You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS (This article is edited with added quotes)
The only thing people are going to be talking about with the Senators from now until July 1st, 2019 are their three star impending UFAs. There’s a chance that all three of them will be gone by then, and you can bet that they won’t be getting equal value in return if Dorion ends up trading any of them. Because he is the most recent acquisition, I think most people have believed this whole time that Matt Duchene was the most likely player to re-sign in Ottawa.
His quote from today isn’t exactly a good data point for that belief though...
Matt Duchene says no contract talks yet with #Sens: “There’s been some big things going on that obviously take precedent over that.… He’s open to re-signing, but watched Tavares: “It’s the 1st time you have that ultimate power as a player and you have to do what’s best for you.…
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 7, 2018
Obviously Duchene has always been aware of how free agency works, but perhaps the John Tavares saga planted the seed for him in terms of testing the market. It’s so rare that a player of Tavares’ caliber gets to July 1st, and he might just be realizing that it’s better to wait it out, especially if things with the Senators don’t get better.
Suffice it to say, Tavares signing with the Leafs (or simply leaving the Islanders) could be a double whammy for the Senators.
Players have negotiated for unrestricted free agency in the CBA so of course it is Duchene’s right to test the market, and like he said, he certainly does have the ultimate power. He’ll be 28 next summer, and realistically it’s his one shot at an even bigger payday than the last one. I don’t blame him for thinking about the possibility of seeing what’s out there.
He had more positive things to say after that initial unsettling quote too, and it looks like he wants to stay if Karlsson and Stone will be staying as well. I doubt he wants to leave, but he has to see what the other two want:
"Erik, that's a little bit different situation, but with [Stone], that's a guy I'd love to move forward with as a teammate. Him doing a one-year deal, it's a little bit different and makes you think a little bit, but I want to see what he's saying and we'll talk through it. Having talked about it, we both really like it in Ottawa and we both want it to work, so that's the biggest thing."
He's at least open to the idea of staying, and it seems like he desperately wants this team to improve:
"We have a lot of really good people in that locker room and sometimes I think we can be a little bit more outward and aggressive, and I think that will carry onto the ice," Duchene said. "That's the message this year. … Let's prove everybody wrong and let's show people who we are and what we are."
He was also optimistic about Cody Ceci and Thomas Chabot on the backend, so it's not like he necessarily believes that they are as much of a trainwreck as many would believe. Duchene simply wants to play for a winning team, and that's why he wanted out of Colorado for so long. I don't know if he will be the first, second, or third player of the three UFAs to make a decision about re-signing or not, but it appears that the three of them will be discussing their futures together. So perhaps if one re-signs, then all of them do, and if one wants to be traded, then all of them will.
So the next 6 months have the potential to be franchise altering then. No pressure.
It would be great to see him re-signed early on in the season, but I don’t think we’ll see any action on that until the New Year when Duchene can get a better sense of if he wants to stay or not. And if he seems like he’s most likely not going to re-sign, then Dorion has to move him. It would be a complete and utter failure if they have to move on from him just a year after giving up a hefty package to get him.
Then again, lots can change from now until next spring/summer as we all know.