Campbell while playing as a rental player for the Sharks was not a d-man suitable for play in the western conference. There were just too many times where he looked lost, making huge mistakes, causing odd man rushes leading to goals by the opposing team. As far as his offensive play, there wasn't much to show...he did his spin-o-rama once and got a goal out of it but after that each time he tried it why it usually ended up in a turnover or a play gone bad. He will get better money on the east coast but where the better and stronger teams and play is comes from the western conference. No defenseman looking to move from the east to the west for more money and improved stats will never make it, they may see money but they will fall flat on their face. Soupy, good luck, you will need it.

I'd rather Bouwmeester. Hopefully we can dump Spezza's ass for that guy and a centre.

My soul aches thinking of Spezza's lazy play for another seven years.

I would love to see Campbell here. While I like Bouwmeester, and he still hasn't reached his peak, I think overall Campbell is a better choice. You just can't buy the publicity and attachment of getting a good local boy.

Bouwmeester has never nor will he ever reach the heights predicted for him. We have been waiting years for him to develop & he is still at roughly the same level. He, Jovanowski & Derrik Morris are 3 who much was expected but have delivered little. This is why drafting a defenseman with a very early pick is such a high risk. And to trade a proven point producer like Spezza for a chance to draft one of these maybes makes absolutely no sence to me.

A guy has one bad year and you want to trade him? Don't get me wrong, I have come down pretty hard on Heatly and Spezza, but man oh man, 2 seasons ago these guys were one of the reasons we made it to the stanley cup final. To trade away a guy like Spezza makes little sense. He knows how bad he played. Heatly knows how bad he played. Do you think that StevieY always had a steallar year?

Hey guys the Blue Jays finally fired Gibbons. Only about 1 year too late. He's replaced by Cito Gaston, their most successful manager ever. Now to get rid of J. P. Richardi. Those fools along with Paul Godfrey & Ted Rogers have made the management at MLSE look good.

You have got to be freaking kidding me!! We could've gotten Erik Karlson in the third round for %*$&%(%& sakes!! Not only did we completely waste a first round pick, the Sens actually traded up to get him!! How incredibly stupid can you get!

We could've picked a goalie in Pickard, or 67s Tyle Cuma or feisty d-man John Carlson.

Heck, if they wanted to trade up so badly and make a splash, why not go for Kyle Beech or Luke Schenn?

Good grief, who's running this ship?

No offence Nancy, but the senators have had a very good drafting record for most of their history, so I'm willing to be patient. I was very concerned when Montreal "stole" most of Ottawa's scouting department, starting around 2002, thereby enabling their resurgence. But Tim Murray's also got a great record himself. He's the one who most of the pieces together in Anaheim, along with Bryan Murray.

I hope you're right Dennis. But man, they could've picked this guy up in the second round. He wasn't even rated by any of the publications in the top 50! We could've kept our 18th pick and selected another blue chipper along with this kid.

I will say kudos on picking a local boy (what was it, the 5th round?). There are some intangible benefits on local picks - a chance to play for the hometown team is just the extra little bit of motivation some of these kids need to make that next step.

Either way, Ottawa (and a whole lot of other teams) had better hope the "new NHL" ruleset is going to be enforced in the future. THose were some pretty small players - defensemen in particular - that went in teh first round this year. Don't get me wrong , I love how we're moving away from the goonball 70s, but it's still a risk picking a small guy. You never know when the league will pull the rug out from under the skilled players *cough* playoffs *cough*.

Nancy, TSN had him rated at #20 & Pierre had him even lower, so it looks like the Sens did right if he was the player they wanted. Turned on Team 1200 yesterday to catch the 2nd & subsequent rounds & much to my surprise & disappointment they had on Fox sports radio, the all NFL all the time network. What is going on? The draft is important to us Canadians & our local sports station thinks so little of it & its listeners that it puts on American junk. Even the 20/20 updates were American, with no mention of the draft whatsoever.

His stock did climb in the last month before the draft. Before that we was a mid-to-late 2nd rounder. I'm not sure what led to the sudden climb after the hockey season ended, though. (And how exactly to player positions rise and fall AFTER the season anyways?) I still wonder about losing a 2nd rounder just to go up 2 places. It doesn't make sense.

About the radio broadcast, I totally agree. I was (am) working all weekend so I didn't check to see if the "sister station" in 580 CFRA had picked up the draft (as they usually pick up the 67s or Sens when the Team has other things to broadcast).

I often listen to the Fox overnight telecast at 3am (my lunch) and there wasn't any mention of the draft on Fri or Sat night either. Funny, they kept complaining it was a "slow sports night" and talked incessently about nascar. :P

I just don't like the idea of giving up any picks in the first 3-4 rounds. You just never know when you'll find another Alfredsson or Fisher, etc. These picks are the only "freebies" NHL teams get to obtain players, and the way some teams throw them away just rankles my feathers.

I just saw the leafs are buying out tucker. So with Sundin going to UFA, and same with roberts... I think the Sens should try to get all 3 here. I mean I hate the leafs but those guys might add to some areas that Sens need help in. Plus I wonder if you could convince them to come at a bargin group rate. Anyways I could be all wrong about this, but hey its fun to think about stuff like this.

Don, if you could make Sundin and Roberts about 6-8 years younger, then by all means bring em over. But at their current ages and sloooow skating speed, I don't see them helping us on the ice at all (unless you only want them here for locker room leadership, which I can definitely see in Roberts' case).

Tucker, on the other hand,can crawl back to whatever sewer he came from. He has got to be one of the loudest, most abnoxious, overrated little squirts this side of Sean Avery. How this guy managed to fool the powers that be and stay in the league so long is beyond me.

Now for pure fantasy time:

Looking at the list of potential free agents, my top four choices would be: Brian Campbell, Jason Smith, Joe Sakic and Jose Theodore.
We don't stand a chance of getting any of these guys, let alone all four, but man would it be sweet to see them in a Sens' jersey.