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Colin White

Ottawa Senators Sign Colin White

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The restricted free agent market might finally be showing some cracks. The Ottawa Senators have signed RFA forward Colin White to a six-year contract. The contract will carry an average annual value of $4.75MM and breaks down as follows:

  • 2019-20: $4.0MM
  • 2020-21: $4.0MM
  • 2021-22: $4.75MM
  • 2022-23: $4.75MM
  • 2023-24: $4.75MM
  • 2024-25: $6.25MM

White, 22, was one of the players ineligible for an offer sheet this summer and will lose just a single year of unrestricted free agency with this deal. At $28.5MM it will however take the title of the largest contract Senators GM Pierre Dorion has ever given out, eclipsing the four-year, $20.75MM deal he signed Mike Hoffman to in 2016 (the Senators would pay out just $9.45MM before trading Hoffman).

The team’s trade history when it comes to expensive players will be the first thing coming to mind for many Senators fans, but there is no doubt that this contract is a step in the right direction for the franchise. White, selected 21st overall in 2015, broke out last season with 14 goals and 41 points in 71 games during his first full NHL season. That production will only likely increase in the coming years as White takes on more and more responsibility for the Senators as their presumptive first-line center.

A $4.75MM cap hit ties White as the second highest paid player on the Ottawa roster, behind only Bobby Ryan and right alongside goaltender Craig Anderson—as long as you don’t count the injured Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik contracts. It means there will be plenty of pressure on the young forward to continue his development as a top-line player and puts a good chunk of the offensive burden squarely upon his shoulders.

With White signed, the team can start to look towards their next big name inching closer to free agency—Thomas Chabot. The 22-year old is heading into the final year of his entry-level contract and is already one of the premier defensemen in the league. If Ottawa is truly committed to retaining their stars and building a competitive roster in the next few years, signing Chabot to a long-term deal is key.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the two sides were close.

Tampa Bay, Dallas Among Teams Facing Contract Limit Crunch

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are not only up against the NHL’s $81.5MM salary cap upper limit, but also the league’s 50-contract limit. They’re not alone either; in addition to the Bolts, the Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Ottawa Senators, and Anaheim Ducks each have 48 players already signed to contracts next season as well. Six other teams have 46 or 47 players signed. The closer a club gets to 50, the less roster flexibility they have during the season. When it comes to making trades, claiming players on waivers, or signing college or junior free agents, teams without room can be hamstrung and forced to either pass up on possibilities or make desperation moves to free up roster space. It’s not an ideal situation and could force more than a few teams to make a move or two as the summer wears on.

Tampa Bay is in the worst position of all, as not only do they have just two contract slots available, but they also have two NHL regulars who remain unsigned restricted free agents in need of contracts – Brayden Point and Adam Erne. It’s hard to imagine that the Lightning, who also need to open up considerable cap space, don’t move out a player or two to help clear things up in both regards. One other possible saving grace could be sending 2019 first-round pick Nolan Foote or fellow prospect forward Gabriel Fortier back to their respective junior teams. Even if under contract, 18- and 19-year-old junior players who are still slide-eligible do not count against the 50-contract limit once returned to the junior level. If Foote and/or Fortier don’t crack the Tampa lineup, they would additionally clear up some room. A surefire contender, who also could use some affordable support where they can get it, the Bolts will definitely be a player on the trade and waiver markets this upcoming season, assuming they have the means to do so.

Dallas is in a similarly difficult situation. With just two contract slots available, the Stars need to re-sign (or do something with) defenseman Julius Honka. If the team signs Honka or trades him for another signed player or prospect, they are down to just one open space. Fortunately, unsigned RFA Niklas Hansson is expected to spend the season in Sweden and will not need a contract to become Dallas’ 50th man. Junior forwards Ty Dellandrea and Riley Damiani would also no longer count against the contract limit if sent back to their respective teams, although many in Dallas would like to see Dellandrea push for a spot on the roster.

L.A. has just one unsigned RFA remaining, promising forward Adrian Kempe, so they aren’t in danger to hit 50 at this time. The Kings also have a number of young players under contract who will battle for roster spots, which could force Akil Thomas back to juniors for one more year, removing his contract from the mix. L.A. has been a highly active team on the college free agent market of late and will want some contract room later in the season for potential additions.

Similarly, Ottawa has just Colin White left to sign, so barring further additions are not at risk of hitting 50 contracts. However, the Senators are just narrowly over the league’s salary cap floor, which could prompt them to add another contract so that they don’t have to risk falling below the floor during the year due to a trade. Right now, only Jonathan Gruden is a candidate to go back to junior and remove his contract from limit calculations, so if Ottawa does make another addition, they’ll likely look to make a subtraction or two as well to remain flexible in-season.

The final team at 48 contracts is the Ducks. Fortunately for them, Anaheim has no one left to sign and by all accounts are not looking to make any other moves this off-season. They should be safe, but may look to move a contract just in case the opportunities present themselves to add on during the season.

One team who isn’t at all worried about the contract limit: the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey currently has just 39 players under contract, third least behind Carolina and Winnipeg, but also have just two unsigned RFA’s in need of contracts while the Hurricanes and Jets each have a handful. The Devils project to enter the season with the fewest players under contract, as well the smallest payroll other than Ottawa. That could change though, as the team continues to be included in rumors pertaining to many of the top unsigned UFA’s and top trade targets this summer.

Snapshots: Barrie, Spurgeon, Senators

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The Colorado Avalanche are in the enviable position of having two first-round picks this year despite making the playoffs, and one of those selections is fourth overall. The team very well could be adding top defensive prospect Bowen Byram with that spot, giving them quite the young core on the blue line along with Samuel Girard and Cale Makar. That inevitably would lead to some speculating that the Avalanche will be looking to trade another defenseman, and A.J. Haefele of BSN Denver today tweeted that he believes Tyson Barrie is “in play.”

Haefele doesn’t mention the Byram connection, and perhaps that has nothing to do with it given Barrie plays the right side. With Erik Johnson already entrenched as a leader on the team and signed long-term, Barrie might be the one to go in order to give Makar more minutes on that side and the powerplay. The 27-year old Barrie had another excellent offensive season, recording 14 goals and 59 points in 78 games.

  • The Minnesota Wild have made sweeping changes to the core of their team since GM Paul Fenton took over, but one name they’re looking to keep is Jared Spurgeon. Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Fenton and agent Eustace King met yesterday to begin talks on an extension, given the defenseman has just a single year remaining on his contract. Spurgeon is one of the game’s premiere two-way defensemen, recording solid offensive numbers while being a reliable shutdown option in his own end. Coming off a career-high 43 points any extension will be an expensive one, and likely include a substantial raise over the $5.19MM cap hit he currently carries.
  • Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports that the Ottawa Senators have issued qualifying offers to Cody Ceci, Christian Wolanin, Nick Paul, Colin White and Jack Rodewald, though all were expected. Ceci is still just 25 years old despite having played six seasons in the league, and is one of the more interesting players to watch on the Senators roster. He is a restricted free agent but could potentially settle for a one-year contract through arbitration and walk right into unrestricted free agency next season. His qualifying offer is $4.3MM, already a hefty contract for the Senators to swallow.

Anthony Mantha Suspended At World Championship

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The IIHF Disciplinary Panel has decided that Team Canada forward Anthony Mantha will miss the upcoming quarter-final game at the World Championship. Mantha has been suspended for one game thanks to a check to the head of Colin White in yesterday’s Canada-USA game. Mantha was given a two-minute minor and ten minute misconduct for the incident during the game.

Mantha has been a revelation for Canada head coach Alain Vigneault, and is currently tied for the tournament lead in goals with seven. The Detroit Red Wings forward easily leads Canada with 12 points through seven games, making his absence from a do-or-die game all that more important. The Swiss team went 4-3 through the preliminary round, but have more than enough firepower to upset a team like Canada.

While obviously this is a setback for Mantha, the Red Wings coaching staff has to be pleased with his tournament so far. The big winger has shown he can continue to produce with top players while also setting the tone physically. Mantha is expected to be a mainstay on Detroit’s top line again next season, and provides a perfect physical complement to Dylan Larkin’s speed.

USA Hockey Announces 2019 IIHF World Championship Preliminary Roster

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The IIHF World Championship gets underway in just a few weeks and USA Hockey has announced the first group of players that will be suiting up for them. GM Chris Drury released 17 names that will be taking part, including captain Patrick Kane. The group is an impressive list of NHL stars that could very well bring home the country’s first gold medal at the tournament in nearly 60 years. The roster so far is as follows:

G Thatcher Demko
G Cayden Primeau
G Cory Schneider

D Quinn Hughes
D Alec Martinez
D Brady Skjei
D Ryan Suter

F Alex DeBrincat
F Jack Eichel
F Luke Glendening
F Patrick Kane
F Clayton Keller
F Chris Kreider
F Dylan Larkin
F James van Riemsdyk
F Frank Vatrano
F Colin White

East Notes: Simmonds, Zuccarello, Senators, Rasmussen

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Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds projects to be one of the top rental forwards available between now and next month’s trade deadline.  In an appearance on the NHL Network (video link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman mentioned that the Predators are a team that has been linked to the 30-year-old.  Nashville has plenty of cap room to absorb Simmonds’ $3.975MM deal this season and has enough players on below-market contracts that it’s certainly possible that they could fit him in on an extension as well.  His 15 goals on the year would rank second to only Filip Forsberg among Nashville players and GM David Poile is known for trying to make a splash around the deadline.

Elsewhere around the Eastern Conference:

  • In the same video, Friedman notes that Rangers winger Mats Zuccarello has seen his value take a hit with the way he’s played this season. The veteran came into this season with at least 49 points in each of the last five years but he has been limited to just 18 in 32 games so far while dealing with groin issues.  Zuccarello is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and with New York in rebuilding mode, it appears quite likely that he’ll be dealt although the return may not be as high as it seemed heading into the season.
  • The Senators will be without center Colin White until after the All-Star break, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. He’s dealing with a shoulder injury sustained back on Thursday against Los Angeles.  White very quietly sits second in rookie scoring this season with 26 points in 44 games.  Meanwhile, Garrioch adds that defenseman Justin Falk is also nearing a return from a concussion sustained late last month while fellow blueliner Ben Harpur is taking contact in practice and should be able to return in the near future as well.
  • Detroit has placed forward Michael Rasmussen on injured reserve, reports MLive’s Ansar Khan. The move was done to create a roster spot so the Red Wings could activate defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who returns after missing the last 19 games with a fractured wrist.  Rasmussen last played on January 5th, meaning that he has already missed the required seven days from a back-dated IR placement so he’ll be eligible to be activated at any time.

Minor Transactions: 01/11/19

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Just four games are on the schedule for this evening, but one will feature the return of a former franchise player. Jeff Skinner returns to Carolina for the first time as a Buffalo Sabres forward and has his team on track for the playoffs. The Sabres sit just two points behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division and could tie them with their game in hand tonight. Skinner’s 29 goals are a huge part of Buffalo’s success, and have him on pact for a new career high.

  • Kasimir Kaskisuo has been returned to the minor leagues by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but won’t be there for long. Frederik Andersen is not expected to play until Monday according to Lance Hornby of Postmedia, meaning Michael Hutchinson will likely get another start in net tomorrow night.
  • With MacKenzie Blackwood on injured reserve and potentially staying in the NHL long-term, the Binghamton Devils have signed Evan Cormier to an AHL contract for the rest of the season. Cormier had been playing on an amateur tryout previously, but has a .938 save percentage in four games.
  • Speaking of the Devils, the New Jersey variety have sent Egor Yakovlev back down to Binghamton today. Yakovlev is expected to suit up for the minor league game tonight, his ninth game with Binghamton this season.
  • The Ottawa Senators have placed Colin White on injured reserve, recalling Stefan Elliott in his place. White suffered an upper-body injury against the Los Angeles Kings last night when he was crushed by defenseman Jake Muzzin.
  • Troy Grosenick is heading back to the AHL after filling in for Juuse Saros on the bench last night. The minor league goaltender was called up under emergency conditions when Saros was sick, but won’t get into an NHL game just yet.
  • The San Jose Sharks have returned both forward Rourke Chartier and defenseman Jacob Middleton to the AHL Barracuda, the team announced. Considering the Sharks and Barracuda share a building, every recall and reassignment in San Jose is a paper transaction. The duo are expected to play for the Barracuda tonight, but could very well be called up tomorrow when the Sharks host the Ottawa Senators. With both Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Justin Braun still sidelined, there’s a a good chance that at least Middleton’s return is only temporary.
  • In search of more offense, the Buffalo Sabres recalled top AHL forward C.J. Smith last month. After recording, one point in four games, he’s headed back down. The team announced that Smith has been reassigned to the Rochester Americans. No corresponding move has been made as of yet.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have shuffled their lineup, sending emergency backup J-F Berube and winger Eric Robinson back to the AHL and promoting center Kevin Stenlund, per a team release. The 6’4″ pivot has yet to make his NHL debut, but has performed well in his second season in North America and has the makings of a strong bottom-six center. A second-round pick by Columbus back in 2015, Stenlund’s arrival to the Blue Jackets roster has been long-awaited.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Ottawa Senators

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As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads past the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. Let’s take a look at what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Ottawa Senators.  Click here for the other articles in this series. 

What are the Senators most thankful for?

Not being dead last. Most experts as well as fans had the Senators picked as the worst team in the league and with all the offseason turmoil coming from issues surrounding Erik Karlsson as well as locker room issues, the team was being viewed as a laughing stock. Throw in the fact that the team traded away their first-round pick to Colorado in the Matt Duchene trade and things were looking even worse. While the team isn’t in the playoff hunt, the Senators have been respectable on the ice and considering that they have opted to rebuild their team, 14-16-4 record, which could be a lot worse.

Who are the Senators most thankful for?

After almost an entire year of Erik Karlsson rumors, the team finally unloaded their superstar defenseman in a deal with San Jose. Many felt that loss would destroy the team, but second-year defenseman Thomas Chabot has been nothing, if not remarkable. The 21-year-old has already surpassed his offensive totals from last year when he posted 25 points in 63 games. This year, Chabot has already reached 35 points in 34 games and is tied for first in the NHL in points along with Toronto’s Morgan Rielly and Washington’s John Carlson.

This development has made the transition away from Karlsson, who hasn’t taken off yet in San Jose, much easier for Ottawa fans as Chabot is starting to just scratch the surface to his skills in Ottawa. For a young team with very few veteran players, to have a defenseman averaging a point a game is a big deal.

What would the Senators be even more thankful for?

The team needs even more offense and while many of their young players have had some success already, the Senators are a team loaded in young talent. If the team could get some of those players to take that next step, the team would be far better off. The team have gotten some success from both Brady Tkuchuk and Colin White as both players have nine goals already. Surprise defenseman Max Lajoie is another rookie who has already posted six goals and 12 points. However, the team needs others to step up, including Drake Batherson who has seven points in 16 games so far. However, the team needs some of the top prospects in Belleville to take that next step at some point as well, including players like Rudolfs Balcers, Filip Chlapik and Logan Brown.

What should be on the Senators Holiday Wish List?

More than anything, the Senators need some clarity with some of their veteran players. The team has a number of pending unrestricted free agents in Duchene, Mark Stone and to a lesser extent Ryan Dzingel, and the last thing this franchise needs is for those players to walk away in free agency and leave the team with nothing. Unfortunately, no players have given a solid indication that they intend to return and if the team can’t come to terms on an extension with any of them before the trade deadline, they need to move them. Both Duchene and Stone have been impressive this year, so the team should get significant returns for those two if they are forced to trade them, but the team has to hope they can sign one of these players and begin to build this franchise up from there. Another firesale isn’t going to make the franchise look any better.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Atlantic Notes: Palat, Pageau, Dermott, Hudon, Rask

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Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper announced that winger Ondrej Palat is not expected to play Sunday, but after that the 27-year-old is expected to be listed as “day-to-day” and could be back soon. Palat hasn’t played since Oct. 26 when he left the game with a lower body injury and subsequently was listed out for at least four weeks. That seems about right as the team could get him back at some point this week.

Palat has appeared in just nine games this season and has failed to find the back of the net as he has just five assists in that span. The team needs the winger to return and re-establish himself in the team’s top-six as he also dealt with injuries last year as he played in 56 games, tallying only 11 goals.

Cooper also added that defenseman Anton Stralman is being re-evaluated and will be out Sunday. The 32-year-old hasn’t played since Nov. 8 with an undisclosed injury. Stralman has eight points in 16 games.

  • The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports that center Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who has been out all season with a torn Achilles muscle, continues to make amazing progress as he joined the team on their four-game road trip in New York and skated with the team Sunday in a non-contact jersey. Despite a six-month timetable in mid-September, Pageau looks closer and closer to returning to the team quite a bit earlier than the original diagnosis. Garrioch also notes that Mark Stone, Colin White and Mark Borowiecki all took part in skating Sunday.
  • The Athletic’s Ian Tulloch (subscription required) breaks down the play of many of the Toronto Maple Leafs from Saturday’s game. Of note, Tulloch writes that one necessity in the near future is that Toronto must find a way to find a spot in their top-four for defenseman Travis Dermott. The 21-year-old is only averaging 17:53 of ATOI, but has been used more and more, getting 23:06 of ice time Saturday. The scribe adds that Dermott has developed into the team’s top defenseman and the Toronto needs to make adjustments accordingly, which means cutting playing time for struggling blueliners Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev.
  • After being a healthy scratch for Friday’s game, Montreal Canadiens forward Charles Hudon talked to head coach Claude Julien, who told him to be more aggressive, like he was last season when he had 126 hits, according to Montreal Gazette’s Stu Cowan. Hudon’s response was he had 13 hits in 9:09 of ice time.
  • It looks like the break that Tuukka Rask took a week ago has been paying off for the netminder. Rask has had three impressive starts since taking a critical weekend off earlier this month, including a .938 save percentage in his three appearances since his return, according to the Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont.

Ottawa Senators Preparing For Huge Roster Turnover

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Late last night after much of the hockey news had died down for the day, the Ottawa Senators released a video of defenseman Mark Borowiecki and owner Eugene Melnyk discussing the future of the organization. Touching on subjects from dressing room leadership to overcoming the low expectations for 2018-19, Melnyk made clear he would be staying with the franchise for a long time and will not move it from Ottawa. He also noted an interesting point about roster construction, explaining how quickly the rebuild will get underway:

This coming year we’re going to have 10 out of the 22 players are going to be new. Meaning they’re either rookies or they’ve played maybe under 10 games last year. Then the following year, it’s going to go up to about 15 of the 22, maybe 16. So that’s a total turnover you know, which is exactly what should be in a rebuild. 

Stripping your roster down to the studs and letting a group of young players grow and mature together is often a strategy for struggling teams who want to rebuild, and the Senators saw a similar situation play out just down the road in Toronto a few years ago. In fact, when the Maple Leafs traveled to Ottawa to open the season in 2016 they had seven rookies in the lineup including Auston Matthews, who scored four times despite the loss. That would appear to be the blue print for Melnyk and the Senators as they look to pull a similarly speedy rebuild.

The question though becomes how do they achieve the goal of having 10 rookies on the roster at the beginning of the year. The team currently has at least 19 players—Mark Stone, Bobby Ryan, Matt Duchene, Zack Smith, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Ryan Dzingel, Tom Pyatt, Magnus Paajarvi, Max McCormick, Colin White, Marian Gaborik, Erik Karlsson, Cody Ceci, Chris Wideman, Ben Harpur, Thomas Chabot, Craig Anderson, Mike Condon and Borowiecki—who played more than 10 games for the organization last season and should at the very least be battling for roster spots. While perhaps Melnyk was exaggerating and players like White and Chabot would still be considered “rookies” given their relative youth and inexperience, it seems likely that there will be substantial turnover in the rest of the group.

We’ve heard for months that Karlsson may be on the block, speculation that will only increase given his complete absence from this video, but other players including Stone and Duchene are both heading into the final years of their contracts and could be shipped out for prospects and picks. If the Senators are committed to a full scorched earth rebuild, they are powerful assets in trade.

At the very least, we should expect the Senators to be involved in trade talks all season. Even though Melnyk and Borowiecki seem excited about playing the underdogs this year, the amount of roster turnover that the owner mentions isn’t possible without some transactions coming through the pipe quickly. Camp starts in just a few days and Senators rookies should be licking their chops on the opportunity that is apparently there for the taking.

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