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Boston Bruins Acquire Josh Brown

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Last April the Boston Bruins acquired a depth defenseman from the Ottawa Senators for a mid-round pick, and it turned out to be a pretty good move. Mike Reilly ended up signing a three-year contract extension and now is a regular on the Bruins blueline. They’ll try it again, this time acquiring Josh Brown and a conditional 2022 seventh-round draft pick from the Senators in exchange for Zach Senyshyn and a 2022 fifth-round pick. If Senyshyn plays five NHL games before the end of the 2021-22 season, the Bruins will receive a 2022 sixth-round pick instead.

Brown, 28, brings a much different package to the ice than Reilly. This time it’s a 6’5″ 220-lbs defenseman that is an absolute bulldozer on the ice, hitting anything that moves whenever he gets the chance. What kind of role he’ll play on Boston isn’t clear, though it will be certainly bigger than what Senyshyn has done to this point.

One of the infamous three consecutive first-round picks from 2015, the 24-year-old has played just 14 games to this point in his career. That’s fewer than every other player drafted in that round, something that certainly doesn’t bode well for his future even in a new organization. He’ll turn 25 later this month and likely get a chance to show what he can do with the Senators, but he might not be there very long.

Senyshyn is one of the players who will qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency this summer, meaning the Senators would need to reach a contract with him in the next few months, or else he’d go to the open market.

League Executives Believe Colin White Is In Play

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  • Senators center Colin White is someone that a couple of league executives believes in play, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The 25-year-old recently returned to the lineup after missing the first 50 games of the year with a shoulder injury.  He has six points in a dozen contests but with three years remaining on his deal with a $4.75MM AAV, it would be surprising to see him moved unless Ottawa is willing to take a similar-sized deal in return.

Senators Sign Anton Forsberg To Three-Year Extension

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Scratch Anton Forsberg off the list of possible trade candidates from Ottawa.  Instead, the Senators announced that they’ve signed the netminder to a three-year extension.  The deal carries a cap hit of $2.75MM with a breakdown as follows:

2022-23: $2.55MM
2023-24: $2.95MM
2024-25: $2.75MM

The 29-year-old has certainly found a home in Ottawa.  After being claimed on waivers three separate times last season, Forsberg did well enough in limited action down the stretch to earn a modest one-year, $900K extension, a decent reward for someone that had bounced around as much as he had.  The hope was that he’d battle for the backup spot behind Matt Murray this season but Forsberg has certainly outperformed that contract.

This season, Forsberg has played in 31 games (29 starts), posting a 2.77 GAA along with a .918 SV% that’s well above the league average.  As a result, that made him one of the more interesting trade candidates if Ottawa was open to moving him, especially with his cap hit being low enough for most contenders to afford.  Instead, they’ve decided to commit to him, tripling his price tag in the process.

With Forsberg signed for three more years and Murray under contract for two more seasons, it appears as if the Senators have their goalie tandem intact for a little while.  That will call into question the future of Filip Gustavsson.  Once regarded as a possible goalie of the future for Ottawa, the 23-year-old has struggled considerably with the Sens this season and has a save percentage of just .886 along with a 3.78 GAA.  He’s waiver-eligible next season so a decision will need to be made on his future over the coming months.

Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire Nick Paul

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The Tampa Bay Lightning aren’t done after acquiring Brandon Hagel on Friday. Instead, they are continuing to bolster their forward corps. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that the Bolts have traded for the Ottawa Senators’ Nick Paul. Going the other way is Tampa forward Mathieu Joseph and a 2024 fourth-round pick, per The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. The Senators are retaining 44.5% of Paul’s $1.35MM cap hit, approximately $601K. Both teams have confirmed the deal.

Even though the Bolts seemed to be out of options after adding Hagel, they manage to flip Joseph for Paul with a negligible impact on their difficult cap situation. With the salary retention, Paul will only cost about $749K, while Joseph was making $737.5K. It leaves under $5K in LTIR space for Tampa, but space all the same. That retention is likely what cost the Lightning their draft pick, which leaves them with just seven picks in the first four rounds over the next three years.

In many ways it may seem like swapping Joseph, a 25-year-old impending RFA with 18 points, for Paul, a 27-year-old impending UFA with 18 points, seems like a downgrade. However, Joseph is arbitration eligible this offseason and was unlikely to return to Tampa Bay anyway. He also has managed just 18 points with the high-flying Lightning, while Paul has done the same with the lowly Senators. Paul also brings a superior defensive game and more experience. His two-way ability garnered attention from around the league, but the Lightning were the lucky ones to land him and Paul will be equally excited to chase a championship and boost his numbers before hitting the open market.

 

Ottawa Senators Acquire Travis Hamonic

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The Vancouver Canucks have made a move with cap savings in mind, trading veteran defenseman Travis Hamonic to the Ottawa Senators. The Canucks will receive a third-round pick in exchange, one that actually originally belonged to them. It’s the same pick that was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Nate Schmidt in 2020, and then sent to Ottawa in last summer’s Evgenii Dadonov deal. No salary will be retained.

Hamonic, 31, is signed through next season and carries a $3MM cap hit, a number that certainly hasn’t been very valuable to the Canucks. After dealing with some early-season vaccination and quarantining issues that routinely kept him out of the lineup, Hamonic has played in just 24 games for Vancouver this season. While he has averaged over 18 minutes in those appearances, he has just three goals and seven points.

From the Senators perspective, this was a chance to add a stable, veteran presence to a lineup that is hoping to turn the corner and contend for the playoffs next season. Ottawa has no problem taking on a cap hit like that, especially when there’s still a real chance that Hamonic can live up to it if given the opportunity. A true stay-at-home defenseman, there was a time not too long ago when Hamonic could be relied on to completely erase an opponent’s best players, forcing them to play extremely low-event hockey. That time does seem to have passed, at least somewhat, though perhaps with a new team and new opportunity, he can return to being that true top-four right-handed shutdown defenseman that is so coveted.

Getting a third-round pick out of the deal is a huge bonus for the Canucks, who could have just as easily lost Hamonic before the season began for nothing when he was placed on and cleared waivers. There were some extenuating circumstances at that point, but just ridding the cap hit for next year should be considered a win for a team that will need all the wiggle room they can get.

The new management group led by Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin have been clear about wanting to clear some money off the books, and they’re now $3MM lighter for the 2022-23 season. They’ve also added a nice draft pick, though it was actually once already theirs.

Darren Dreger of TSN was first to report the trade. 

Extension Talks Ongoing With Nick Paul

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  • Friedman also touched on the Ottawa Senators’ Nick Paul and his extension talks with the team. He believes that while both sides want Paul to remain in Ottawa, they have both dug in in their negotiation. As a result, Paul could be dealt by Monday if an extension is not reached. Although the Senators would prefer to keep Paul, the gritty, well-rounded forward should develop a strong market from contending teams.

Ottawa Senators Assign Dillon Heatherington To Belleville

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  • After recalling him yesterday, the Ottawa Senators have sent defenseman Dillon Heatherington back to the Belleville Senators of the AHL. Heatherington did not get a chance to suit up for Ottawa in their loss last night to Montreal before being sent down, and has not played an NHL game since December 18th. The 26-year-old has had a productive return to North America this season, putting up 11 points in 27 AHL games this season on the blue line after returning from a season in the KHL.

Senators Recall Dillon Heatherington

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  • The Senators announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Dillon Heatherington from AHL Belleville. The blueliner isn’t expected to play tonight against Montreal barring a late scratch due to an injury or a trade.  Heatherington has played in nine games for Ottawa so far this season.

Latest On Nick Paul

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March 18: On a live chat with followers today, Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets explained that his understanding is the Senators’ most recent offer to Paul was a four-year, $10MM contract. Paul is reportedly looking for something with an average annual value closer to $3MM.

Additionally, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports that the Senators have made Paul a healthy scratch in advance of their matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. He also reports that Paul is “expected to be moved” by the Senators shortly, in advance of Monday’s trade deadline.

March 17: The Ottawa Senators aren’t expected to be very active ahead of Monday’s deadline, but one player who could draw plenty of interest if made available is Nick Paul. The versatile forward is a pending free agent that carries a cap hit of just $1.35MM this season and could add some punch to a team’s bottom-six while also being an extension candidate wherever he lands.

Why isn’t he an extension candidate in Ottawa? That’s not entirely clear, as though Paul had been open about wanting to stay with the Senators it does not appear as though much progress has been made on a contract. In fact, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote today that there has been “not much movement” and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period tweets there is “no progress” between the two sides. Pagnotta now expects Paul to be moved before the deadline.

The 26-year-old forward (27 on Sunday) has 11 goals and 18 points in 59 games this season but has been moved all over the lineup to fill whatever role is necessary. Deployed in heavy defensive minutes on the regular, he’s spent more time at center this season than any year in the past and is averaging more than 17 minutes a night.

This certainly isn’t a player that a contender would want to plug into the top-six, but Paul’s grinding style does suggest that he would do well in a playoff atmosphere. That’s not something he’s experienced to this point in his career even in the minor leagues, meaning a chance at joining a contender might even be something he welcomes at this point.

With Thomas Chabot now out with a broken hand and Jake Sanderson’s debut with the Senators likely delayed, the stretch run in Ottawa is getting grimmer by the day. Already the team has won just five of their last 18 games and could be looking at an even worse period without their top defenseman. If an extension isn’t going to get done, getting a draft pick for Paul seems to be the obvious move for general manager Pierre Dorion.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Ottawa Senators Sign Philippe Daoust

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6:43 pm: Daoust’s three-year entry-level contract carries a $821,667 cap hit, per CapFriendly. Each year, he’ll see a $55,000 signing bonus, with a $750,000 base salary in 2022-23 and a $775,000 base salary in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

1:08 pm: The Ottawa Senators have signed prospect Philippe Daoust to a three-year entry-level contract that will start in 2022-23. The QMJHL forward currently plays with the Saint John Sea Dogs, where he will remain for the rest of this season. Senators general manager Pierre Dorion released a statement:

We’ve been very pleased with Philippe’s progress. He’s a highly skilled forward who displays good offensive instincts and creativity. With Saint John serving as Memorial Cup host this spring, we expect him to play an important role throughout the Sea Dogs’ post-season.

Daoust, 20, actually started this year with the Belleville Senators, playing 15 games at the AHL level before a trade brought his junior rights from the Moncton Wildcats to the Memorial Cup host Sea Dogs. In the 17 games he’s played since returning, Daoust has 11 goals and 22 points.

It’s an extremely uncommon path for a sixth-round pick, especially one that went completely undrafted in his first year of eligibility. But Daoust is an uncommon prospect, with even his junior career taking winding a very unusual road. From Barrie, Ontario, the young forward was completely passed over in the OHL draft and ended up playing in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League for 2018-19. That earned some interest, which took him away from the OHL and into the QMJHL, where he signed with Moncton.

As fate would have it, that decision would end up being a very good one for Daoust, who instead of missing an entire development season like the other OHL prospects in 2020-21, was able to play in 21 games with Moncton and show his game had reached an entirely different level. Overlooked for years, Daoust now has an NHL contract in hand and a future in the Senators organization.

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