Cleaning Up the Mess

For Senators fans, a sense of normalcy is a foreign feeling.

Enduring several offseasons hijacked by contract negotiations, mismanagement, poorly communicated messages, PR nightmares, and a stalled ownership sale will do that to a fan base.

When the dust settled after the first two days of unrestricted free agency, there was an a-ha moment of realization that most of this team’s heavy lifting was done.

The first day of free agency on Monday spurred $1.2 billion in total salary commitments representing a new league record, according to CapFriendly. While the rest of the league was busy swinging big trades or handing out significant long-term contracts to the market’s biggest names, the Senators were on the fringes making smaller moves in terms of scope and money.

The Senators lacked the cap flexibility to aggressively go into the market and throw money around like they were Eugene Melnyk at a Connecticut casino. This lack of resources and the fact that the team had an important restricted free agent to extend in Shane Pinto was obvious to anyone who had their finger on the pulse of this franchise, but there is always a natural accompanying cynicism when the moves lack sizzle and splash.

I certainly understand the frustrations.

Using draft capital to clear the remaining two years and $2.95 million cap hit belonging to Mathieu Joseph is a bitter pill. David Perron is 36 years old and his best days are behind him. Michael Adamio and Nick Jensen are not household names. Jakob Chychrun represented one of Ottawa’s most valuable and expendable assets and the return for him felt light in consideration of the significant opportunity cost — the 12th overall pick and two second-rounders — used to acquire him.

I get it.

It is easy to look at the Senators’ roster, the thinness of the farm system and the draft capital wasted during the rebuild and be angry. That frustration and anger is warranted.

Instead of leaning into the identity of being a smaller Canadian market that recognizes it is not necessarily a desirable place to play, for outsiders, when the team is not contending, its general manager chased names. Process be damned, the organization adopted a fantasy sports approach to roster building while disregarding valuable high picks (or the acquisition of draft picks) that carried years of team control.

Seeing Mathieu Joseph be moved out now, reaffirms and highlights how piecemeal the general managing has been. The Senators moved out Nick Paul at the 2022 NHL trade deadline believing that the organization did not need more draft picks. It needed NHL-calibre talent to build out its depth. Instead of just extending Paul or acquiring futures, they brought in Joseph and signed him to an extension. One year later, he was deemed expendable because of the addition of Vladimir Tarasenko and the lack of cap space to extend Shane Pinto. Pinto’s gambling suspension ultimately saved Joseph, but he paid the price for the team’s cap situation this summer instead. And worse, the Senators had to use draft capital of their own to facilitate that move. (And even worse, Nick Paul registered 24 goals and 46 points with the Lightning in 2023-24.)

No one should begrudge organizations for moving draft capital to acquire talent. Fans can certainly be frustrated seeing a rebuilding one inheriting significant risks to acquire short-term fixes. In seemingly every instance (sans Claude Giroux), any external talent brought in has failed to last more than a season or two.

General manager Steve Staios inherited a mess but has slowly and systematically started addressing the roster’s shortcomings.

The moves may not move the needle, but this emphasis on adding balance or dynamics that the roster otherwise lacked is transparent. As I mentioned in a piece on July 1st, Nick Jensen has historically been a strong defensive defenceman. Ideally, the organization would have been able to address the right defence position while flipping Chychrun for some combination of draft picks and prospects, effectively filling two different organization holes. It is easier in theory to accomplish that goal. The events of the first few days of free agency demonstrated that the Senators did not have the wherewithal to sign Matt Roy or Chris Tanev at the prices and terms other organizations were able to afford. Alternatively, the desired targets may have preferred to play elsewhere, which Ottawa cannot control.

Despite the presence of Michael Andlauer and new management, it may take more time to shift the outside perspective of this franchise. Canadian markets not in their contention phase are often not perceived as desirable destinations. It will take time for the Senators to change the reputation Melnyk and his cronies created.

In trading for Jensen, the Senators hope he will return to the form he displayed between 2017 and 2023. That he is a right-shot defenceman alleviates the need to play someone on their off-side and his defensive aptitude brings an element this group sorely needed. He does not have Chychrun’s age or name value, but I think he represents a much better fit.

David Perron is an intriguing add because he possesses many of the intangibles that teams love. An understated part of his game is his ability to help sustain shifts and zone time in the offensive end. One of the things this Senators group has been guilty of has been its reliance on rush chances. Not enough offence or chances have been created through its ability to win battles, cycle the puck and wear the opposition down.

As The Athletic’s Max Bultman noted, Perron thrives down low and in battles along the wall.

“Did Detroit get harder to play against? No, and while the Red Wings still have some time, at this point they might have gone backward. I don’t think the Red Wings would have been wise to give David Perron the two-year, $4 million AAV deal he got in Ottawa, but that doesn’t change the fact the Red Wings just lost their best down-low and wall-playing piece from last season (and one of the best in the NHL). Perron’s feet were a concern, as were some of his penalties, but there was no doubting that he kept possessions alive for the Red Wings deep in the offensive zone, or that he made life tough on opponents. Now he’s playing for a division rival, and Detroit hasn’t replaced him with anyone.”

Another weakness of the Senators’ forward group has been its attentiveness and play away from the puck. Last season, the additions of Dominik Kubalik and Vladimir Tarasenko were praised in some circles for adding offensive depth to this group. An overlooked risk in their signings was the likelihood their defensive shortcomings would exacerbate this problem. Historically, Perron has also been a fairly strong five-on-five defender. Even if there are concerns about his age and how much his offensive production will continue into his late 30’s, defensive aptitude tends to age more gracefully. So, it stands to reason that, like Jensen, Perron can bring more balance and defensive aptitude to what has historically been a pretty one-dimensional roster.

At the very least, he should represent an upgrade on Mathieu Joseph.

It does sting to see an asset be attached to Joseph to clear salary, freeing up that cash allowed the organization to go out and get Perron and Pinto signed early.

24 hours after Pierre LeBrun relayed information from Pinto’s agent, Lewis Gross, that negotiations had stalled between the two sides, the Senators inked the 23-year-old centre to a two-year bridge deal carrying an average annual value of $3.75 million.

After watching every other member of the Senators’ young core be locked up to lengthy extensions, I would not blame Pinto for being resentful that the same courtesy was not extended to him at the terms he liked. On the other hand, this new management team is establishing its own goals and philosophy.

The bridge deal is beneficial for both parties. In the short-term, it offers the Senators cap flexibility in each of the next two seasons while avoiding a long-term deal with a player who has not played a ton of games at the NHL level and has failed to surpass the 35-point threshold.

The advantage of working out a long-term deal is straightforward, the Senators would have been hoping that any short-term inflation on Pinto’s contract would be mitigated in future seasons when he and the team would be better. Any money saved in the later years of his deal could then be allocated towards improving the roster around him and the rest of the young core.

Watching Pinto and seeing his impacts at both ends of the ice, it feels reasonable to believe that there is a good chance he will be able to prove himself over the next two years. If he does, he should make more money than he would have had he signed a long-term extension now.

At the same time, will Pinto make significantly more on his next deal than he would have had he signed a long-term deal now? It is a fair question to ask. Perhaps he will through a combination of his performance and inflation as the cap ceiling continues to grow, but it feels like a reasonable gamble to take by the Senators.

What is important is that a deal got done early in the offseason. One of the understated parts of this offseason for the Senators is that the bulk of the team’s work is done. As it currently stands, CapFriendly has a projected roster featuring 19 skaters combining for a cap hit of almost $83.2 million. Tyler Kleven needs to be promoted to the parent roster which will eat into their $3.6 million of cap space.

The Senators can allocate that space towards bolstering the fourth line or the third pairing. Going into a season one injury away from having to play Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic is not ideal, but these are minor transactions to make. Looking at the list of free agents available, it would be nice to upgrade on Bernard-Docker and Hamonic while adding a left and right defenceman to the mix. Two easily identifiable options left in free agency are Oliver Kylington (LD) and Kevin Shattenkirk (RD), but the Senators can afford to be patient. Even if the free agent market dries up, value can be found every fall on waivers as teams cut their rosters down.

After the Senators dealt Egor Sokolov this afternoon to the Utah _____ for Jan Jenik, the only two players left without a contract are goaltending prospects Kevin Mandolese and Mads Sogaard.

That most of the front office’s work is done within the first week of July is unheard of, but the way some roster casualties like Chychrun and Korpisalo are speaking, this stability will be a welcomed change for the players and staff. They can spend the rest of the offseason focusing on what they need to do respectively to improve.