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Ottawa Senators, Matt Duchene In “Substantive Contract Talks”

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Despite the dark cloud that has hovered over the Ottawa Senators for more than a year, the team now finds themselves at 6-6-3 on the season after a big win last night against the New Jersey Devils. That win was important to show the team’s resilience after the latest public scandal that included a recorded conversation of players badmouthing their coaching staff. Interestingly, as Bob McKenzie of TSN notes on the latest edition of Insider Trading, one of the players involved in that video was Matt Duchene who is currently in a contract negotiation with the team. McKenzie reports that Duchene’s agent and Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion are in “substantive contract talks” and that there is interest from both sides in at least discussing a long-term extension.

As we examined recently, Duchene’s future with the Senators is perhaps the single most important decision that Dorion has to make this season. The team gave up a large package of assets to bring him to Ottawa that included Kyle Turris, prospect Shane Bowers and infamously an unprotected first-round pick. At the time, it looked like Duchene was acquired as the missing piece of a puzzle that was closer to the Stanley Cup finals than the draft lottery, but basically everything has gone downhill since then. Now in the final year of his contract, Duchene is potentially one of the top names available in the 2019 unrestricted free agent class and could be a valuable trade chip at the deadline if no extension is reached.

Still just 27 years old, despite now being in his tenth full NHL season, Duchene is off to a fast start. With 15 points in 15 games he is well on his way to one of the best seasons of his career, something that would set him up for a huge windfall in free agency. Currently making $6.5MM (with a $6MM cap hit) in the final season of a five-year $30MM contract signed with Colorado in 2013, he could secure a substantial raise with a point-per-game season. The Senators are giving him every chance at that type of contract by playing him more than any other forward not named Mark Stone, but whether they’re willing to hand it out themselves is still up for debate. Ottawa has cut costs considerably over the last few seasons, and couldn’t come to an agreement with captain Erik Karlsson on an extension of his own. Karlsson was likely demanding quite a bit more than Duchene’s camp will be asking for, but the finances of any long-term market value deal are tricky for Ottawa.

The team is heading towards a similar result with Stone, who is proving to be one of the best wingers in the NHL and is currently on a one-year deal worth $7.35MM. He’s also scheduled for unrestricted free agency and will perhaps be asking for an even bigger contract given that he’s younger than Duchene and is on track for his second consecutive point-per-game season. There seems little chance that both players will be re-signed, especially with others like Cody Ceci also needing a slice of the pie next summer.

Duchene though remains the focus at the moment, and if the “substantive talks” result in a contract extension soon it would show that the latest scandal is behind the team, and that both players and executives are focused on winning right away. Though they still may end near the bottom of the standings this season, the group on the ice right now has shown that there is still talent in Ottawa—whether it is enough to convince their free agents to stay is still yet to be determined.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Mike Condon Officially Assigned To AHL

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Though Mike Condon cleared waivers earlier this month, the Ottawa Senators hadn’t actually assigned him to the minor leagues yet. That changed this morning, when the team officially moved their veteran goaltender to the Belleville Senators to get some work in and regain his confidence. Mike McKenna has already been up with Ottawa for the last few days, and served as the backup for their most recent game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The move may be to prepare for Brady Tkachuk’s return from injured reserve, as Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports that the young forward is back in a full-contact sweater today at practice.

Condon, 28, struggled mightily in his first two appearances this season for the Senators and needs to hit the reset button on his career. After a bad year behind a disappointing team in 2017-18, he’s on the edge of being pushed out of the NHL entirely. Ottawa will give him a chance to find his groove again in the minor leagues, but it’s not like Condon has a huge body of work to fall back on. His rookie season in Montreal, when forced into action due to a Carey Price injury, Condon showed he could be useful but not outstanding in the NHL. A .903 save percentage that year wasn’t good enough to post even a .500 record with the Canadiens, and he couldn’t secure a long-term job.

In Ottawa, his .914 save percentage was a huge part of the upstart Senators finish in 2016-17 and eventual run to within a goal of the Stanley Cup Finals. That year though is the only one in which he’s posted numbers anywhere near league average in the NHL, meaning questions surrounding his ability are bound to creep into conversation until he proves otherwise.

Undrafted, Condon signed out of Princeton University and is now in the second season of a three-year deal with the Senators. His contract carries a cap hit of $2.4MM, but more importantly to a team like Ottawa actually pays him $3MM next season. That amount is way too much for an organization to keep in the minor leagues, meaning he either needs to find a way to improve his play or likely find himself on his way out of town.

One Year Later: Matt Duchene Will Dictate The Senators’ Future

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A year ago today, the Ottawa Senators made a three-team deal with the Colorado Avalanche and the Nashville Predators. Since then, names like Erik Karlsson, Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, Evander Kane, and Tomas Tatar (twice) have all been traded. Yet, it’s that November 5th deal that is still the most memorable recent trade for many, due to both the immediate impact and the lasting results.

In that trade, Ottawa – at a contract impasse with center Kyle Turris – dealt he, first-round prospect forward Shane Bowers, goaltender Andrew Hammond, a first-round pick, and a third-round pick to Colorado. The Avs then flipped Turris to Nashville for defenseman Samuel Girard, forward Vladislav Kamenev, and a second-round pick. It was quite a haul for Colorado and they have yet to even use either of Ottawa’s picks, including a likely lottery pick in the first round next year. The Predators meanwhile signed Turris to a six-year extension and he has 53 points in 79 games since joining the team. The return for all of this for the Senators? Matt Duchene, who a year later is in limbo with an expiring contract and a team that is far from the contender he was promised.

As TSN’s Ian Mendes notes, Senators GM Pierre Dorion was coming off a 2016-17 season that saw his team make a run to the Eastern Conference final. When he acquired Duchene, he thought it could be the final piece of the puzzle to get them back and through that third round of the playoffs. Instead, Ottawa sunk to the second-worst record in the NHL. It’s too late to reverse that trade or the events of last season. The team could have simply traded Turris for picks and prospects at the deadline, as Mendes points out, and certainly could have found a deal for a top-six forward this off-season that was far less expensive. Their first-round pick in 2019 could be first overall, franchise center Jack Hughes, and there’s nothing they could do. Boston University standout Bowers could blossom into a top-line forward, but there’s no recourse for that. The only element of the trade left in the control of Dorion and the Senators is the future of Duchene and with it potentially the future of the team.

Ottawa is faced with two choices this season: pay Duchene or trade him. The 2009 third overall pick carries a $6MM cap hit on his current contract. If he were to hit the open market, he would certainly be due a raise. Duchene’s alleged reason for wanting out of Colorado last season was ironically that he didn’t want to play through a rebuild. If that is still his mindset, it would take a substantial sum from the Senators to keep him around. Owner Eugene Melnyk has been unwilling to pay his better player their fair value, leading to the Karlsson trade and likely more moves to come. Will he make an exception for Duchene? If not, the Senators need to move Duchene and sooner rather than later. The trade deadline will be the final opportunity to trade the star center, who will have a long list of suitors, but his value drops each day leading up to that point. Dorion will likely never get back a package commensurate with what he gave up for Duchene, but his best chance to get close is to trade him as soon as possible to the highest bidder.

Either option serves to benefit the Senators. Duchene may not be a superstar, but he is a talented, well-rounded player who is capable of leading Ottawa out of the basement if provided with at least a little support. On the other side, the team cannot escape the reality of their own rebuild and could greatly use the trade capital that they would gain from a Duchene trade. The worst case scenario – and a veritable death knell for the franchise – would be to make neither decision, opting not to trade Duchene and waiting and hoping for an extension agreement only to watch him walk away in free agency. One year later, this notorious trade is still so prevalent around the NHL. The Senators should celebrate the anniversary by making another major move with Duchene – a new contract or another trade – as soon as humanly possible.

Pacific Notes: Suomela, Pacioretty, Eaves

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The San Jose Sharks have done a nice job of re-making their roster over the past year, adding players like Erik Karlsson and Evander Kane to an already talented roster, but one area the team still needs help in is that the center position, particularly the third-line center position that was vacated by Chris Tierney when the Sharks traded him to the Ottawa Senators in the Karlsson move, according to Paul Gackle of The Mercury News.

After starting the season with Finnish import Antti Suomela for the first 13 games, Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said he intends to sit Suomela and look at other options for that spot.

“I felt good until the last two games about our four-line game,” said DeBoer. “The answer to (the Tierney question) is internally in here. It’s just about guys grabbing that job and that opportunity.”

DeBoer believes that there are three in-house candidates who can take that center spot on the third line, including Suomela, Rourke Chartier and Dylan Gambrell. DeBoer hasn’t given up on Suomela being the answer, but notes that many players struggle after the first exciting stretch of games.

“You hit a little bit of a wall,” said DeBoer. “You take your foot off the gas a little bit. He’s out tonight and we’ll reset. He knows he can play in this league. He knows he can create offense in this league, but there’s a consistency to that compete level every night that maybe in some other leagues you don’t need. That’s something you have to learn.”

  • The Vegas Golden Knights believe winger Max Pacioretty is close to returning as the 29-year-old was a full participant in Saturday’s morning skate and while he is not playing in Saturday’s game against Carolina, is expected to join the team on their upcoming four-game roadtrip, according to David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Pacioretty has missed three straight games after taking a severe hit from Tampa Bay Lighning defenseman Braydon Coburn and is still listed as day-to-day. “Everything’s going real well,” coach Gerard Gallant said after practice. “He told me it’s going in the right direction. It’s a good sign.”
  • While Anaheim Ducks forward Patrick Eaves didn’t do anything significant in his first game back Thursday since missing all but two games last year due to illness and injury, but the veteran forward feels that he can make a difference for a struggling Ducks’ team. Even though expectations are low for Eaves, the 34-year-old veteran had a 32-goal season in 2016-17 and is capable of sparking the offense. “It’s hard to put any expectations on him other than, hopefully, he survives, gets through it and gets his feet underneath him,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “It’s going to take him some time, so I’m going to withhold my assessment until maybe after the next game.”

Minor Transactions: 11/02/18

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NHL action in Finland is back on the schedule for this afternoon, following Patrik Laine’s hat trick yesterday in front of his home country. Aleksander Barkov will try to get some revenge as the Florida Panthers look to split the European series. The rest of the NHL, save for four teams playing later this evening, will be assessing their rosters and making any moves necessary for the weekend. We’ll keep track of all those minor moves right here.

  • Nate Prosser has been sent back to the minor leagues on a conditioning stint by the Minnesota Wild, given he’s only played three minutes of ice time the entire season. Prosser dressed as the seventh defenseman two weeks ago, but hasn’t seen any game action since. He’ll try to change that by getting into a back-to-back-to-back series with the Iowa Wild starting tonight.
  • Connor Carrick has been placed on injured reserve by the Dallas Stars, meaning Dillon Heatherington will get his first chance of the season. Heatherington played six games with the Stars last season and is off to a strong start in the AHL, with four points in his first ten games for the Texas Stars. The 23-year old defenseman was selected 50th overall in 2013, but is still trying to establish himself as a full-time piece with Dallas.
  • Rookie forward Jack Rodewald is on his way back to Ottawa. The Senators have recalled Rodewald from their AHL affiliate in Belleville just one day after sending him down. Rodewald, 24, has logged limited minutes on the fourth line for Ottawa simply as forward depth while the team awaits the return of Zack Smith.

Evan Bouchard, Alex Formenton Heading Back To Junior

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The Edmonton Oilers have decided that if Evan Bouchard isn’t going to play every night in the NHL, he might as well continue his development back in junior. The team, according to Mark Spector of Sportsnet, has returned Bouchard to the OHL’s London Knights for the remainder of the season. Bouchard played just seven games in the NHL this year, meaning he will not burn the first year of his entry-level contract. He will however instantly become a favorite to lead Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, and will help elevate London to a Memorial Cup contender once again. The team has recalled Kevin Gravel from the minor leagues to take Bouchard’s roster spot.

Similarly, the Ottawa Senators decided last night that Alex Formenton would be better served playing this season in junior as well. Amazingly he’s also returning to London in the OHL for the rest of the year, and should immediately become a dangerous offensive weapon for the team. Formenton played nine games with the Senators, meaning he too will not burn the first year of his entry-level contract.

While both Edmonton and Ottawa will lose some of their young depth, this is huge news for the Knights and Team Canada. Formenton was already a dominant presence at the World Junior tournament a year ago given his outstanding speed and surprising grit, and could potentially lead the team in scoring if given the chance. Bouchard meanwhile already showed that he can be the most dominant defenseman in the OHL, and now returns to a team that already has fellow high draft pick Adam Boqvist competing at a high level. Though NHL action is certainly in the future for both players, they’ll have to settle for winning at the junior and international levels for now.

Mike Condon, Ben Street Placed On Waivers

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Thursday: Both Condon and Street have cleared waivers, and can now be assigned to the minor leagues.

Wednesday: After a tough night in Arizona, Mike Condon has been placed on waivers by the Ottawa Senators according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Joining Condon today is Ben Street of the Anaheim Ducks, while Jakub Jerabek has cleared and has been assigned to the minor leagues by the St. Louis Blues.

Condon has gone through quite a disastrous spell since signing a three-year, $7.2MM contract with the Senators in June of 2017. That summer he was coming off a very successful campaign in which he recorded a .914 save percentage and helped Ottawa get all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. Since, he’s recorded just a .898 save percentage and won just five of his 28 starts. His and fellow netminder Craig Anderson’s disappointing 2017-18 season were a huge part of why the Senators fell to the bottom of the standings, and now there’s some question about whether or not he’ll be able to find his game again.

It’s not like Condon is at the beginning of his career, just dealing with a bump in the road. He’ll turn 29 this season, and could very well be on his way out of the league if he can’t turn things around. For now, he’ll likely clear waivers due to his hefty contract and try to work his way back to relevancy in the minor leagues. John Shannon of Sportsnet reports that it will be either veteran goaltender Mike McKenna or prospect Filip Gustavsson that will be called up to replace Condon in Ottawa and back up Anderson.

For Street, it’s a numbers game as the Ducks try to find a way to right the ship in the early part of the season. Patrick Eaves is close to a return, and with Kalle Kossila and Kiefer Sherwood making there return Anaheim needed to send someone back down. Street will likely join Sam Steel in the minor leagues, though was still skating with the team today.

Ottawa Senators Make Five Roster Moves

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The Ottawa Senators have had a busy morning when it comes to roster moves, sending Jack Rodewald and Christian Wolanin to the AHL in exchange for Erik Burgdoerfer, Nick Paul and Mike McKenna. McKenna in particular is the name fans were waiting to hear, as he’ll be the option to replace Mike Condon in net for the time being. Condon is on waivers and is expected to be assigned to the AHL should he clear today.

Ottawa has a game tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, and will have Craig Anderson in net behind the suddenly struggling team. After a solid start to the year, the group has lost their last four matches and are plummeting towards the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Perhaps Burgdoerfer can give them some secrets on their opponent tonight, given he spent a season playing in the Buffalo organization in 2016-17. The team is currently carrying eight defensemen, given Mark Borowiecki’s ongoing suspension, and have dressed seven of them at times already this season.

If they don’t dress seven, they’ll be inserting Paul back into the lineup given they only have 12 forwards currently on the roster. The 23-year old forward does have six points in his first six AHL games, and is looking to get back into NHL action for the first time this season.

Mark Borowiecki Suspended For Three Games

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Mark Borowiecki’s return to Ottawa’s lineup didn’t last very long.  In his first game back following a suspension for an elbowing incident against the Bruins, the league announced that he has been suspended for three games for an illegal check on Golden Knights center Cody Eakin on Sunday.

The incident occurred in the first period of the game and Borowiecki was assessed a five-minute major penalty for charging and a game misconduct on the play.  However, the fact that he was just coming off of a suspension likely did not sit well with the Department of Player Safety as it’s their expectation that suspensions are supposed to serve as deterrents moving forward.

The 29-year-old is now viewed as a repeat offender for salary forfeiture purposes, meaning that he will forfeit just under $44K in salary (3/82 multiplied by his $1.2MM salary).  Borowiecki will be eligible to return to Ottawa’s lineup on November 4th against Tampa Bay.  With the Sens down to just 12 healthy forwards and seven defensemen on their roster, they may decide to make a roster move in advance of their game on Tuesday night.

Brady Tkachuk Resumes Skating; Zack Smith Undergoes Surgery

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Senators winger Brady Tkachuk skated for the first time today since tearing a ligament in his leg, notes Postmedia’s Ken Warren.  The fourth pick back in June was off to a very strong start to his season with three goals and three assists in just four games before suffering the injury.  Although this is certainly a step in the right direction, he’s likely to miss at least another two to three weeks based on the original recovery timeframe.

Meanwhile, Warren adds (via Twitter) that center Zack Smith underwent surgery on Sunday to repair a trio of facial fractures and has been prohibited from any physical activity for at least a week.  He has been placed on injured reserve.  The Senators are now down to just 12 healthy forwards so there’s a possibility that they’ll make a roster move in advance of Tuesday’s game against Arizona.

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