In his season-ending press conference, Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion discussed several topics including the future of head coach Guy Boucher—which will be determined after the draft lottery—the decision to keep their 2018 draft pick, and the option of buyouts to help their cap situation this summer.
On buyouts, Dorion admitted that they had discussed the possibility with several players during their exit interviews. While he wouldn’t reveal exactly who those players were, one has to assume that Bobby Ryan and Marian Gaborik were among them. The pair are under contract for more than $12MM combined for the next three seasons (with Ryan extended even a year past that) but haven’t been able to live up to their previous career success.
With the team needing salary and cap space for not only Erik Karlsson’s potential mega-deal, but extensions for Matt Duchene and Mark Stone, buyouts could be an attractive option.
Ryan, 31, scored just 33 points this season and played just 62 games while dealing with several injuries. His 11 goals was the lowest of his career in a full-length season, and his play doesn’t seem like it will ever return to the 30-goal man of his youth. If a buyout were used however, it would be quite a financial commitment by the Senators.
Since signing bonuses are paid out regardless of a buyout, Ryan would be in line to collect more than $22.6MM of the remaining $30MM on his contract. Paying out that much for someone to not play for your team is something that the richer teams in the league can do, but Ottawa has never been one to hand out money.
Get rid of Boucher and the team is instantly better. Get rid of Ryan and use his money for extension and the future is instantly better.
But none of this will happen and Cody Ceci will get a 5 year deal to be a top pairing dman
I don’t believe Boucher is the main problem. his style was fine the previous year. the issue was poor goaltending and a horrible d core. when you go into a season with a workhorse off foot surgery and no clear #2 your team will struggle. the team has simply been built poorly not coached all that poorly.
Maybe, but he was part of the problem. He could’ve put any dman on the roster with Karlsson but somehow Oduya was the guy? Or the fact that the young guys got scratched or sent down when they were obviously better than Dumont, Oduya, Burrows etc
Ryan handcuffs them big time. Sens may not have any other choice but to package Karlsson with Ryan and try and get something out of it. It’s sad but true…
of course he does but packaging him with karlsson only makes your team worse. yes you get money off the books but the prospect package is lower and it’s not like Cheap Eugene is going to spend the extra money. plus not too many teams will take on both without forcing Ottawa to take a 6-7 million dollar contract back.