While Arizona and Calgary finish the details on a trade featuring a free agent defenseman, the Ottawa Senators have re-signed one of their own. The team announced today that they’ve signed Fredrik Claesson to a one-year extension worth $650,000.
Claesson has played just 19 games for the Senators this season, and was still a restricted free agent at the end of the season, making the timing of the extension interesting. Claesson would need to play at least 21 of the remaining 25 games this season to qualify as the 40/70 defenseman Ottawa needs to expose at the draft, but it looks like they’ll have plenty of options to fill that requirement. They already have some interesting decisions to make on their back end.
A former fifth-round pick, Claesson has been dressing as a seventh defenseman recently for the Senators, playing just a few minutes a game. After possibly losing four forwards in two days, perhaps the team will stay with that plan for the immediate future.