The NHL off season is truly upon us.
No more draft to look forward to. Free agency has started to dry up. There really isn’t much left to do but count down the days till the start of Training Camp. It’s about 70 days by the way.
And while there’s a serious shortage of Senators’ news these days, one of the most interesting storylines of the off season has yet to play out. And where it ends up is really anybody’s guess at this point. I am of course talking about the future of forward Mike Hoffman.
The Senators’ leading goal scorer from last season still doesn’t have a contract. At 25 years of age, Hoffman is coming off a breakout season and not surprisingly, is looking to cash in on his next deal.
Listening to the bits and pieces of information that have filtered out about the negotiation to this point, it’s pretty clear there’s a significant gap between the two sides. Hoffman’s ask was rumoured to be north of $4 million a season and obviously the Senators weren’t anywhere close to that with their original proposal. Bryan Murray and Pierre Dorion have both talked about the negotiations a couple times publicly and seem pretty certain that arbitration would be the only way to find common ground.
But as we know, arbitration really is a last resort.
Hoffman has signed consecutive one year deals and would likely be looking for a little more security this time around. Meanwhile a one year deal might be of interest to the Senators as it would keep Hoffman as an RFA at the end of the deal.
One interesting comparable is Detroit Red Wings’ forward Gustav Nyquist, who just cashed in as a restricted free agent. His new deal is worth more just under $5 million per season and although he has one more productive NHL season under his belt than Hoffman, it’s safe to assume that contract had Hoffman and his agent seeing dollar signs. Like Hoffman, Nyquist had also filed for arbitration.
This somewhat contentious contract negotiation has a lot of people wondering if maybe a trade is the most likely outcome. Hoffman would obviously draw significant interest if the Senators shopped him around and perhaps he could be used to help address another area of need, like say on the blueline. We know Ottawa has been quietly looking for defensive help all summer and using Hoffman as a trade chip may increase their chances of finding that help.
What’s adding an extra layer of intrigue to these negotiations is the fact that Mike Hoffman isn’t your run-of-the-mill team leading goal scorer. He seemed to drift up and down the depth chart for most of the season, under both Paul MacLean and Dave Cameron, and had a hard time sticking in the team’s top six forwards. While the defensive side of the game isn’t exactly his specialty, his struggles in that side of the game had him on the fourth line at some key times in the season.
It may explain why the Senators are a little bit hesitant to lock him up to a big money, big term extension.
How this ends is anybody’s guess. Arbitration dates will be scheduled for later this month and as we know, these things have a tendency to get settled prior to arbitration. Either the two sides find some common ground before then or the Senators more seriously explore a trade involving Hoffman.
Here’s hoping the Senators and Hoffman can find some common ground over the next few weeks. The Senators could certainly use his speed and skill in the line up next season.
