For a player in the final season of his current contract, time is running out to negotiate an extension before the trade deadline. If things aren’t put together over the next few weeks, teams will have to make a decision on whether they should move the expiring asset or risk letting him walk for nothing. Nowhere is that ticking clock louder than in Ottawa, where the Senators are facing tough decisions on a trio of forwards. Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel are all scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the year, and if they don’t get a deal done soon GM Pierre Dorion might be forced to trade them.
While it’s not clear if the Senators will get a deal done with any of the three, there is at least contact between the camps. Most notably with Duchene’s representation who met with Dorion when they were in Los Angeles and according to Darren Dreger of TSN will speak again this week about a potential extension. Dreger reports that in the discussions earlier this month the two sides spoke about an eight-year contract, and suggests that the Senators are hoping to stay somewhere around $8MM per season. That apparently might not be enough for Duchene’s camp, who Dreger points out might be looking for somewhere between $65-75MM, presumably also over that eight-year term.
Whether the Senators want to sign Duchene or not, a contract of that magnitude is one that takes a lot of consideration for a budget team. In fact, a $64MM deal like Dreger suggests would be three times as big as any contract Dorion has handed out in the past. His previous high water mark was the four-year, $20.75MM deal handed out to Mike Hoffman in 2016, one that obviously didn’t work out perfectly for the Senators. Even Dorion’s predecessor Bryan Murray only signed a single player to a deal eclipsing $50MM, and that was the seven-year $50.75MM deal for Bobby Ryan that is haunting the Senators’ salary structure to this day.
Obviously the team has paid out big contracts before, but it’s hard to imagine them forking over more than $125MM in the next few weeks to Duchene and Stone. Both players are undeniable talents, but may just be too pricey for the Senators to keep around. If that’s the case, the team will need some time to work out the best trade for the organization, meaning a decision will have to come in the next few weeks.
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would keep stone and move dzingel and duchene. if you are rebuilding have someone like stone in the locker room and ice will be good for the young guys coming up.