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Get Thomas Chabot signed fast
Well we finally saw an offer sheet after the last one happening in 2013. Still though, no player has moved teams from one since Dustin Penner in 2007---it’s incredibly rare. The Hurricanes easily matched the Canadiens offer for Sebastian Aho because the cap hit was quite fair at $8.454M. However, Montreal was strategic in the way that they structured the deal, as almost all of Aho’s money comes in signing bonuses:
We are seeing more and more RFAs get signed to big deals where 75% or more of the cap hit comes from bonuses as opposed to an actual salary, which is more appealing to players because of the lump sum of money they receive every year. A team like Carolina probably struggles with a deal like that because they might not have as much cash readily available, but that is not an issue for Toronto or New York.
What’s worrisome is that Ottawa is now susceptible to a similar kind of offer sheet to Thomas Chabot:
Chris Stevenson was thinking along similar lines, wondering what the Senators would do in this situation:
“Is there another team in the NHL that looks like a better target for an offer sheet than the Senators? Owner Eugene Melnyk has been loath to give players signing bonuses, but that is the currency of the realm (until it possibly gets changed in the next CBA, which is maybe why Melnyk is hanging around, just to, you know, see what happens).
Aho is due to get about $21 million in the next year in signing bonuses (about half of the five-year, $42.27 million offer from the Habs).
That has no doubt been noted by the Chabot camp and the Senators had better be ready to start talking about something similar in a contract extension.”
Signing bonuses are the newest thing in contracts for star players, and I’m sure Chabot will be asking for some. It’s up to Dorion and Melnyk to get a deal done before Chabot can be offer sheeted because they can absolutely not afford to lose him for something along the lines of a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick.
Tyler Ennis will help in the bottom-six
Signing Ron Hainsey was clearly done in order to reach the cap floor, plus he will be used as a veteran in the room, but Tyler Ennis at least brings some value on the fourth line. Ottawa does not have many solid defensive players in their lineup just yet, but I’m hoping that Ennis will help his linemates in that department. His track record in his own zone is quite good:
He’s obviously not the 45-point scorer he once was, but there’s something to be said for having a competent bottom-six player that can calm things down and not be a trainwreck defensively. Having him for just one year at $800k is a perfect price.
Belleville will still look good
The B-Sens have made some additions recently with Michael Carcone (trade) and Jordan Szwarz (free agent), and although they will be having some graduations into the NHL, their roster still looks quite solid, as Tyler Ray was pointing out:
Injuries and promotions will happen, but that still looks like a roster with some solid depth. Not having Drake Batherson, Logan Brown, Christian Wolanin, and Nick Paul also hurts, but they will still have plenty of scoring options in this scenario with Filip Chlapik, Alex Formenton, Rudolfs Balcers, Max Veronneau, Jack Rodewald, etc. The good thing is that essentially all of those forwards can play in the top-six if need be besides JC Beaudin. It remains to be seen how newcomers such as Josh Norris, Jonathan Davidsson, Alex Formenton, and Parker Kelly will do, but you would think at least a few of them will hit the ground running.
Their defense is definitely thinner, but their goaltending with Marcus Hogberg, Filip Gustavsson, and Joey Daccord should be able to mask some of that. Although they may not have as much star power as last year, I feel pretty good about the depth for the 2019-20 BSens.
Matt Duchene trade is final
With Duchene signing in Nashville in Monday, the Senators unfortunately did not receive Columbus’ 1st round pick in 2020. Getting that pick would have made the trade even better from Ottawa’s perspective, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now that he is officially on a different team, the assets in the trade that sent him out of Ottawa looks like this:
Matt Duchene FOR Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson, 1st round pick (Lassi Thomson).
Thomson has some solid potential and is the most exciting of the three, and it’s still too early to tell if the Senators actually did well enough on this return. Abramov has a lot of boom or bust potential as he was fantastic in the QMJHL but really struggled in his first AHL season. Davidsson could be an NHLer but his upside seems limited. Overall, it’s not a terrible return for an impending free agent, although it would have looked a lot better if Ottawa was able to get a 2020 first rounder as well, which could have easily been a top-15 pick.
Nick Paul’s last chance?
The Senators re-signed one of their RFAs to a two-way contract, and that is Nick Paul:
I wasn’t sure they’d be able to get him to sign a two-way contract, but they did, which gives the team much more flexibility. At the age of 24, this is probably his last season to prove himself at the NHL level. He had 2 points in 20 games in Ottawa this past season, but he was finally dominant in the AHL with 39 points in 43 games. Some of that is due to playing with Drake Batherson, Logan Brown, Filip Chlapik, etc., but Paul was definitely part of that success as well.
He has 56 career games in the NHL and just 8 points to show for his time there, but he has been very good at limiting shots against. I don’t know if there is even any room for him in the bottom-six to begin the season, but I would be more than comfortable having him as the defense-first fourth line centre:
He doesn’t have to be a point producer in the NHL and people shouldn’t expect him to be, but I do think he has a bit of value as a cheap fourth line player who is solid defensively. Those players aren’t the sexiest but it’s better than nothing. I’m hoping he gets a real chance this season to cement himself in the NHL.
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