AMID TURMOIL, KARLSSON IS STILL A SENATOR
As trade deadline passes, fans have little faith in team
In the end, Erik K ar ls son was not traded by the 3 p.m. deadline Monday, allowing Senators fans to draw their first clean breath in two days.
Then came the nagging second thought — that Karlsson is likely be traded at or around the NHL entry draft in June.
General manager Pierre Dorion promised to make Karlsson a contract offer “if he’s here on July 1” — hardly reassuring. One former NHL GM termed that comment “peculiar.” Karlsson is under contract until 2019.
Thus begins the awkward dance between a fan base and its apparently lame-duck superstar over the final six weeks of what is undoubtedly the most distressing, gut-wrenching season in the 26-year history of the franchise.
Since 1992, the team has been up and down, lousy and nearchampionship great, flush with cash and bankrupt — but never has there been such a disconnect between the hockey club’s operation and its patrons.
In Ottawa, the Senators are more than a sports team, they are a community treasure, our one major-league entity. And people are heartsick that, around the league and around town, they have become an embarrassment and laughingstock, 29th place and with no direction home, to borrow from Bob Dylan.
Even in the fast-paced world of professional sport, the turn of events involving the Senators over the past nine months is surely unprecedented.
Flash back to the last week of May 2017, when the Senators were one overtime goal away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final (Pittsburgh scored that goal, in double overtime, eliminating Ottawa).
This was not long after Dorion had said of Karlsson:
“They always say God rested on the seventh day. But I think on the eighth day he created Erik Karlsson.”
A little over a month ago, Karlsson was still considered an untouchable, with good reason: He’s the franchise cornerstone and the most talented player the team has known, a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s outstanding defenceman.
Dorion on Jan. 19: “Our first priority is to sign Erik Karlsson and( for) Erik K ar ls son to be a Senator for life.”
Yet, in that same media availability, Dorion reminded us that even Wayne Gretzky got traded. And Dorion said he would listen to offers.
He did so, up to 3 p.m. Monday. In the past month, Karlsson became part of a scenario in which the Senators were cutting payroll and entering into a rebuild, the first hint of which was owner Eugene Melnyk’s comments before the outdoor game at Lansdowne that payroll would be tied to (declining) revenues.
Though the franchise never clarified its position on Karlsson as the trade deadline approached, it became clear Dorion was open to hearing all offers for Karlsson as fans held their collective breath. Either Karlsson indicated he didn’t wish to re-sign with the Senators when his deal expires in 2019, or the team decided it didn’t have the resources or inclination to re-up the player that “God created.”
There is a growing sense that as long as the same ownership is in place, Karlsson does not wish to be here long-term, not coincidentally because his good friend Daniel Alfredsson has become estranged from the franchise.
In recent days, the sight of Karlsson atop the TSN “trade bait list” was more than most fans could bear. And while they found relief shortly past 3 p.m., their misery has merely been put on hold. Rather than risk having Karlsson walk away as an unrestricted free agent in 2019, the Senators will address offers for him in June, barring a change at the top of the club’s food chain.
What had been a simmering resentment over Melnyk’s ownership has spilled its banks. It would seem a tipping point has been reached. Over the weekend, Senators fan Spencer Callaghan quickly raised more than enough money on a gofundme page to pay for a billboard advertising a Melnyk-free hockey organization, or #MelnykOut as the popular Twitter hashtag has it.
Other fans wore #MelnykOut hats or made posters to take to the arena.
While Melnyk has tried to make nice with a couple of public relations gestures, the level of trust and faith in this organization is at an all-time low, and it gets harder to imagine a turnaround without a sale. When chief executive and president Tom Anselmi left, less than one year after franchise co-founder Cyril Leeder was fired as president/CEO, it sent up a red flag. When Melnyk moved into the offices as acting CEO, for however long, the proverbial flag soared higher.
Where to from here? Perhaps Melnyk is trimming costs and clearing the way for the franchise to be sold, although he has always insisted he won’t sell. He may be forced to if paying customers don’t pony up.
What is playing out in Ottawa can’t be looked at fondly by the NHL, which frowned on Melnyk’s offhand comments about potentially moving the club. To the NHL, Ottawa is a solid Canadian market, with a new downtown-ish arena looming, and yet a sense of turmoil prevails.
The NHL would almost certainly not let Melnyk move the team. They would more likely work with him to assist any potential sale to keep the club right where it is.