Eugene Melnyk voices displeasure with potential all-Canadian division

As the NHL is exploring many possibilities for the upcoming 2020-21 season, one of the things that has been discussed is an all-Canadian division. This would make sense for a number of reasons, mainly due to the non-essential travel ban. However, controversial Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is not a fan of this idea.

“No,” Melnyk told The Bob McCown Podcast when asked if he liked an all-Canadian division. “I'll tell you why, it's a hockey reason. This is not our year. I think we'll be competitive, but this is the year the Canadian teams are all better. Every one of them, including mine. But I'm still at the beginning of my rise up. Everybody else was good and they're getting better.”

The Senators finished second last in the NHL last season, with just 62 points. Meanwhile, every other Canadian team made the league's expanded postseason which took place in August.

“From a hockey point of view, it's exciting,” Melnyk continued. “We would be playing a lot of Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. That's fine. We will play the other Canadian teams. That's fine. But from a pure hockey point of view it's a tough, tough, tough division. We don't get to play the weaker teams. They're all good.”

While Melnyk is known to often make ridiculous claims, this actually does make sense. In an all-Canadian division, the Senators would almost without a doubt be the weakest team. They are improving, as he mentioned, and had a fantastic offseason adding Evgeni Dadonov, Matt Murray, Austin Watson, Alex Galchenyuk, Erik Gudbranson, and Josh Brown. Still, they are a very young team who does not yet possess the top end talent to compete with the other Canadian teams on a nightly basis.

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