It’s often one of the wackiest days on the NHL calendar.
All across the league, General Managers are looking to round out their rosters and all across the league, players are looking to get paid. It’s a dangerous mix and it always leads to equal parts excitement, shock and confusion.
Welcome to Free Agency Day on SensChirp.
It could be an interesting one for the Ottawa Senators. Thanks to some pretty slick salary cap management over the last week or so, including the contracts for Giroux, Cousins and Merilainen and the low-cost add of Jordan Spence, GM Steve Staios heads into the frenzy with a little bit of spending money.
Right around $6 million according to most recent numbers. Not so much that he’ll break the bank on Canada Day but he has certainly given himself enough flexibility to add a player or two.
Tanner Jeannot’s name has come up a lot over the last week or so but the Sens won’t be alone in their pursuit of the rugged winger. Jonathan Drouin has also been mentioned as a possibility but he’ll have options. And while a couple of the bigger names, think Nikolaj Ehler and especially Brock Boeser, would certainly make sense, they’re probably a little out of Ottawa’s price range.
We’ll see though. Garrioch has suggested that if Brock Boeser is willing to take a little less term on his deal, there could be a fit here.
You can also expect the Senators to at least kick tires on unrestricted free agent forward Brock Boeser. He would be a good fit on the right side of the club’s top two lines, and if he’s willing to take less term than he can get elsewhere, then Ottawa is a possibility.
The sense is the Senators wouldn’t be willing to go much beyond four years, but if Boeser wants to help this team make a move towards getting to the Promised Land, then the door is open for him. It can’t hurt that Brock’s cousin, Dan Boeser, is a scout in the organization.
A fourth line centre could be another area of need for the Senators. While the team has talked to Adam Gaudette about a return, it does sound like he wants to see what might be available in free agency. Coming off a 19-goal season, he could have other options. Plenty of ways the Senators could try to fill that spot today.
The chaos starts right around 12:00 PM. As always, updates will appear on this post and in the comment section below.
Happy Canada Day! And Happy Free Agent Frenzy Day!
