from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Postmedia to mark the 30th anniversary of the Senators being awarded a franchise on Dec. 6, 1990, Melnyk, who purchased the team out of bankruptcy in 2003, believes the plan he put in place with general manager Pierre Dorion is close to paying dividends.
Melnyk says the pieces are in place to contend and additions will be made to help the core of this group get over the finish line.
“We have turned the corner. We just now need to execute on what we have,” Melnyk said last week from his home in Toronto. “This is the team, with what we have right now, I believe can win a Stanley Cup already, and that’s without adding some veterans, which we plan to do.
“We’ll be a team that’s active at the trade deadline and not as sellers, but as buyers, just like we used to be. If you look at my track record on spending on players, we were always up there. We were never at the top, but we were always right there or around the centre. Now, we’re going to stay somewhere in the centre, depending on where it’s at. Our budgets are always somewhere around $70 million, which is in the centre.
“I don’t make any money out of this team. I just want to break even.
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