Pierre Dorion and team executives briefly spoke with local media on Thursday evening, and shed some light into where current contract negotiations are.
Most importantly, Dorion suggested that Robin Lehner's deal is just about done. It's been suggested that the term is already decided, and that the two sides are really just trying to hammer out the money portion of the deal before closing the books on a new contract. At first blush, this seemed odd, since both issues (generally) in contract negotiations are resolved concurrently. But, it's pretty clear that the team wanted to preserve his RFA status at the time of his next contract's expiration date.
The team's been afforded the luxury of being able to offer a three-year deal -- he'll only be 26 at the time of expiry, and he'll only have six qualified seasons thanks to only appearing five times in 2011-2012. I've
suggested in the past that a fair deal is probably in the $2.8MM - $3.2MM range, but after listening to where the parties are, it seems as though Ottawa's going to get the better end of the dollars side -- perhaps something at or near $2.4MM AAV. That's a great deal. And not really dissimilar to the great, cap-friendly deal fellow RFA goaltender James Reimer was signed to by Toronto.
Away from Lehner, it appears the team's making their first big push at retaining some of the veteran talent on the roster. Bruce Garrioch said on Thursday that the team will meet with Newport represenatives for both Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur sometime next week.
I've suggested this in the past, but I'm comfortable biting the bullet on a MacArthur deal now as opposed to letting him play another season and seeing how he performs. MacArthur's a great player who only temporarily had his career railroaded through brutal deployment and coaching in Toronto -- I suspect his production's going to be great again in 2014-2015, especially if he sees a lion's share of minutes with Turris and Ryan. If the team plays hardball with him, and he has another strong campaign, his asking price might really jump up to a level Ottawa can't get to.
Regardless, I'm very optimistic on a MacArthur extension. Ryan? Not as much. I think the team's going to make every effort to retain him -- even for a internal budget club, there are billions of available dollars to spend on guys heading into next summer. I think Ottawa makes a competitive bid, one that really entices Ryan -- who enjoys playing in Ottawa quite a bit -- to consider sticking around. On the other hand, there's the worry that Ryan may want to jump to a Stanley Cup contender, or the worry that he will just follow the money in his big UFA year. Neither is really known, but they are possibilities. And you'd have to imagine that if Ryan's dangled in front of the market, a number of teams are going to offer massive deals.
Talks have already been held with Marc Methot's agent, which I guess I found a tad interesting. Methot's been anywhere/everywhere for team and charity-sponsored functions this summer and seems to genuinely love playing in Ottawa. But, I've always wondered if there was a rift between Methot and the head coach, especially after his healthy scratch and reduced ice-time stretch during last year. Probably a forgotten thing at this point, and hopefully it's water under the bridge for the both of them.
Back with more tomorrow.
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