly (2.125) - Neil (1.1)
Ruutu (1.3) - Bass (.513) - Donovan (.625)
Phillips (3.5) - Volchenkov (2.5)
Kuba (3) - Lee (1.275)
Smith (2.6) - Picard (.80)
Schubert (.883) as 21st man, McAmmond traded
Gerber (3.7) - Auld (1)
Emery buyout (.479)
= $52.674 mil, leaving us with $4 mil in space.
If you want to pair down to 20, then you have to move another player and shift Schubert to the 4th line. Your options would be a) trade Neil, or b) demote Bass to the minors.
(Winchester and Foligno are possibilities for demotion too, I grant, but Winchester is less likely, I think, because of his 1-way deal, and Foligno is less likely because he is more skilled offensively. Sending Picard down is not an option -- because of his age, because he's more than 3 years removed from the time of signing his first contract, and because he's played more than 60 games, I'm pretty sure he subject to waivers now. Check out pp.66-67 of the CBA, however, to see if my interpretation makes sense to you.)
In scenario a), you're left with $5.1 mil in space; in scenario b), your left with just over $4.5 mil (assuming Bass or Winchester), or about $4.85 mil in space (if Foligno).
Trading Neil and McAmmond, then, would theoretically leave us with enough money to sign Sundin for about $3.5 mil at best (and that might be too close for comfort for Murray). But then we'd have a 21-man roster again, and we'd be back to square one in terms of what to do with the extra player and who would it be.... though I confess that would be a problem I'd happily face if Sundin were on our team.
