The Senators have made what’s believed to be a five-year offer worth $30MM to pending unrestricted free agent center Kyle Turris, reports TSN’s Darren Dreger on TSN 1040 (audio link). However, as has been reported earlier, Turris is more concerned about the term of the deal over the money and is still focused on securing a longer-term extension. Dreger adds that there hasn’t been any recent substantive discussion between Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion and Turris’ agent Kurt Overhardt.
Turris is off to a strong start this season with two goals and five assists through the first six games while hovering around the 20-minute mark in average ice time. While it’s doubtful that he’ll be able to sustain that level of production over a full season – he has only hit the 60-point mark once – he should be able to come in around the 50-point mark at the very least if he stays healthy which will set him up nicely if he does make it to the open market.
While it’s understandable that the Sens would like to avoid a max-term (eight-year) extension if possible, Turris will only be 29 at the start of next season and should still have several strong seasons ahead of him; the risk isn’t as high as it would be for someone in their early 30s. So even though the offer represents a sizable raise from the $4MM salary ($3.5MM cap hit) he’s getting this season, there isn’t a lot of risk in waiting to see if the team ups their offer (or increases the term) as it’s fairly safe to expect that Turris will receive comparable offers in free agency next July.
I’d love this deal, but if he wants more term, he’d have to take a hometown discount. Either 6/35 or 7/40 is max I’d go