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Karlsson Stays in San Jose + Duclair Stays in Ottawa

June 17, 2019, 11:10 AM ET [10 Comments]
Trevor Shackles
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS

For those who still believed in the pipedream that Erik Karlsson still might be coming back to Ottawa this summer, I’m sorry to tell you this, but that won’t be happening. Karlsson has reportedly signed an 8-year deal with the Sharks for over $11M per season:




It is not 100% official as the Sharks have not confirmed it just yet, but all the big insiders such as Bob McKenzie, Pierre LeBrun, and Elliotte Friedman are saying the exact same things. I’m surprised that Karlsson was able to get essentially the same contract as Drew Doughty, not because he isn’t better than Doughty, but because of his recent injury troubles. Karlsson is the best defenseman in the game when he is healthy, although it would be fair to wonder whether or not he will be fully healthy for the majority of the time over the next eight seasons.

At the same time, I’m glad that he was able to get this kind of money because he truly does deserve it. A lot of people are going to question the Sharks giving him such a big contract but he can easily be worth it---as long as he is mostly healthy.

Although Karlsson won’t be coming back to Ottawa, the Senators do get some good news with this, as they receive a 2021 2nd round pick from San Jose:




The amount of picks they have over the next three drafts is crazy, and it’s very aesthetically pleasing to see when it’s laid out like that. I’d love for them to keep as many of these picks as possible, but then again, Pierre Dorion can get creative by using some of these in order to bolster the NHL roster or by moving up in the draft if he wants to. An extra 2nd round pick is not nothing, and now the final deal for Karlsson is this:

---Erik Karlsson and Francis Perron for

---Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo, Josh Norris, Rudolfs Balcers, 2020 1st round pick, 2019 2nd round pick, 2021 2nd round pick.

Depending on how some of those prospects turn out, the deal might not be quite as bad as first expected. Now Ottawa just has to nail those draft picks.

The other piece of news from today is that Anthony Duclair will be staying in Ottawa for the next season:




$1.65M is both a good raise of $1M for Duclair and also an incredibly cheap deal, as he can easily score 20+ goals with the Senators next season. He had 14 points in 21 games at the end of the year in Ottawa, and he should get every opportunity to succeed in the top-six in 2019-20. As CapFriendly says, the Senators are still $12.8M below the cap floor, which is quite far away despite still needing to re-sign Cody Ceci, Christian Wolanin, Colin White, and potentially a few UFAs. So it looks like they will need to bring in another contract whether it’s via UFA, a cap dump, or a regular trade.

The Duclair signing is extremely low risk and has the potential to be great as well. There was no need to lock him in for more than one season because he has to show that he can be more consistent, but we know that his offensive ability is there. The great thing about this signing is that he will still be an RFA in 2020 if the Senators want to keep him, so even if he has a fantastic season and demands a huge raise, Ottawa will at least retain his rights if they don’t want to pay him as much as he is asking for.

Although the Karlsson signing is bittersweet, today’s news has been positive overall for the Senators.
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