WRITTEN BY SENSCHIRP READER- Mittens
The void of Sens Summer is upon us, so I thought now would be a good time to take a shot at my first ChirpEd. I promise no hot takes, for now.
I think a lot of us agree that the Senators should be looking to acquire a free agent forward, ideally someone to play on the third line on the right side. I thought I would take a close look at some of the names being tossed around, one post at a time (unless the reception to this is incredibly negative).
Today’s target will be P.A. Parenteau.
There are two types of players that the Senators seem to love acquiring: Ottawa area natives and former Maple Leafs. Well it just so happens that Parenteau is from Hull, Quebec and played for Toronto this year.
Coming off a disappointing season in Montreal which earned him a buyout, Parenteau signed a 1 year 1.5 million dollar contract with the Maple Leafs last summer. Parenteau earned that contract and then some, leading the Maple Leafs in goals with 20 while putting up 21 assists.
I watched the highlights of about half of those points he scored (it was not a fun process to watch Maple Leaf goals) and this is what *I* saw: Parenteau is an excellent passer, great at finding open team mates in the offensive zone. When Parenteau doesn’t have the puck, he goes to the net. The majority of his goals came from the slot, either from a rebound in close or finding the open area in the slot to receive a pass.
Now, it can’t be a Mittens opinion without mentioning some stats that some may consider “advanced”.
This is all at 5v5.
| Year | GP | G | A | G60 | A60 | P/60 | CF%Rel | SF%Rel | PSh% |
| 10-11 | 80 | 10 | 22 | 0.54 | 1.18 | 1.72 | 4.14 | 5.01 | 9.01 |
| 11-12 | 80 | 11 | 27 | 0.56 | 1.37 | 1.93 | 3.75 | 4.99 | 8.87 |
| 12-13 | 48 | 10 | 14 | 0.83 | 1.16 | 1.99 | 1.65 | 0.44 | 14.08 |
| 13-14 | 55 | 10 | 16 | 0.8 | 1.28 | 2.08 | 3.52 | 5.25 | 12.66 |
| 14-15 | 56 | 5 | 13 | 0.43 | 1.12 | 1.56 | 2.39 | 2.25 | 5.88 |
| 15-16 | 77 | 12 | 16 | 0.74 | 0.99 | 1.74 | 3.69 | 3.06 | 10.17 |
If you don’t care for the underlying numbers, go ahead and ignore the majority of the table, but at least notice that Parenteau consistently chips in 10 goals and 25+ points (at 5v5), except for the one rough year in Montreal, which makes him an excellent choice for a 2nd/3rd line scorer role.
If you do care for the numbers, feast your eyes on those scoring rates and shot metrics. For the sake of space I left out the some of the other categories he excels at such as GF%rel, SCF%Rel, and HDSCF%rel because it’s more of the same. Every year he’s a positive relative player in each category. I think he’s exactly the type of player our third line was missing this year.
Toronto might decide to extend him, but it looks like maybe they won’t have the room for him in the line up with all the kids that are supposed to be coming up next season with top six roles in mind (Matthews, Marner, Nylander etc.).
So, lets talk salary.
He’s 33, which works against him in contract negotiations, but he’s also coming off a 41 point season. Given that the role in mind is a top 9 forward for scoring depth I would hope for a shorter term deal. I would suggest a 3 year or less deal, paying him under 3.5 million. If Parenteau’s looking for more than 3 years and 4 million, then I would suggest that the Senators look at other options. I have other players in mind, but let me know who you think the Senators should acquire.
No post is perfect, let me know how I can improve.
Go Sens.
*** The stats I used were provided by war-on-ice.com, corsica.hockey, and hockeydb.com
