What will the Senators do with pending RFA Duclair?
Graeme Nichols of The Athletic: Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorian could be looking at the possibility of re-signing some of their unrestricted and restricted free agents.
The Senators have some decisions to make with pending UFA defensemen Mark Borowiecki and Ron Hainsey.
Pending RFA forward Anthony Duclair was having a breakout season to start the season but tailed off before the shutdown. The 25-year old has a career-high 23 goals.
Duclair will at least get a qualifying offer from the Senators. If they are talking extension, they’ll need to be very careful signing him after a ‘career-year.’
Detroit Red Wings Andreas Athanasiou‘s contract could be a good comparable – three years at $3 million per.
If the Senators don’t like the way contract talks go, could they look at the trade market for Duclair?
Trading Duclair for draft picks may not make sense since they are already deep in that area. Building a package around Duclair with picks and/or prospects for a better player could make sense.
The Blues have three pending free agents in Pietrangelo, Scandella and Dunn
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic: St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong said back in February that it’s their goal to re-sign pending free agent defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.
A lower or flat-lined salary cap for next season due to the loss of HRR could impact whether the Blues are able to fit any potential Pietrangelo salary in. This would also apply to other teams that may have had interested in Pietrangelo if he hit the open market.
It is possible that Pietrangelo has played his last game in Blues uniform.
The Nashville Predators signed Roman Josi to an eight-year extension during the season at $9.1 million per. Not much traction was gained between the Blues and Pietrangelo’s camp after Josi signed.
There had been rumors that Pietrangelo was looking for $9 million-plus, with the Blues coming in around $8.25 million.
Armstrong when asked last week about their pending UFAs.
“On all these unrestricted guys, we’ll just keep that in-house and deal with them as they come up,” he said. “We’ll let you know when we have announcements.”
Agent Don Meehan said “We are all in a wait made,” with another agent saying “What’s the point (in negotiating) at this point?”
The Blues have about $73.8 million committed to 17 players for next season.
The Blues also have free agents in Marco Scandella (unrestricted) and Vince Dunn (restricted).