Little progress between the Senators and Nick Paul
TSN: Darren Dreger on TSN 1200 on Saturday on the Ottawa Senators and pending UFA forward Nick Paul, if there has been any progress on an extension.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“No. In fact earlier I checked in on that. You’re never going to get Pierre Dorion or the Ottawa Senators to comment on it because they just don’t like doing that. I respect that. I understand that.
But my understanding checking into that earlier today is that there hasn’t been progress. But I don’t want to read too much into that.
You know, again, you’ve got an appetite to extend. The player likes Ottawa. He knows he’s a good fit there. He’s got chemistry with Connor Brown and others.
So, he wants what’s fair. I mean, he deserves what’s fair but we’re also now inside a month of the NHL trade deadline. I don’t get the sense, correct me if I’m wrong that Nick Paul is impacted negatively or otherwise by trade rumors. I mean that just comes with the territory when you’re going through a contract negotiation.
I believe that Ottawa sees significant value in Nick Paul. Question is, is it enough for Nick Paul to extend and if it was enough, they’d have done it already.
So, there is still some work that needs to be done between Paul and the Ottawa Senators but both sides still seem pretty optimistic.”
On the Senators pending unrestricted free agents
TSN: Darren Dreger on TSN 1200 on Saturday on the Ottawa Senators and their pending unrestricted free agents and if there is anything else they could do.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“No, it’s relatively quiet on that front but quiet in the sense that there doesn’t appear to be anything front burner. We’re going to continue to monitor the pending unrestricted free agents in Ottawa. I’m sure that Dorion is getting calls fairly regularly on the availability of those players. He’s also been juggling with the notion, the idea of maybe extending some of them as well, right?
I think that there’s going to be less work done by Dorion and the Ottawa Senators between now and March 21st than there will be in the offseason. That’s where there is more flexibility across the league but you’ve had a year, and in Ottawa’s case a couple of years with your younger players developing, to really access where you’re at and what you feel you need aside from that extra year of experience from your young guys to actually challenge for a playoff spot because that has to be the goal going into next year.
So, there is going to be activity around the UFAs, there always is, and I’m sure Ottawa is likely going to trade one or two but right now since we’re having this conversation, I don’t really get the sense that there is anything really active on the trade front around Ottawa.