With just over a week until opening night, the Ottawa Senators are still missing their third-line center as Shane Pinto has yet to sign a contract. After a 20-goal rookie season, he is a restricted free agent (RFA) with no arbitration rights and is ineligible for an offer sheet.
Elliotte Friedman reported on Saturday that the Senators and Pinto remain far apart on the salary aspect. The two sides seem to be in agreement that a one-year deal makes the most sense, but the Senators’ latest offer was $1 million while Pinto and his camp are looking for closer to $2.5 million. When money is as tight as it is and the salary is so low in comparison to other NHL deals, this gap is significant.
Friedman reports that while Pinto doesn’t have much leverage or rights as a 10.2(c) RFA, he could demand a trade. This isn’t something Pinto or the team want. Pinto plays a big role on this team and he knows that he is valued as a big piece of the on-ice product. It would be fair for him to state the contract being offered isn’t indicative of that.
Senators Trying to Move Money
Mathieu Joseph has been the name that has been thrown around the most, however, his play early in the preseason is showing that he is worth his $2.95 million contract. Reports say that the Philadelphia Flyers are the front-runners to take on salary from the Senators, but if they are taking Joseph they want a first-round pick or something of equivalent value.
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Another report stated that the Flyers would be willing to take Joseph along with former 10th-overall draft pick, Tyler Boucher. While he hasn’t lived up to the expectations of such a high draft pick, there is still promise that he can become an effective physical winger in the NHL.
Whether you think the contracts on their own are good, general manager Pierre Dorion has backed himself into a corner in this scenario after signing Vladimir Tarasenko and Travis Hamonic to new deals this offseason. The Tarasenko deal makes sense. He is coming in to replace the goal-scoring that was traded away in Alex DeBrincat, but extending Hamonic has not only led to tighter money but also the fact that it could result in Lassi Thomson being claimed on waivers.
Erik Brannstrom and Dominik Kubalik are two other names that have been tossed around, but in an ideal world, the Senators don’t want to move either of the two as they are crucial pieces of their depth.
Another part of the problem is the dead cap the Senators are paying. Matt Murray, Colin White, Michael Del Zotto and Bobby Ryan are still on the books for the club, and are costing them $5 million against the salary cap. While fingers can point in all different directions, Dorion should have been able to predict that money was going to need spending at this time. Dorion didn’t sign Ryan’s contract, but also decided to buy him out when letting him play out the deal wouldn’t have hurt the Senators on the ice or in terms of the salary cap. The White deal wasn’t egregious and has a low-cost buyout, but signing Murray and Del Zotto only to be paying them $2.3 million to not play for the team is not good money management.
The Senators have already coughed up four draft picks (second, third, fourth and seventh-round picks) to move on from Murray and Nikita Zaitsev, and are now in a position where another first-round pick or Boucher could be out the window.
Regardless of how Dorion plans on making the money work, Pinto is bound to get close to $2.5 million. The Senators’ center depth is much weaker without him and having him sitting in the press box is not a good impression to leave on the new owner Michael Andlauer and president of hockey operations Steve Staios.
