Claude Giroux Interested in Coming to Ottawa?
On the heels of one of the most important and entertaining days in recent Senators history, yesterday brought us an interesting piece of news.
Earlier this week it was reported by Pierre Lebrun that Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux will play out the rest of his contract. Rather than negotiate an extension during the season, the two parties agreed to shelve talks until his contract expired.
Giroux’s in the last year of his eight-year, $66.2 million dollar contract that he signed in July of 2013.
His contract status and continued production will make him a desirable candidate for any playoff contender. And in moving him, the Flyers can recoup some assets if they fall out of the picture. The only rub is that Giroux has a no-movement clause that gives him control of where he could go.
So, why does this matter to Senators fans?
In speaking on Sirius XM’s NHL Network Radio yesterday, Philadelphia reporter Al Morganti expressed his belief that the only place that he envisions Giroux going is to the nation’s capital.
The Hearst native makes his offseason home in Ottawa. Giroux moved with his family to the nation’s capital when he was a teenager and playing for the Gatineau Olympiques.
Speaking to Frank Seravalli in 2010, Giroux told the reporter, “Ottawa is the next closest city (to Hearst) for us. Pretty much every one of my friends lives in Ottawa now.”
That the soon-to-be 34-year old would be interested in returning home makes sense. The Senators are a young team on the rise and they desperately need some quality veterans who can help lead and insulate the core.
From the Senators’ perspective, adding Giroux would be a marketing dream. The franchise has often ignored and neglected to endear itself to its francophone fans across the bridge in Gatineau. Since trading Jean-Gabriel Pageau to the Islanders, the team could stand to add another reputable francophone player with Gatineau hockey roots.
Beyond his experience and marketability factors, Giroux can still play. In 54 games last season, he registered 16 goals and 43 points.
According to Hockeyviz.com’s data from last season, Giroux still drives a ton of offence while providing a reasonable defensive impact.
The only wrinkle for the Senators is whether it would make sense to try and add Giroux during the season or wait until the offseason when it costs them nothing to negotiate with Giroux.
As I mentioned in my 2021-22 season preview, this iteration of the Senators is very much focused on the development of its youngest players than it is on prioritizing short-term competitiveness. This is a team that is probably still a year away from realistically competing for a playoff spot.
Recognizing that makes an in-season addition of Giroux difficult. The Senators should be wanting to horde as many of their young assets as possible. Rather than use some desirable prospects and draft picks as trade currency on a player that the team may simply be able to fetch in free agency, the Senators can keep their assets for their own use — whether that is to develop and play them or use them as currency to acquire more players who may become available in trade.
Another obstacle that could present itself is that the contract negotiations have to be a match. The last thing the Senators need is a Patrick Marleau/Toronto Maple Leafs situation.
Despite being a veteran mentor for impressionable young players like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, the three-year $18.75 million contract that Marleau signed with the Leafs eventually reared its ugly head. Granted, Marleau was four years older than Giroux when he signed that contract in 2017.
The risks are the same, however. The Senators have to be cognizant of the dangers in overpaying for past production for a player who will be in his mid to late-30’s. With the flat cap for the next few seasons and the escalating costs of its best young players as their entry-level contracts, preserving cap flexibility will be important. The last thing the organization will want to have to do is be forced to attach valuable young assets to cap casualties to ensure cap compliance. (Note: the Hurricanes were able to turn the Leafs’ Marleau predicament into a 2020 first-round pick that became Seth Jarvis.)
If the Senators look to Giroux in the offseason, it might make sense for the team to front-load a deal while the team has a ton of cap space. By front-loading the deal, the organization can make the real dollar commitment to Giroux less at a time when the team may have a greater need of reallocating his cap hit. The front-loaded deal would make Giroux easier to trade or buy out down the road.
And unlike the Marleau deal which was laden with signing bonuses, Ottawa’s policy against structuring deals that include them would help the organization.
It is also worth mentioning that Seattle’s contract agreement with Philipp Grubauer this past summer highlighted how the NHL tightened up the rules regarding front-loaded deals.
The changes in the 2020 CBA agreement ensure that “front-loaded contracts in any ‘immediately adjacent years’ can't exceed 25% variance with the first year of that contract, and any year of the contract can't exceed 60% variance from the highest year of the deal.”
Grubauer’s original agreement with Seattle failed this rule and had to be restructured.
What this means is that if the Senators inked Giroux for a front-loaded deal, it would have to be structured like:
Contract 1: $7M year one, $5.5M year two, $2.8M years three and four for an average annual value of $4.525M
Contract 2: $6M year one, $4.5M year two, $2.4M years three and four for an average annual value of $3.825M
Giroux would unquestionably help the Senators on and off the ice over the next few years. And after years in which quality veterans have left the organization, it is reassuring to learn that Ottawa’s becoming a desirable place to be.
Notes and Stats from Thursday Night’s Home Opener:
If you asked me what the result of a game in which Artyom Zub (39.47 CF%), Thomas Chabot (44.19 CF%), Josh Norris (46.43 CF%) and Drake Batherson (46.88 CF%) spent a lot of time in their end defending, I would have assumed the Senators lost.
Attendance for the game was 15,159
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, Parker Kelly led the Senators with seven individual scoring chances in 7:28 of five-on-five ice-time. It was a hell of a performance from Kelly and when you think about how the Senators will eventually add Ridly Greig, Tyler Boucher and Egor Sokolov to its bottom-six depth, this team is not going to be a lot of fun to play against. Not only can these guys get under your skin, but they can also play.
Shane Pinto shone on Thursday night and although he ultimately did not wind up getting on the board, he generated five high-danger scoring chances of his own. The entire night he excelled at finding open ice and putting himself in positions to have success. If he can continue to do that, it’s only going to be a matter of time before the points start rolling in.
Anton Forsberg made 46 saves (.958 SV%) to fill in for the injured Matt Murray. It was a strong performance for the Senators’ backup and it was exactly the start the team needed from that position.
Other News and Notes:
The Senators placed goaltender Matt Murray on the retroactive IR with an illness and he will miss the team’s two games this weekend. It is expected that Anton Forsberg and Filip Gustavsson will split starts against the Maple Leafs and Stars respectively.