The Ottawa Senators and Matt Duchene will wait and see how things play out for a bit
Dan Rosen of NHL.com: Matt Duchene will be an unrestricted free agent after the season, but he’s wanting to see how things play out with Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, and the team responds this year before he decides on his long-term future.
“Those are the things I want to sit back and watch,” Duchene said. “The nice thing is is I’m kind of the last domino in that sense. Those are things I want to see.
“Erik, that’s a little bit different situation, but with , that’s a guy I’d love to move forward with as a teammate. Him doing a one-year deal, it’s a little bit different and makes you think a little bit, but I want to see what he’s saying and we’ll talk through it. Having talked about it, we both really like it in Ottawa and we both want it to work, so that’s the biggest thing.”
Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Elliotte Friedman was on the NHL Network talking about Ottawa Senators and how they’ll need to make decisions on Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, and Matt Duchene. The Senators have to keep somebody, and they’ll need to make offers eventually.
Friedman thinks they Senators will see how the season starts for them after their tough season last year.
“I think everybody has to kind of figure out where they are – the players, the team, the organization, the ownership – everything.
“And when Matt Duchene says he’d like to stay in Ottawa, I believe him. I don’t see any reason to disbelieve that, but I think there’s two things that have to be figured out here: No. 1 is the money and No. 2 is what direction is the organization trending.
“So I could see a situation where everybody kind of sits and says here, ‘We’re going to see how the season starts and kind of go from there.’”