ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun created a bit of a stir this afternoon when he revealed in his latest blog the monetary figure of the Senators’ latest contract offer to Senators defenceman Marc Methot.
And by stir, I mean that people in a Canadian hockey market talked hockey more than they normally would. I guess that’s what happens when the team plays three games sans Methot and already has a very obvious positional weakness that Methot just so happens to play.
Per Lebrun, the Senators reportedly tabled an offer to Methot’s camp two weeks ago that carried an average annual cap hit of $4.7 million, but that offer was rebuffed.
Fortunately, Lebrun made an appearance on TSN 1200’s ‘The Drive’ this afternoon to delve into the details a little further. (Note: you can listen to that full interview here or via the embedded audio at the bottom of this post.)
“Yeah, I think the Senators’ latest offer which came two weeks ago was around $4.7 million a year still isn’t up to, I think, what the (Marc) Methot camp will be willing to sign off on – at least not as of today. These things can change, but I think at the bare minimum, I think they’d like to do $5 (million) times five (years). So we’ll see how both sides respond because I do think that now that the team is back in town, I think that Bryan Murray and the Senators’ management is going to reach out again to Larry Kelly and reconvene on these talks. I mean, it doesn’t seem to me that things are that far apart, but it has been a tense negotiation at times, as you guys know. You document it more on a daily basis.”
If you take Lebrun’s figures as fact, the reported $300,000 difference in average annual value that the Senators and Methot’s camp seem to be apart on doesn’t seem to be much on the surface – which leads me to believe that there’s a significant gap in the length of term that the two parties are looking for. In retrospect, despite all the bitterness from assistant general manager Pierre Dorion’s infamous radio interview in which he chastised the Methot camp for negotiating in bad faith, one important takeaway from that interview was his passionate repudiation of the length of term that the teams were looking at. So maybe it stands to reason that the Senators are only interested in doing a short-term deal with the 29-year old defensive defenceman and really, who could blame them for that?
So obviously we’re still stuck in a holding pattern in which July 1st, 2015 looms large over the Senators without that Methot extension in hand. But according to Lebrun’s blog, the Senators do not want the issue to loom for too much longer because they are still sensitive to perceptions that relatively high profile players (ie. Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza) leave Ottawa.
Again, he commented on this sensitivity in his interview.
“The one thing that I believe is that I don’t think the Senators front office wants this to drag on all year. I mean, I think that’s where some of the sensitivity here is coming from in that they don’t want this to go all the way to March and then have to make a decision. They want this to be figured out, I think, over the next month or so either way: whether that’s Marc Methot signing an extension – which would be their preference; or putting him on the trade market if they just can’t agree to a deal. So it’s certainly one of the more interesting situations right now.”
Even though everyone should recognize by now that the circumstances for why each respective star player left Ottawa are completely isolated, you can have the vision of a Bruce Gardiner and still recognize that the Senators have some insecurities as an organization and might pay a little too much attention to optics at times.
Nevertheless, you can’t blame the organization for wanting to resolve this issue before Methot’s trade value as a rental declines further. That is, assuming it already hasn’t because of this lingering back issue – which interestingly, Lebrun mentions is a bit of a wild card in all of this.
“I think there’s no question that it has added a wild card to all this. I mean, he hasn’t played yet and I don’t know when he will. I don’t think it’s long-term, but I still think it has added some intrigue to this whole situation in that he hasn’t played. I mean, the Senators haven’t had this guy in the lineup and you’re trying to measure what he’s worth to you long-term here, I think it’s added another level of uncertainty here, there’s no question.”
At the same time, if the Senators do wind up deciding to trade him, maybe it would be in the team’s best interests to hold on a little longer and project where they may wind up in the standings before deciding on what kind of return to fetch for him. Recently, the team has been burnt by rolling the dice and moving a good trade asset in Ben Bishop for a flash in the pan like Cory Conacher.
Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like it will take much for the Senators to generate trade interest in Methot.
“To my knowledge, I don’t think there’s a trade in place at this point. I think the focus is just on trying to re-sign him. But having said that, there’s no question that it wouldn’t take long (to find a suitor for a trade) I think because I think there are teams that haven’t been able to accomplish what they wanted in the offseason – which is to pick up another top four guy. I think of the Anaheim Ducks for example, they were in deep in talks with Boston on Johnny Boychuk and ended up believing that the price was too high and then so kind of bowed out of that. I think Anaheim’s keeping an eye on Ottawa right now to see how this is going, among other teams. But to suggest that Ottawa has gone down the road on the trade scenario, that to my knowledge is not true. Now obviously I don’t know everything, but I think right now, the Senators over the next week here would like to again take another run at this signing thing and see where they can go.”
Precisely, and if other teams are looking at Methot as a viable top four defensive option and the Senators have an obvious top four defensive need without him in the lineup, it’s hard to imagine that the Senators won’t be able to come to some kind of resolution that doesn’t include Methot as a member of the organization next season.
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