Anthony Leblanc Resigns
- Anthony Leblanc has stepped down as Ottawa’s President of Business Operations and Alternate Governor, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Leblanc had held that role since 2020 and had previously spent time in the NHL with Arizona from 2013-2017. Changes shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise with Michael Andlauer set to take over soon as the new owner of the team. Andlauer was advised in his pursuit of the team by former Senators executive Cyril Leeder; Garrioch suggests that Leeder could return to the club once the purchase is officially finalized.
Detroit Red Wings Acquire Alex DeBrincat
Much of the recent speculation surrounding Alex DeBrincat and the Ottawa Senators largely centered around the New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks as being the most likely suitors in any trade. At the beginning of the offseason, once news broke that DeBrincat may find his way out of Ottawa, the Detroit Red Wings were deemed the likeliest landing spot, but seemed to have fallen out of the running.
In a surprising turn of events, the Red Wings eventually came out on top, trading Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, a conditional first-round pick in 2024, and a fourth-round pick in 2024. Furthermore, Detroit also announced a four-year, $31.5MM contract with DeBrincat, paying him an AAV of $7.785MM. The Farmington Hills, MI native is now officially a part of his childhood team.
By acquiring DeBrincat, Detroit immediately addresses one of the major problems that has plagued them the last several seasons, their offense. Two seasons ago, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks at the time, DeBrincat scored 41 goals and 37 assists in 82 games. This past season with the Senators, DeBrincat scored 27 goals and 39 assists in 82 games. Interestingly enough, DeBrincat has also been extremely good all-time against his new team, scoring 11 goals and 30 points in 23 games against the Red Wings in his career.
In context to the condition attached to the first-round pick headed to the Senators, Detroit will have the option to send either their own 2024 first-round selection or the Bruins’ 2024 first-round selection. On Boston’s draft pick, if the pick falls within the top ten of the 2024 draft, the pick will convey to the Bruins’ 2025 first-round selection. At that time, the Red Wings will have the option of sending their own 2024 first-round selection, or the 2025 first-round selection originally owned by Boston.
The contract for DeBrincat will place him second among Red Wings’ earners, sitting behind the eight-year, $69.6MM extension the team handed out to captain Dylan Larkin last season. Given that the 2023-24 season would have been DeBrincat’s last as a restricted free agent, the contract also buys out three years of unrestricted free agency, putting DeBrincat at 29 years for the first time he hits the open market.
From Ottawa’s standpoint, it is hard to imagine this as a positive return. Kubalik has shown offensive skill in the past but struggled mightily down the stretch for the Red Wings last season. In 81 games played for Detroit last year, Kubalik scored 20 goals and 25 assists in 80 games, something that should play well in the Senators’ middle-six forward group. The other player in the deal, Sebrango, was a former 63rd overall pick of the Red Wings back in the 2020 NHL Draft, and split time between the Grand Rapids Griffins and Toledo Walleye last year.
Unfortunately for Ottawa, they were unable to recoup the draft capital they once spent to acquire DeBrincat in the first place. At last year’s draft, the Senators sent their first-round pick, second-round pick, and a third-round selection in 2024 to acquire DeBrincat from the Chicago Blackhawks. That first-round selection would be seventh overall, allowing the Blackhawks to select defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Given the condition of the first-round pick going to Ottawa in this deal, it is unlikely that it will get even close to seventh overall in whichever year the condition is met.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was the first to report that DeBrincat had been traded, and the first to report he would land with Detroit.
David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period was the first to report the contract details between the Red Wings and DeBrincat.
PuckPedia was the first to report the conditions of the first-round pick going to the Senators in the deal.
Ottawa Senators Agree To Terms With Zack MacEwen
The Ottawa Senators have added some physicality to their bottom six, signing forward Zack MacEwen to a three-year contract worth $2.325MM. It’s a one-way deal, which carries the league-minimum average annual value of $775K.
MacEwen, 26, split his playing time between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings during the 2022-23 season. After being acquired by the Kings prior to the trade deadline, he recorded 10 points (four goals, six assists) and 66 penalty minutes in 56 regular-season games with both teams. He also played 6:44 in his lone playoff appearance in Game 3 of the first round against the Edmonton Oilers. He also played two games on assignment to start the season with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, recording a goal and two assists.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion gave a statement on the signing:
Zack’s a player with strong character who adds increased physicality to our lineup. He’s a hard-nosed, competitive player who’s a tenacious forechecker and who demonstrates a routine willingness to go to the hard areas.
MacEwen may be an enforcer at the NHL level, but he’s shown heaps of offensive upside in juniors and in the AHL. In his 186-game NHL career to date, he’s accumulated 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points and 245 penalty minutes.
His journey to the NHL was unconventional, going undrafted after playing in the QMJHL for the Moncton Wildcats and Gatineau Olympiques. Despite not even seeing extended QMJHL action until his age-19 season, he quickly made an offensive impact which he parlayed into an entry-level contract with the Vancouver Canucks in 2017. MacEwen’s professional career began with the Canucks’ AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, where he broke out for 33 points in 66 games during his rookie pro campaign before making his NHL debut in 2018-19.
MacEwen went on to spend four seasons in Vancouver before being claimed off waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers in October 2021. He was dealt to the Kings for another enforcer, Brendan Lemieux, in March.
He provides a much more affordable replacement at the bottom of Ottawa’s lineup for Austin Watson, who remains an unrestricted free agent after making $1.5MM per year over his three seasons with the Senators. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
Latest On Alex DeBrincat, Belleville Senators
Yesterday, we covered reports coming out of Ottawa that stated that Senators forward Alex DeBrincat and his representation’s lofty demands for his next contract extension have been a significant barrier to a DeBrincat trade getting over the finish line. Today, DeBrincat’s agent, Jeff Jackson, spoke on those reports telling The Athletic’s Ian Mendes that the report is “entirely false and without merit,” and that “there has been no agreement of any kind on an actual trade involving Alex.” (subscription link)
Addressing whether DeBrincat’s contract demands were holding up the possibility of his client being traded out of Ottawa, Jackson wrote quite firmly: “Agents and players don’t make trades … that’s the GM’s job.” DeBrincat, 25, has already made it clear that he’s not interested in signing long-term with the Senators, making a trade the preferred outcome for all involved in the process. With an arbitration date looming later this offseason, it appears there could be a growing level of hostility between the involved sides, one that could make reaching a final trade agreement all the more challenging.
- In other news coming out of the Senators organization, the team has announced the hire of Nathan McIver as an assistant coach on David Bell’s Belleville Senators staff. He’ll join Ottawa’s AHL affiliate as Bell’s second assistant coach, and joins from the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL. McIver is a former AHL defenseman who played in 36 career NHL games, and he’s had a fantastic two-season run with the Growlers on Eric Wellwood’s staff.
Ottawa Senators Re-Sign Travis Hamonic
The Ottawa Senators are bringing back defenseman Travis Hamonic for two more seasons. Per PuckPedia, the 32-year-old UFA defenseman signed a two-year contract worth $1.1MM per season. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds he’s receiving a full no-movement clause in the deal.
While an afterthought on this year’s market, Hamonic actually had one of his best seasons in quite some time in 2022-23. While he saw his ice time dip from his normal 19 to 21 minutes per game, his 21 points were his most in a season since 2015-16 with the New York Islanders.
It’s a fine deal for Hamonic, who will slot in behind Jakob Chychrun and Artem Zub on the team’s right side, likely in a third-pairing role. He still doesn’t provide a ton of value defensively, at least not compared to his heyday, and he likely won’t see anything more than sheltered minutes for the rest of his NHL career.
Hamonic was coming off a two-year, $6MM contract he signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 2021. This is the lowest-paying contract of his career, save for his entry-level deal.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion offered a statement:
Travis is a key component of our group. He routinely sets a good example for our younger players with work ethic and accountability, his fearlessness and with a determination level that he seems to exceed each time he steps on the ice. He’s a leader with strong character and someone we’re very pleased to see returning.
He’ll be an unrestricted free agent once again in 2025, although not eligible for a 35+ contract, given his August birthday.
More On Alex DeBrincat, Vladimir Tarasenko
Ottawa Senators winger Alex DeBrincat was expected to be one of the hottest commodities on the offseason trade front for the second season in a row. After heading over to the Sens by way of Chicago last season, his offensive production took a small step back in 2022-23, and he then informed Ottawa he wasn’t willing to sign a long-term extension with them – or anywhere in Canada. Yesterday, general manager Pierre Dorion admitted to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that he’d granted DeBrincat’s camp permission to speak to teams about an extension on “multiple occasions,” but that proposed deals had fallen through at that point.
Garrioch was able to independently confirm that today, saying that DeBrincat’s desired contract extension is what’s holding up a trade going through – not the offers Ottawa is receiving for trade returns.
DeBrincat’s agent, Jeff Jackson, has been granted permission by the Senators to engage in contract extension talks with at least three different teams, Garrioch said. He’s reportedly seeking an eight-year, $70.2MM deal, coming in just under the $70.4MM extension Timo Meier signed with the New Jersey Devils last month. That would be an $8.775MM cap hit for DeBrincat, with Garrioch saying teams are trying to get him signed to a contract closer to the $8MM mark.
Obviously, the ongoing delay in resolving DeBrincat’s contract situation is hampering other important business for the Senators. Clearing his $9MM cap hit for the upcoming season would free up significant cap space, enabling the team to sign other players ahead of a 2023-24 season where the expectation is to unequivocally turn a corner in their rebuild – including, potentially, Vladimir Tarasenko, who The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta says is nearing a decision on where to sign. Ottawa remains in the running for his services, as do the Carolina Hurricanes (who’ve already added Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting as UFAs).
The New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks have shown interest in acquiring DeBrincat, Garrioch reiterates, with offers likely to include a roster player that can contribute immediately.
Latest On Alex DeBrincat
With Senators winger Alex DeBrincat making it known that he does not intend to sign a long-term deal with Ottawa, there has been an expectation of a trade for several weeks. However, the draft came and went without any move and after yesterday’s flurry of signings, there aren’t many teams left that can cover the full cost of a long-term agreement.
Speaking with reporters yesterday including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, GM Pierre Dorion provided some updates on the status of trade talks. He noted that on multiple occasions, they seemed to be close on a trade but once his agent (Wasserman’s Jeff Jackson) received permission to speak to the acquiring team about working out a new contract, they weren’t able to come to terms, scuttling the swap.
On Saturday, Dorion provided Jackson with permission to speak to multiple teams about a new contract for DeBrincat but again, nothing to this point has materialized. The GM attempted to explain the reasoning:
There’s varying degrees of interest. Teams call, we get close to a deal, I give them permission, and sometimes they’re not ready to pay maybe the term that we’re ready to pay. He’s 25 years old, so he’s looking for something in particular, and I can talk about it because we own his rights, so I think the degrees (of interest) vary.
DeBrincat is coming off a quieter year by his standards but he still put up 27 goals and 39 assists last season in his first year with Ottawa. But with two 41-goal seasons under his belt from his time with Chicago, it would appear that Jackson is seeking a contract for his client that’s more commensurate with his historical production. Evidently, teams aren’t giving into that just yet.
The Senators filed for club-elected salary arbitration with DeBrincat in the first window last month, taking the $9MM qualifying offer off the table. Instead, that allows them to come in with an offer as low as $7.65MM. Arbitration hearings don’t start until late July and roll into early August so that represents the next hard pressure point, so to speak.
However, it’s still in Ottawa’s best interest to try to get a trade done before then as this situation is likely holding up some of their offseason spending plans. Until they know who they’re getting back for DeBrincat – it almost certainly won’t just be a futures-based return – they won’t know exactly how much more money they have left to work with. Right now, there are still several quality players available on the open market. By the time arbitration hearings being, that’s unlikely to be the case. But at this point, the hold-up appears to be on DeBrincat’s end in terms of his asking price on a contract, not Ottawa’s asking price in a trade.
Ottawa Senators Sign Five Players
The Ottawa Senators have announced one-year, two-way contracts for minor-league forwards Rourke Chartier, Josh Currie, and Bokondji Imama. All three players will earn $775K at the NHL level; in the minors, Chartier will earn $300K, Currie will earn $275K, and Imama will earn $325K. The team later announced two more contracts: forward Matthew Highmore at $775K in the NHL and $400K in the AHL, and forward Garrett Pilon at $775K in the NHL and $200K in the AHL.
Chartier, now 27, stays in the organization after a pair of strong seasons with the AHL’s Belleville Senators. The 2014 fifth-round pick of the San Jose Sharks appeared in six NHL games for Ottawa last season, his first since he scored a goal in 13 games with the Sharks in 2019. Currie, 30, is making his return to North America after spending two seasons with the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk, where he recorded 13 goals and 38 points in 96 games. Imama, 26, was a fan favorite in the Arizona Coyotes organization for the past two seasons and replaces Scott Sabourin‘s role in the Ottawa organization as their minor-league enforcer with NHL experience (Sabourin signed with the Sharks today).
As for the team’s subsequent signings, Highmore, 27, finished second on the AHL’s Springfield Thunder in scoring last season with 61 points in 68 games but was a full-time NHLer as recently as 2021-22 with the Vancouver Canucks. The 25-year-old Pilon is coming off a Calder Cup win with the AHL’s Hershey Bears and has 156 points in 259 career AHL games.
Ottawa Senators Sign Joonas Korpisalo
The Ottawa Senators have given netminder Joonas Korpisalo a huge payday, signing him to a five-year, $20MM contract worth $4MM per season, per the team.
This is a major investment for the Senators, who lock up Korpisalo until he’s 33 years old. The 29-year-old had quite the bounce-back season, as in 2021-22 he was backing up Elvis Merzlikins in Columbus and posting a .877 save percentage.
In 2022-23, the script flipped. Merzlikins was the one posting the grisly save percentage, while Korpisalo had an extremely strong .913 save percentage on a Blue Jackets team facing significant defensive losses.
He had an even better run of success after a trade to the Los Angeles Kings, posting a .921 save percentage in 11 games.
Korpisalo faltered a bit in the playoffs, but overall he had an encouraging bounce-back campaign.
The Senators have clearly bet on that bounce-back being more indicative of Korpisalo’s true talent level, and seeing as he had some earlier flashes of talent in Columbus there is reason to believe that bet will pay off.
But after their disastrous signing of Matt Murray, one wonders if committing term to a talented but inconsistent netminder is the best option for Ottawa. They already have Anton Forsberg and the young Mads Sogaard in the NHL mix for their goalie spots, but now one of those players might be squeezed out by this signing.
Should Korpisalo play like he did in Los Angeles with the Senators, this deal will turn out to be quite the bargain. But that’s a big “if” given the volatility Korpisalo has shown throughout his career.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Senators Will Have Interest In Frederik Andersen
Goaltender Frederik Andersen‘s future with the Carolina Hurricanes remains uncertain, as Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic suggests the Danish netminder is likely to test the UFA market today. While the door isn’t entirely closed on a return to the Hurricanes, speculations have surfaced about potential landing spots for the experienced netminder, including the Ottawa Senators, who Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch says will be calling when the market opens at 11 am CT.
As Garrioch notes, Andersen played under Senators head coach D.J. Smith when he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where Smith was an assistant for part of Andersen’s tenure. The team is looking for a veteran to supplement Anton Forsberg in the crease after deciding not to re-sign Cam Talbot, as well as providing insurance for young third-string netminder Mads Sogaard – another Dane to whom Andersen would provide invaluable mentorship.
Per LeBrun, the Pittsburgh Penguins could also attempt to sign Andersen if re-signing Tristan Jarry falls through. The Senators, on the other hand, are also still holding discussions with Travis Hamonic, but Garrioch says it’s unclear in which direction negotiations are headed.