If you were one of the lucky ones who was able to head out to the Canadian Tire Centre last night to watch the Senators’ 5-3 come from behind win over the Avalanche, odds are you probably listened to TSN 1200’s pre-game show on the way to the rink.
In case you missed it, Bob McKenzie appeared in his feature segment and touched upon the status of the Marc Methot contract negotiations. You can listen to the full interview here, but the following transcript comes from Chris Nichols’ website.
“I think Marc Methot has got it in his mind that he’s going to make $5 million a year if he’s going to stay in Ottawa. And if the Ottawa Senators aren’t prepared to give him $5 million a year, then he’s going to play it out. And if he says he’s playing it out and is not taking whatever the best offer from the Senators is, then he’s going to get traded. It’s as simple as that.
“So I don’t think there’s a big mystery here, other than the question that I guess has to be asked is, would the Ottawa Senators bridge the gap and pay the extra probably $300,000 a year that Marc Methot is looking for. And if they’re not going to do that, then I would imagine at some point fairly soon here it’ll come to a head. But again, all of that is pre-empted by the fact that he’s not even in the lineup right now and he’s injured.”
The $300,000 gap that McKenzie is referring to corroborates Pierre Lebrun’s recent report stating that the Senators had offered Methot a contract two weeks ago that came in with an average annual value of $4.7 million.
I’ve already written about it before, but at least on the surface, it would seem silly for a non-cap team to haggle over a mere $300,000 per season unless the two parties were arguing over the length of term.
In a way, the negotiations kind of remind me of last year’s Chris Phillips situation in which he was headed towards unrestricted free agency but balked at the team’s contract offers leading up to the trade deadline because he wanted that multi-year deal.
Eventually the Senators caved and Phillips got his deal and in this scenario, I can’t imagine that Methot won’t get a deal either.
It would just be bizarre for the Senators to entertain the thought moving Marc Methot given the current state of the team’s blue line. Unless the Senators had another deal for a defenceman in their back pocket, trading Methot – a home town boy who can help make the team better by being in the lineup – just seem congruent with the way in which Bryan Murray operates. Granted, there could always be more to the story than what’s been revealed to this point, but I will be shocked if the Senators don’t find a way to strike a deal with Methot.
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