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This is yesterday’s news now, but the Senators re-signed RFA Christian Wolanin to a two-year contract:
His contract is a Senators classic in that the first year is a two-way deal and in the second year it is one-way. The only difference is that this time, Wolanin would have been easily deserving of a one-way deal in 2019-20 if he insisted on it. With the contract structured the way it is, there are some interesting domino effects.
For starters, it means he is waiver exempt at least until he plays 30 more games in the NHL. So he can be sent down at the beginning of the season, but if he gets called up in November and plays at least 30 games, they won’t be able to send him back down to Belleville later in the season without passing him through waivers (which he most likely would not clear). That gives the Senators some flexibility in October, as there are essentially nine defensemen battling for seven spots on the NHL roster.
It doesn’t hurt having another option, but at the same time, there is no reason why Wolanin should be spending any more time in the AHL. Therefore, the only downside about having a two-way contract is that Ottawa might feel inclined to send him down, when in reality, he’s proven that he is good enough to be in the Senators everyday lineup.
He would have definitely played more games in Ottawa down the stretch if Belleville wasn’t trying to desperately make the playoffs, and I’m extremely confident that he is better than Borowiecki, Hainsey, Jaros, Zaitsev, and probably even DeMelo. He’s also not like Erik Brannstrom who is turning 20 in September---he’s 24 and does not need any more time in the minors.
Even with the two-way contract for 2019-20, I still think he has the inside track to win a spot at the beginning of the season. I could see the defense corps looking something like this on opening night:
Chabot-DeMelo
Wolanin-Zaitsev
Hainsey-Jaros
Borowiecki
I’m assuming Zaitsev and Hainsey will be DJ Smith’s “guys,” so Borowiecki might be the odd man out in the first game. However, with Wolanin still being labelled as a young player with “something to prove,” I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get scratched occasionally or even sent down at some point. Don’t forget that Ottawa also has Erik Brannstrom and Max Lajoie as their 8th and 9th defensemen, and I’m sure they’ll want to give both of them a shot at some point, especially the blue-chipper Brannstrom. Brannstrom is still quite young though and Lajoie was clearly weaker than Wolanin, so I’m assuming they begin the year in Belleville.
By the end of the season, I can see Wolanin having played around 60 NHL games, even though he should be playing all 82 if healthy.
Because this contract is just for two seasons, Wolanin will still be an RFA in 2021, which makes it a solid deal for the Senators. He shouldn’t be too expensive two years from now (especially if he isn’t getting 100% playing time this year), so I wouldn’t be worried about being able to re-sign him later on. At the same time, I wonder if they explored a longer term deal with a small cap hit. Perhaps he was not even willing to sign a cheap deal for five years because he wants to bet on himself, and that would be understandable.
I don’t really blame the Senators for not signing a longer deal because he only has 40 career games under his belt, plus as I said before, I don’t think he’ll be that expensive in two years time. It still might have been preferable to keep him in Ottawa for a longer period of time though, just like they did with Kyle Turris back in 2012, as it’s not as if they have no cap space. A talented player such as a Wolanin is someone who you should be betting on with these types of deals, not depth players, but one or both sides did not feel the same way.
I’m totally fine with this contract since it ends in restricted free agency plus it gives the Senators some flexibility, but I just hope that Wolanin gets every opportunity he deserves because he has been very impressive in both the NHL and AHL in his short career.
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