Why is Duchene playing?
Don Brennan: “It’s absolutely ridiculous to be playing someone you know you’re going to be trading. An injury to, say, Matt Duchene, could set your “rebuild” program back years. Absolutely ridiculous”
Stone and the Senators are talking … Duchene trade heats up
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: It’s looking like the Ottawa Senators forward Matt Duchene will be on the move.
The Ottawa Senators continue to talk to fellow pending UFA Mark Stone and are awaiting a response from Newport Sports about their latest contract offer for Stone.
Stone’s camp has asked for some time to go over it, so it is believed that it is a serious and comprehensive offer.
If Stone accepts/re-signs, he’d likely become their next team captain and lead the rebuild, if not, he’ll be added to the players that could be moved.
Duchene isn’t ready to sign an eight-year, $65+ million deal with the Senators, who started shopping mid last week. Five teams initially showed interest and that number has increased.
The Winnipeg Jets may have Stone as their top target, but Duchene could be a fallback. The Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators are believed to have interest in Duchene.
Asking price for both could be a first-round pick, top-end prospect and another asset.
The Senators are also talking to Ryan Dzingel‘s camp and it’s not known if they’ve made an offer.
TSN: Darren Dreger was on TSN 1050 talking about the Ottawa Senators and pending free agents Matt Duchene and Mark Stone.
There had been lots of talk between the Senators and Duchene’s camp. Duchene had never said that a deal was close, and there was “never a hard negotiation.”
“And then Ottawa turned and said, ‘Alright, well if Matt Duchene needs more time to think about this, let’s take another run at Mark Stone and see if we can’t get that locked up.’ And so that’s probably been going on now for the last 10 days to two weeks.
“And late last week, our sense is Ottawa took another run – a very creative run – at Mark Stone; creative in the sense of term, maybe a higher AAV, and it made that group stop and think.
“But they need an answer. It’s game day today, so Mark Stone probably isn’t worrying about that. They’re off tomorrow, they don’t play Wednesday, and then they play Thursday, Friday, Sunday.”
Dreger speculates that today or tomorrow Stone will likely let the Senators know that he wants negotiations to continue or that he is out.
