If you thought this off season was boring before, you are in for a rude awakening over the next couple months.
With free agency all but over and only potential arbitration hearings left to look forward to, things are going to be pretty quiet around the league for the next little while. If there’s a saving grace, it’s that you’ll sometimes see the odd trade this time of year.
In fact, the Brassard for Zibanejad trade, which seemed to come out of nowhere, happened a year ago tomorrow. It was on July 18, 2016 that Dorion pulled the trigger on his first big trade as Senators General Manager, bringing Brassard over from the New York Rangers.
Maybe he has another one of those in him this time around?
While we wait…another edition of Monday News and Notes. Featuring less news and fewer notes than ever!
-Ryan Dzingel’s arbitration hearing is scheduled for this Friday. The last time Pierre Dorion talked about the status of these negotiations, he seemed to hint that he would not be surprised to see this one actually get decided through a hearing. The Senators prefer a short term contract in this situation and because the 25 year old Dzingel has just one full NHL season under his belt, he really doesn’t have a ton of leverage. The priority for the Senators will be keeping next year’s salary as low as possible and the best way to do that may be through arbitration. The two sides can continue to negotiate a deal right up until Friday’s hearing.
-Jean Gabriel Pageau’s hearing is a week later, scheduled for July 28th. That gives the Senators a little more time to avoid a hearing which seems to be their preference in these negotiations. Again, it’s safe to assume they’ll be looking to structure the deal in a way that keeps the salary as low as possible next year except in this case, they are comfortable going longer term. It has been mentioned a few times but anything beyond three years and the Senators are buying UFA years which can get a little pricey. We’ve seen the Senators go through these situations a lot in recent years but you can read a bit more about the arbitration process here.
-Travis Yost wrote an interesting column last week about the recent string of signing bonus-heavy contracts around the league. With the end of the current CBA looming, players around the NHL are negotiating contracts with huge signing bonuses and a lot of it is being paid out during the 2020-2021 season. This means that if there is a lockout that year, some players will still be able to collect a big pay cheque on July 1st anyway. It’s hard not to fast forward to next summer and think about what this might mean for Erik Karlsson’s new contract. There have been rumours of cash flow issues with the Senators in the past so you wonder how keen (or able) they would be to pay out a huge signing bonus in a potential lockout year. Take a look at Carey Price’s recent contract to see just how high that payout can be.
-Last week’s news that the Carolina Hurricanes could be sold for a staggering $500 million dollars predictably prompted discussion about the value of the Ottawa Senators. When Eugene Melnyk bought the team back in 2003 he paid a cool $100 million and at last check, the team was valued by Forbes at around $355 million. The price paid for the Hurricanes is a pretty strong indication that the Senators are actually worth a whole lot more than that. Especially when you consider the prospect of a move downtown looming on the horizon. Although the downtown development would seriously narrow the field of potential buyers though. Melnyk has made it clear in the past that he has absolutely no interest in selling the team so maybe it doesn’t matter what they’re worth? Unless of course, the Sens Owner reached a point where financially, he had no choice but to sell.
-As of July 1st, the Senators were free to negotiate extensions with players that have a contracts expiring at the end of next season. That includes goaltender Craig Anderson and forwards Kyle Turris and Mark Stone. While the Anderson situation should be fairly straightforward, contract talks with Turris and Stone will be a little more complex. Based on some of the deals paid out this summer, it’s safe to assume that both those guys will get north of $6 million on their next deal. During his last appearance on TSN1200, Dorion suggested that contract talks with those three players will wait until after they sort out deals with Dzingel and Pageau.
