One of the biggest stories in the NHL right now is how the Ottawa Senators still do not have Shane Pinto signed. And it appears the situation will continue to drag on as the GM Pierre Dorion puts himself in between a rock and a hard place.
As Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period told Steve Kouleas of Sirius XM NHL Network Radio if the Senators had the cap space this deal would have been done already.
NHL Rumors: Shane Pinto A Casualty of Pierre Dorion’s Cap Mismanagement
** NHLRumors.com Transcription
Steve Kouleas: “Would Shane Pinto have been signed if they had any space?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s this is a self-inflicted wound. I’m not sure why they did this. The Senators did. This is their fault. They, you, and everyone else say, oh they put themselves in between a rock and a hard place. Well, yeah, they positioned the rock in front of the hard place and they’re just sitting in between. This is something that could have been avoided.
They knew what type of money he was looking for. He wanted something around two and a half million per year. So he’ll be around that when this is all said and done. But they have to move out the money they don’t have the space right now. There was talk that they wanted not just him but also Josh Bailey, who they brought on the PTO. No way they’re having they don’t have enough money for that either.”
Kouleas: “Yeah”
Pagnotta: “So they’ve been looking. We talked about this a few weeks ago Erik Brannstrom’s name is out there. Obviously, Mathieu Joseph. He is playing well and it is a great way to respond with all the speculation around him and the talk and it is valid. If they really wanted to cough up the additional assets to make this happen, they could solve this today.
NHL Rumors: Shane Pinto May Have To Take Less To Sign With Ottawa
Like Pierre Dorion, could give Danny Briere a call in Philly and say alright, here’s Joseph and Tyler Boucher and let’s call it a day. But Ottawa doesn’t want to do that. They don’t want to cough up the additional significant asset. And they believe, or at least some people in that organization are high on Boucher still. So they don’t want to cough up that asset in order to just free up the cap space of nearly 3 million bucks in order to get paid to sign and potentially Bailey.
So it’s a waiting game right now. Unfortunately for Pinto who’s back home and I think midweek he went last week so.”