Club elected arbitration important points for the first window
- Player must meet Pro Years req
- Player had a base salary greater than $2,231,524
- Request can be made in lieu of a QO
- Player cannot be awarded less than 85% of his previous years salary
NHL Rumors: Sabres and Victor Olofsson, and tiering potential offer sheet targets
The Senators taking Alex DeBrincat to salary arbitration as trade talks continue
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun: Sources say the Ottawa Senators will take pending RFA forward Alex DeBrincat to salary arbitration and will try to get the award below the $9 million for next season.
GM Pierre Dorion has hinted in an interview that he would do this if they couldn’t sign DeBrincat to a long-term deal. Have reported that DeBrincat isn’t intereted in signing long-term.
The Senators have been actively trying to trade him and would like to get it done before July 1st.
“We would elect to go to arbitration and ask for a 15% drop on his qualifying offer,” Dorion explained. “You look at other teams and they’ve done this in the past. I’m just trying to give our fans as much information as possible because if something like this happens, we’re all in a business here.
“If we see that we can’t get anything done, we have to do what’s best for the team because we’re most likely going to be a cap team next year. At $7.65 million instead of $9 million for Alex DeBrincat, that maybe helps us to sign another player that we want to get.”
This move would also eliminate him from offer sheet eligibility. DeBrincat would also be eligible to talk contract with an acquiring team. The Flames did this with Matthew Tkachuk last season.
It’s believed his trade wish list includes the Dallas Stars, Nashville Predators, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights and the Detroit Red Wings.
The Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, Seattle Kraken, and St. Louis Blues.
NHL Rumors: Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers, and Calgary Flames
Murray Pam: Puck Pedia has noted that the Ottawa Senators can trade Alex DeBrincat at any point. If the arbitration hearing process starts at some point, he won’t be eligible for an extension until after January 1st, which would lessen his trade value.
TSN: The Senators will try to trade Alex DeBrincat by late July/early August before the arbitration hearing so that way they can work on a multi-year signing and not the one year once the arbitration hearing starts.
“I believe they’re going to put a push on here to get that deal done much, much sooner by the draft this month. There’s said to be very strong interest from the smallest of teams DeBrincat and his camp provided. And right now for the Senators, it’s working through those conversations and finding the best return.”