The only thing more frozen than the City of Ottawa was the puck, moments before St. Louis scored the game-winning goal on Saturday night.
The good news is, it’s going to warm up a bit by Wednesday. In fact, the only place warmer was the under collar of Guy Boucher following that missed call on Saturday night.
Not going to lie folks- the only thing I have planned for this edition of Monday News and Notes is a series of forced officiating-related weather puns so we’ll see how this goes. Because frankly, it’s too damn cold to blog. Cold like the hearts of the officials that stole that game from the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Okay, I’m done.
-For those that missed it, the always-reliable Nick Kypreos had an interesting update on the Matt Duchene front on Saturday night. Despite the initial suggestions that Ottawa did not make an offer during Pierre Dorion’s sudden trip to Los Angeles, it sounds like the GM did indeed make his pitch. And it’s a pretty big one. According to Kypreos, the Sens tabled an 8 year offer worth $64 million. As in $8 mil per season for Matt Duchene. On the surface, that seems entirely reasonable. While Duchene may be able to get more on the open market, the extra year would appear to give the Senators a slight edge over the unknown that is unrestricted free agency. On the surface anyway. Much like with Erik Karlsson this summer, the structure of the deal is just as important as the dollar amount. Without those big ol’ bonuses more wealthy teams are handing out, it’s hard to evaluate the quality of the offer.
-The Duchene news seemed to be sort of trickling out at a steady pace this weekend which suggests that one of the two sides involved in these discussions wants those numbers out there. Darren Dreger weighed in on Sunday morning, suggesting that talks between the Senators and Duchene would continue this week and that the total dollar amount could range anywhere from $65 mil to $75 mil. The higher end of that range would take Duchene north of $9 mil. Yeesh. The interesting part of Dreger’s tweet (who was the one who previously said no offer was made) is that he labelled it “ballpark discussions”. This goes without saying here but the clock is ticking if the two sides are serious about getting something done. Sounds like this could be a defining week in Matt Duchene’s future with the Senators.
Matt Duchene, a man who can do both. 🎸🏒@Senators forward @Matt9Duchene performs a couple country songs and opens up about fatherhood in the latest “Skates Off” feature. pic.twitter.com/qDJkPgTN7D
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 20, 2019
-The Saturday Headlines segment also included an update on Mark Stone. Similar to Duchene, it sounds like the Senators did indeed table an offer to Stone’s camp last week. And according to Elliotte Friedman, that offer is bigger than the one they made to Matt Duchene. So that’s like $150 mil in contract offers made in the last week or so. Sort of stunning considering the way Eugene Melnyk has run things over the last few years combined with how poor attendance has been this season. Maybe those LeBreton mediation talks with DCDLS are going better than expected? Either way, like Duchene, the offer to Stone is tough to gauge without a sense of the structure of the offer. It is encouraging to hear that they are making an effort though.
-Speaking of LeBreton, could be an interesting week on that front with the National Capital Commission (NCC) Board of Directors scheduled to meeting later this week. The NCC granted the RendezVous LeBreton group and mediator Willy Winkler an extension until February 28th before they terminate their deal but you would still think there might be some conversation about the current status of the project at that meeting on January 25th. Agendas are usually released mid-week so we should have a better idea if it will even be discussed by Wednesday. Despite all the talk about running an open and transparent process, it’s sort of shocking how much of this is playing out behind closed doors. The fact that the second-place bid is actively involved in mediation talks seems like something that would require an update of sorts from the NCC.
-Two names you can expect to hear a lot of in the weeks leading up to the NHL trade deadline- Cody Ceci and Ryan Dzingel. Dzingel is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and to this point, it doesn’t sound like there has been much talk of an extension. Not surprising when you consider the other things Dorion has on his plate. Dzingel has 19 goals through 47 games and is well on his way to a career year. His combination of speed and finish will be popular among playoff-bound teams, should the Senators decide to move him. Cody Ceci may be a surprising name in the rumour mill but it really does sound like the Senators are considering whether this might be a good time to move on. Ceci is an RFA at the end of the year and much like last summer, a long-term extension is a terrifying possibility. Lots of teams looking for right-shot defenceman and if Cody Ceci is anything, it’s a right-shot defenceman.
-Just when things seemed to be going his way, the injury bug has hit Logan Brown again. He left the game on Friday night after taking a cross-check and then was out of the line up on Saturday afternoon. It didn’t sound like the injury was a serious one but for the 20 year old Brown, they sure are adding up early in his career. It’s a shame too because when he’s healthy, he looks like a player that is close to becoming an everyday NHLer. He has 18 points through 28 AHL games this season. Pretty good numbers for a player in his rookie season of pro hockey. He had points in five straight before his most recent injury.
-Light schedule for the Senators this week as they play host to the Arizona Coyotes tomorrow night and then have a full nine days off before their next game in Pittsburgh next Friday. Nine days?! Good time to get those ChirpEd submissions in folks. Guy Boucher will have his team on the ice for practice at 10:30 AM this morning.
