@ErikKarlsson65 is all smiles! GOOD LUCK #EK65C @Senators @OttawaCitizen pic.twitter.com/8u20CHkIE9
— Wayne Cuddington (@wcuddington) October 2, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe Senators announced a press conference for this morning at 9:15 am in which Bryan Murray and Eugene Melnyk would be in attendance. With news that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was also in town — Bettman reportedly was speaking with Parliamentarians about the NHL’s deal with Rogers — rumours have abounded that the Senators may announce some kind of announcement on an outdoor game in 2017.
Hearing OTT signs Bobby Ryan to a 7-year extension. AAV just over $7m per. — Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 2, 2014
Suggested Bobby Ryan has agreed to 7 yrs x $7.25. Waiting for confirmation. — Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 2, 2014
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOr maybe it isn’t. Holy shit! I suppose there’s still a chance for the Senators to announce more than a Bobby Ryan extension, maybe they package that news with something else. We’ll see at 9:15 am. More to come…
Ryan extension: 7 years, $50.75M — Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 2, 2014
Okay, so Friedman is saying Ryan’s deal is done and at an aggregate sum of $50.75M, Dreger’s previously mentioned cap hit is correct. Bobby Ryan’s average annual value is $7.25M per season. The annual real money breakdown of the contract is as follows: $6.5M, $7.0M, $7.25M, $7.5M, $7.5M, $7.5M, $7.5M.
The Ryan announcement was not the only one of the day, the Senators also named Erik Karlsson their captain, the ninth in franchise history. With veterans like Chris Neil and Chris Phillips both having two-year terms left on their contracts, it was clear that the Senators did not want another transitional captain. The only decision that the Senators really had was, “Do we want to give it to Karlsson now or do we want to wait a year while he’s groomed for the position?”
Today’s captain revelation went a lot smoother than last year’s process.
As a franchise that’s been lambasted in the past for the manner in which they’ve allowed good players to leave this organization, today was a good day.
And if you’re a fan of the organization doing everything within its power to make Erik Karlsson a legacy player, today was a great day.
No one, especially me, wants to bring up the way in which Daniel Alfredsson left the organization, but in an interview with an Aftonbladet journalist last year, Erik Karlsson admitted how much of an impact losing Alfie had on him. Coupled with the overhanging financial uncertainty created by an owner who admitted to losing $110 million since 2003 and publicly lobbied for the City of Ottawa to let him bring a casino to Kanata and the uncertain futures of key vets like Jason Spezza, Bobby Ryan and Marc Methot, you could not blame fans for looking at Ottawa’s situation and its recent developments and wondering why Erik Karlsson would want to remain part of this for the long haul.
By inking Ryan, the turnstile of players who’ve left has stopped, at least for now. More importantly, it sends a message to its players, its fans and outsiders that this organization can retain talent. Not just home grown talent that clogs the bottom six forward slots or third pairing defencemen, we’re talking about a 27-year old American, a four-time 30-goal scorer, who was acquired last season and only had a two-year term left on his contract.
Ryan didn’t owe us anything and in all honesty, I had resigned myself to the likelihood of him hitting free agency. So with that in mind, it’s exciting to see the Senators close this deal and hammer out an agreement.
Even though I have reservations about paying market value (and that’s what the Senators did, there’s no hometown discount here) for a player who: a) is coming off a significant injury (sports hernia); b) will be 28 in the first year of his new extension and 35 in the last year of his deal; c) he has never had great underlying numbers; d) should see his production should decline post-30; the Senators simply could not afford to let him leave or allow his uncertain status linger over the team for the duration of the season as we watched his trade value sink like it did for so many rental players at last year’s trade deadline. As much as I hate it when organizations focus explicitly on the optics involved, in this situation, the optics were important.
Fortunately, with an escalating cap, even in the event that the deal doesn’t work out well for Ottawa or Ryan eventually asks out, I think the terms are favourable enough so Ottawa will still be able to move him. For what it’s worth, ESPN‘s Pierre Lebrun mentioned that Bobby Ryan’s deal “has full NMC/partial NTC: Can’t be waived or assigned but has to give list of 10 teams if requested for no trade.”
So there you have it, Karlsson’s the captain and Ryan’s here for the foreseeable future. All that’s left is for the Senators to fix their blue line.
Enjoy the day everyone!
Other News and Notes:
– TSN 1200‘s Ian Mendes tweeted that prior to today’s press conference, Erik Karlsson talked to Daniel Alfredsson for 40 minutes about the captaincy news.
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NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirms in email he and Gary Bettman met with Mayor Jim Watson to discuss 2017 game. #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) October 2, 2014
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I believe the Senators new offer to Marc Methot is a four-year deal with an AAV in excess of $4.5 million per-season. #Sens
— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) October 2, 2014
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