It’s going to be the shortest off season in the history of the National Hockey League.
While the Ottawa Senators will likely be more than nine months between games and it’s actually going to feel like an eternity, Pierre Dorion and his staff really won’t have a ton of time to get things done once the Stanley Cup is presented sometime in late-September or early-October.
While all dates are subject to change, the league is packing in a lot in a short period of time.
Last possible day of the Stanley Cup Final on October 2nd. Entry Draft on October 6th. Start of free agency begins at least seven days after the last game of the final. Training Camps on November 17th and then a new season on December 1st.
It’s going to be chaos.
And outside of what is going to be one of the most important drafts in the history of the franchise, where the Senators are slated to pick seven times in the first two rounds, Pierre Dorion has a fairly lengthy off-season To Do list.
Right near the top of that list is a new contract for Anthony Duclair.
The 24-year old forward is coming off a career-year in Ottawa.
The 23 goals he scored surpassed his output from his rookie season with the Coyotes and while he was four points shy of his previous career best of 44, he was almost certainly going to get there in a full season.
23 goals. 17 assists. 40 points. And in just 66 games. Only Brady Tkachuk and Connor Brown had more points.
While Duclair has to be happy with his production in his first full season with the Senators, it was a streaky year. In November, he was damn near unstoppable. There was a stretch where he scored 11 goals in just 9 games that month. Every time the puck was on his stick something happened out there and at top speed, there were few players that could keep up.
Of course he followed that up with a 21-game stretch where it looked like he might never score again.
For Pierre Dorion and his staff, they’ll have to decide whether Duclair did enough during that hot stretch to warrant a long-term deal. Duclair is coming off a one-year contract worth $1.65 mil a season and he has certainly earned a raise on his next deal. And for a player who has bounced around a little bit to start his career, a little security is likely the priority this time around.
At his best, during the month of November, Duclair certainly seemed like a player worthy of a long-term gamble. A four or five year deal in the nieghbourhood of $4 to $5 mil a season seemed like a bargain for the Senators. But with that lengthy scoring slump to end the year still fresh in everyone’s minds, another one or two year deal might make the most sense.
It would give Anthony Duclair an opportunity to show that he’s capable of sustaining that early-season output before locking in long term. And it would also give the Senators some flexibility and an opportunity to get a longer look.
Of course there’s some risk from Ottawa’s standpoint as a two-year deal as Duclair would be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract.
It’s one of the many tough decisions Dorion has to make in a condensed off-season. Duclair certainly looks like a key piece of Ottawa’s line up for the next couple years and it’s up to the Senators GM to come up with an offer that makes sense for both sides.
How would you handle Anthony Duclair’s next contract? Long-term extension or a bridge deal?
