Ottawa's contract situation is a bit complex right now. It's all but certain
they'll be 30th in spending for 2014-2015, but you have to imagine that at least a portion of that massive space is being put on hold for The Big Three -- Clarke MacArthur, Bobby Ryan, and Marc Methot, all of whom need new UFA deals at the end of the season.
We've talked about each player this summer, and the likeliness of them re-signing with the team. Of the three, Methot seems the most likely to extend. The team has a glaring need for a defenseman, Methot likes playing for the organization and is from the area, and early talks suggested the two sides weren't far apart.
Now, it's
still a contract negotiation. And I suspected that we'd hear about a gap in contract asks at some point, because that's more or less how every UFA deal shakes out in the National Hockey League. Cyril Leeder mentioned earlier this summer that Methot's deal would be
simple, but I'd have to imagine he knew there'd be a bit of anchoring before a deal, too.
According to the
Ottawa Citizen, talks between the two sides for a new deal have stalled. And maybe the gap is a bit larger than we initially anticipated.
Negotiations between the Senators and Methot’s agent, Larry Kelly, are at a stalemate as the sides try to work out a deal to prevent the 6-3, 230-pound defenceman from becoming an unrestricted free agent following the 2014-15 season.
Methot, who will make $3.75 million next season in the final year of a four-year, $12 million contract, has been compared to Brooks Orpik of the Washington Capitals and Matt Carle of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Now, I can't ascertain from Warren's writing who is specifically comparing him to Orpik/Carle, but regardless, I don't think Methot's being unfair here. The question isn't whether or not he's worth what Brooks Orpik was ridiculously paid this summer by Washington. The question is whether a team -- be it Ottawa or someone else this summer -- will give him that range of money. And I think the answer is yes. Clayton Stoner got a $3.25MM AAV deal, for God's sake.
I'd like to think that Ottawa's a bit gun-shy about committing ~ $27MM in some capacity to a 30+ year defenseman, and I imagine Methot's camp is more or less pointing to the UFA defenseman deals of the last two seasons. You can see how this sort of ended in an impasse, at least temporarily -- the team set their anchor low, Methot and his agent set his anchor high, and they'll try to work towards a middle-ground in the coming months.
What will be interesting is to see how much Ottawa caves. Assuming next year's cap is around $75MM, Ottawa is going to clock in with just under $40MM in space for 2015-2016. So whether it's Methot or someone else, they're going to have to spend.
The million dollar question here is how much Ottawa likes Marc Methot. To the extent that they don't love him, they may be incentivized to look around. In the event that they do, they'll have to bite the bullet and more or less give him what he wants.
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Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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