Earlier this weekend, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in his latest 32 Thoughts column that the Senators and Claude Giroux were battling over the bonus structure of his next deal. However, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch adds that at this point, the base salary is still being worked on as well, with the belief that Giroux’s camp is looking for a salary around teammate David Perron’s $4MM; Ottawa is coming in below that. As long as the 37-year-old signs a one-year contract, Giroux is eligible for performance incentives, including games played, points, and team playoff success. While his days of being a top-line option are long gone, Giroux still projects as one of the better options available in free agency coming off a 50-point season.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- Bruins forward Morgan Geekie told Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe that discussions on a new contract have been “pretty preliminary” so far. The 26-year-old was non-tendered the last time he was a pending restricted free agent, signing a two-year, $4MM deal with Boston that proved to be quite a bargain. Geekie had 39 points in 2023-24 and then followed that up with a 33-goal, 57-point effort this season. That could push his price tag past the $5MM mark on a multi-year deal this time around. He’s arbitration-eligible but with hearings generally running from July 20 to August 4, it’s possible that Boston’s plan is to simply let him file for arbitration late next week and then start to have more substantive discussions on a new agreement at that time.
- After playing through a torn adductor muscle for the entire postseason, Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk told reporters including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald that he is 50-50 in terms of whether he’ll need surgery or not. He will take the next few weeks to let the injury heal on its own and then see if he’ll need to go under the knife. If surgery is needed, it could put Tkachuk’s availability for the start of next season in question. Despite the injury, he still managed to produce a point per game in Florida’s 23 playoff contests.
Why did Ottawa sign Perron in the first place? Terrible signing!
Florida getting lined up to use LTIR from the get go next year :)
They already won a cup without it. Vegas couldn’t do that.
Won’t need to. They can sign Bennett and Ekblad to standard contracts and then sign Marchand to a series of one year deals with easily attainable incentives.
Not a guaranteed certainty for Marchand, now is it?
The LTIR was collectively bargained so I have no issue with it and love watching you and your chronically complaining clan whine about it. That said, the Panthers putting Matthew Tkachuk on LTIR allowed them to make trades for Seth Jones and Brad Marchand. Watching you pretend to know everything about everything about everything about hockey while not even know the recent, simple stuff is outstanding!
Geekies contract will be bad as soon as he signs it.
Marchand spent his whole life in the Northeast. I wonder if he enjoys Southern Florida?
Sure seems to like it. :)