Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Senators' Melnyk believes cap won't consistently rise, says 'others' will guide Olympic stance

02/19/2014 at 2:23am EST

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk has some...unique...opinions regarding his status as the man making the Senators' monetary decisions, on NHL and the game of hockey.

In his latest media appearance--a conversation with the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch, Melnyk suggests that one of the benefits of choosing to no longer spend to the salary cap will help the Senators in the long run...

"At some point you could be stuck because the cap has come down. Then, you go, 'Wait a minute, it's come down and I've got to unload $5 or $10 million worth of salary.' That day will come," said Melnyk. "It's like the stock market. You can't go straight up all the time. Eventually there's correction and it rebuilds. You've got to leave yourself with some room. I don't care if people criticize me. The fact is the team has survived in very difficult circumstances."

And Melnyk's take on Olympic participation is also "correctable":

"There's no question I support the Olympics," said Melnyk, who donates $500,000 directly to Canadian athletes. "That being said, basically you are risking your players going to the Olympics. Look at what happened to (Dominik) Hasek (in 2006) when he went. He gets hurt playing for the Czech Republic.

"God forbid something happens to (Erik) Karlsson. I know there's some very vocal guys out there who are very much against it. I'm on the fence but it could sway me if I had one of my top stars get hurt again. You're kind of torn because you support the Olympic movement in a big way."

Melnyk said he can't lean one way or another because he wants to hear both sides of the argument.

"There's going to be a big discussion fairly soon and I'm very neutral on it. I'm not for it. I'm not against it. I'm going to let other people kind of direct me," said Melnyk.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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