Waiting on "Clarity"

Aside from being the name of a popular Jimmy Eat World album, apparently, we are going to get some clarity on the Shane Pinto situation in one form or another.

Speaking as part of his regular intermission segments during Saturday’s regional Senators broadcast, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch expected some development to occur.

"I think we will get clarity on the Shane Pinto situation in the next few days. I am not convinced it will be a contract extension.”

A contract extension cannot come to fruition until the Senators clear salary cap room. According to CapFriendly, the team has $45,660 in current cap space, meaning they are nowhere in the vicinity of having anywhere remotely close to the cap flexibility to accommodate a Pinto extension. Not without moving a relatively significant roster player out and freeing up some money.

Granted, it is worth acknowledging and reminding everyone that Garrioch has carved out a niche by shamelessly parroting whatever information Ottawa’s general manager wants put out into the public sphere. Bryan Murray was notorious for relying on the media to disseminate information that he believed was beneficial to him and his hockey club. It is a classic throwback approach and the rumour mill is certainly less prevalent than it used to be, but Dorion has certainly tried to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps in using the media to his advantage.

With Garrioch stating that “we will get clarity on the Shane Pinto situation in the next few days,” one of three things is true.

The first is that the organization is simply trying to flip the script and exert more pressure on Pinto’s camp to acquiesce and agree to a contract with less favourable terms than they are currently pushing for. The latest reports indicated that Pinto is looking for a two-year deal in the $2.5 million AAV range. Again, however, in order to extend Pinto, the Senators will have to have a back pocket deal in place to accommodate Pinto’s extension. Does it make sense to put this public pressure on Pinto’s camp when the Senators literally cannot even afford to sign him at 2 percent of what he’s reportedly asking for?

Another possibility with Garrioch’s statement is that the clarity could come in the form of the Senators finally biting the bullet and pulling the trigger on a move designed to clear salary.

Unfortunately, from the way that Garrioch presented his information, it certainly did not come off that way. It sounded like he was confidently intimating that we may see Pierre Dorion pivot and trade Pinto. And, if there is any substance to this, the organization should just relieve Dorion of his duties now.

Ridly Greig has had an exceptional start to his rookie campaign, but Josh Norris is just two games removed from returning from a second surgical procedure on his shoulder. Every rookie experiences ups and downs through a season, but five games of strong performance from Greig should not be enough to justify trading another young player. The only thing better than having one young player who can play a strong two-way game is having two.

Pinto was one of the team’s best defensive players as a rookie last season while potting 20 goals and putting up solid faceoff numbers. His playmaking ability is the only obvious shortcoming to his game at this stage of his development, but to move on now just does not make any sense. Sign him and move Greig to his wing where his speed, forechecking and compete along the boards should play very well.

Moving Pinto for futures does not make sense either. The only way a Pinto deal could make sense is if a lottery team offered an unprotected first-round pick, but no team is doing that. Maybe the organization could eventually wind up getting a piece that is more valuable than Pinto, but that is one hell of a roll of the dice. Chances are however that draft picks at this stage of the Senators’ franchise development curve will do nothing for their immediate competitiveness and push for the postseason — even if the draft picks could be used as currency to acquire a more talented player later in the season.

Why?

Trading Pinto for futures does nothing to alleviate the team’s pressing salary cap issue. In order for the Senators to acquire more talent, money has to come off the books first. The team just do not have the cap space to add a warm body without moving a significant salary of their own — which is why the suggestion that Ottawa target other young NHL piece of their own that they can move forward with just does not fit. How many organizations are looking to shuffle the deck and make that kind of move five games into their season?

Very few, if any.

Trading Shane Pinto now just does not make any sense. Not when the organization’s two biggest acquisitions up front are impending free agents and the team can ill afford to marginalize its quality of depth further.

So, here we sit awaiting clarity.

Waiting for a player who is a casualty of his general manager’s inability to manage the cap. Waiting for an organization that risks alienating a young talent to clear the necessary cap room to bring him into the fold.

None of this is Pinto's fault. He is simply a victim of roster mismanagement.

If there is a sliver of optimism, it is that there is oversight in place. The presence of Steve Staios and the addition of Sean Tierney to the hockey operations department will hopefully mitigate any mistakes or the possibility of shortsighted bias negatively affecting Dorion’s decision-making.

Big Game Tonight

It feels early in the season to try and characterize a game as a must-win, but there is an underlying importance to tonight’s game that cannot be understated.

With the Sabres arriving in town for the second half of their back-to-back games after dropping last night’s tilt to the Montreal Canadiens, tonight’s game represents a huge opportunity. Considering how the Senators are expected to be competing with the Red Wings and Sabres for a playoff spot, dropping back-to-back games against these division rivals would be troubling.

The season has a lot of runway left, so another loss would not be devastating, but dropping games during a relatively soft October schedule is not ideal. There is already a ton of inherent pressure on the Senators to shake the habits of their past and get off to a good start this season. This team needs to be banking as many points as they can during this stretch to create a points cushion and build as large of a margin of error as possible for when the schedule becomes more difficult.

As incumbents from the previous regime, there is already a lot of pressure on head coach D.J. Smith to prove he is capable of leading this team to the next phase of its development. Similarly, Pierre Dorion should be under a lot of scrutiny for his roster management and his inability to get Shane Pinto under contract. If the team treads water with a .500 record during the month, the calls for change will continue to grow.