The Ottawa Senators offered eight years to Shane Pinto, but could a deal get done that’s short-term?
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Hot Starts Around The NHL episode, on the Ottawa Senators and Shane Pinto’s contract situation.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kyle Bukauskas: “There’s been plenty of impressive starts to the season across the league. But as you said, Shane Pinto, that was your lead item on Headlines on Saturday with Ron. That the Senators had offered him an eight-year deal this past week. Where do things stand between Pinto, who’s in the ultimate yr of his deal, and the Senators?
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Friedman: “In order I said on Saturday night, and I used to be attempting to get more detail on this, I don’t think it means a deal is close. I don’t think it implies that we’re on the track to get it done. But what I do think is that this was a realization from the Ottawa Senators that whatever talks they were having before, it wasn’t going to get it done, and so they needed to get more serious. And like I said, I don’t think whatever this was, that the number it was at, it was going to do it, but I believe it’s at the very least a movement in a greater direction.
Now, the response I needed to this was really interesting. I had one executive from one other team who bet me that that is going to still be a short-term deal. And the rationale he thinks it’s going to be a short-term deal, as I discussed, is that regardless that Pinto’s contract is up this yr, he still has two more seasons until he’s an unrestricted free agent. There’s quite a bit that might occur between now and even two years from now, about where the cap is and where it’s going.
And that’s primary on a variety of people’s mind about why they think it’s going to be hard for, I mean, look, Ottawa could throw the entire money at him, and that might get it done. But I just don’t get, on a team with, , Brady Tkachuk, on a team with other contracts they’re going to must cope with over the following few seasons. I believe they recognize they’ll’t try this.
They’ll must, like Shane Pinto goes to make a variety of money. He’s a middle in a league that’s craving for centers. He’s showing a scoring touch. Like he’s a top two center within the NHL. He’s. And people players, everybody covets them, and so they receives a commission.
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So Ottawa’s going to must step up sooner or later. I just, I actually understood this, this guy’s logic that he thinks it’s going to be a lot harder for them to do a long-term deal. Because essentially, for those who’re doing eight years, you’re doing two RFA years and 6 UFA years. And even at that time, we don’t know where we’re going. So I liked his logic that it finally ends up being a shorter-term deal, but I still think it’ll be a fairly big number, even on a short-term deal.
I’ll let you know what another person said to me. I assumed it was really interesting. He’s represented Pinto by Lewis Gross. The last really big contract he did was (William) Nylander, and it’s slightly bit different because Nylander was going into unrestricted free agency. But mainly they, as Nylander began his UFA yr strong, they only waited and waited and waited until Toronto was ready where that they had to present Nylander what they wanted.
And what a pair people were saying to me was, if Pinto, like no one expects that he’s going to attain 90 goals this yr, but when he keeps going the best way he’s going, the hammer goes to tip farther in his direction. Even when he’s not a Ufa for slightly bit. So, , they said that unless the player gets what he wants, it advantages them to attend.
So, we’ll see. I believe on the very least, Ottawa moved right into a higher direction of where it has to go here.
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Bukauskas: “It’s interesting where, over the course of Pinto’s time in Ottawa. It looks like negotiations have been, say, rugged. There’s been some friction there along the best way. I do know there was the one yr, the gambling issue got here to the forefront. Obviously, that modified a variety of things. He was in the midst of getting a contract done then. I’m not taking that into consideration here.
But it surely looks like it’s never been easy between Pinto and the Sens for some strange reason, because he’s their most trusted two-way center. Possibly doesn’t have the offensive numbers as a (Tim) Stutzle or a (Brady) Tkachuk, but he’s got 20 goals twice. Seems moderately, as a locker room guy, pretty low maintenance and a well-liked teammate.
Just interesting how I mean understanding, for those who’re taking a look at, okay, where’s the cap going? Team desires to do eight years, naturally, there’s going to be a while to get something over the finish line. But I considered that slightly bit why there appears to be, with Pinto particularly and the Sens, just it’s never been easy to get something done between the 2 sides.”
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