NHL Watcher: Elliotte Friedman said the Ottawa Senators are trying to create some salary cap flexibility to re-sign Shane Pinto. The Senators only have about $895,000 in cap space and Friedman thinks Pinto could be in the $2.5 million range.
- Murray Pam: The $895,000 in cap space is with only 10 forwards rostered. If adding Pinto at $2.5 million and two players close to the league minimum, that would put them around $3.4-$3.5 million over without subtracting anyone.
TSN 1200: Ian Mendes on TSN 1200 radio talking about Ottawa Senators restricted free agent forward Shane Pinto.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Host: “I’m going to start by asking you a hockey question that I asked you last week and I want to know, a week has passed, school is in, most of the Sens in town and informal skates. Canadian Tire Centre ready to rock.
Any more concern for you that Shane Pinto not signed?”
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Mendes: “I mean, yeah, from a perspective of him not being signed, it is a little bit concerning especially if you go back to, boy when was this, two weeks ago a couple of RFA signed. Like (Alexis) Lafreniere signed. A couple of guys signed their contracts. Evan Bouchard signed and you thought, ‘okay, well these are the inevitable dominos. These are the guys that, they’ll all end up signing.’ The issue here with Pinto is there’s just not the room for him right now.
Like, that’s the concern. But look, we’ve got time. Where I think I’m going to get very concerned is you don’t want this guy to miss any portion of training camp. To me, that’s when it becomes an issue.
I’m totally open to if they take this to the middle of September. That’s quite fine. If you get to the opening of training camp and he’s not there and he’s supposed to be your number three centerman, in a season in which you’ve got legit playoff aspirations. That’s going to be disappointing and again I don’t know how they’re going to make the money work because of right now I don’t believe they have any candidates, I could be wrong, I don’t believe they have any candidates they can slap onto long-term injury reserve to make the money work even in the short-term.
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So they’re going to have to get creative. They’re going to have to become a team that maybe stashes some salary somewhere. Does something. Moves something. But right now I’m not seeing how this can get done right away without something else, another domino having to fall.”