Ottawa Senators GM Steve Staios: Full Review of His Friday State of the Union Address

GM Steve Staios held his first State of the Union on Friday following another disappointing Ottawa Senators season. Since taking charge of the club, Staios has keyed in on evaluating his roster; now, with the season over, he sat down and discussed some of his findings with the media.

"It was a very important year for evaluation on how we're going to approach moving forward," said Staios. "I think there's massive potential for internal growth with this group the way that it is. Now, in saying that, there are areas that need to be addressed, and that's my job."

Staios has some major decisions to make in the off-season. The first is a new head coach, replacing Jacques Martin, who Staios said will be moving into an advisory role with the team. Staios isn't going to rush his decision.

"I think making sure that we take the appropriate amount of time to be able to look at everybody that may be available is important," said Staios. "Now, as we're going through the process, if we feel like we have the perfect candidate, then we would move on it."

What might have been the biggest story of the day was that Staios ruled out the possibility of Daniel Alfredsson becoming the next head coach of the Senators. 

"I had a great conversation with Alfie," Staios said. "He's not going to be in consideration for the head coaching job at this point in time. And I think this is something we left a little bit open-ended. But I think he does believe that if he does continue on the coaching path, he'll need a little bit more time."

The decisions for Staios don't end at a new head coach. He will have to make decisions on certain players, one of them being Jakob Chychrun, who was coy about his future during his season-ending media availability. Staios expressed similar guarded language on Chychrun's future.

“We think highly of Jakob Chychrun. And a lot of our players now, we'll look at all areas to see how it all fits."

Staios brought up goaltending when asked about the biggest areas of concern for the team. The Senators had the worst team save percentage in the NHL this season. Staios repeatedly emphasized that he believes both Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg were better than their numbers, but still acknowledged it was a glaring area to improve upon for next season.

When asked about potentially buying out players, Staios continued to be measured.

"I don't believe there's any consideration (on buyouts) for us at this time," said Staios.

Staios also updated the status of Josh Norris, who re-injured his shoulder for the second time and required surgery.

"He's a resilient young man," said Staios. "The surgery went well and he's going to be ready come training camp.

Another of the big storylines for Staios in the off-season will be Staios' philosophy entering his first draft. I asked him if he'll make his selections based on positional need or simply take the best player available.

"There might be a time in the draft where you look positional, but certainly at the top of the board, we're looking at the best player," Staios said.

In the end, the Senators' season has been disappointing, and Staios is hopeful that this is the year the team learns from its struggles.