Mark Stone has become one of the most important Ottawa Senators over the last couple of seasons. This season is now his last until unrestricted free agency. What will happen next?
The Ottawa Senators have had a tumultuous year, to say the least. From the locker room to the front office, to the players themselves, things haven’t gone well at all. The Senators probably knew that they were going to have issues signing their players to long-term deals because of the ongoing media tire fire that’s taken over headlines in Canada’s capital. One such player is forward Mark Stone.
Despite battling injuries last season, Stone elevated his game to become a point-per-game player for the Sens. He led the team with 62 points (20 goals and 42 assists) in just 58 games. Stone played during all situations and was heavily leaned on by Ottawa to help carry their offense.
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He was up for restricted free agency this offseason and elected to file for arbitration. Elliotte Friedman reported that the Senators were offering $5 million and Stone was asking for $9 million. The divide was massive.
News finally came around that Stone and the Senators settled on a one year deal with $7.35 million, which is a decent midway point between the two figures previously exchanged. This will take him to unrestricted free agency next season.
Stone joins a group of significant players that are now scheduled for UFA status after this season in Ottawa. Those include Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, Cody Ceci, and of course, Erik Karlsson.
After this past season turned into a pumpkin seemingly the moment the puck dropped on opening night, whispers of trades became talks of trades, which ultimately turned into active negotiations. Ownership and upper management haven’t been making things better with the team nor their fans, thus leaving Ottawa as a less desirable destination for potential free agent targets, or even their own players. This seems to have left the Senators with no choice but to actively market their best players.
During the season, Ottawa completed a three-team trade with the Avalanche and Predators to acquire Matt Duchene, while giving away a haul of prospects (including Samuel Girard, who immediately broke out for Colorado), and a conditional first round pick, which ultimately turned into this season’s first round pick, which could easily be a big lottery pick.
So in summation, the Sens will probably be bad, have three of their top players in walk years, and seemingly none of them have plans to stay long. The Sens also don’t have their first-round pick in 2019, which very possibly could be a top three pick. Fans despise the ownership group, and attendance has been suffering. This adds up to a pretty bleak outlook going forward.
This leads many to believe that this season will bring a massive fire sale for Ottawa. Karlsson is going to get dealt sooner rather than later, and likely will bring Ottawa back into the first round of the 2019 NHL draft, along with a slew of prospects, players, and picks. Duchene has value too, and can also bring back high picks and/or prospects.
Stone’s one year deal tells us that he’s very likely going to be in a similar camp to Karlsson and Duchene and marked for sale come deadline time. Because of his age, size, and scoring touch, he will also command significant value to the table. Expect him to be the center of trade rumors for the next few months once Ottawa deals Karlsson.
Looking at Ottawa’s cap situation, they will be able to afford to bring on a bad contract or two to facilitate big trades to teams that might have cap issues. The Senators have $10M or so in space, and only Cody Ceci to sign. Sure, they have Bobby Ryan and Marian Gaborik on bad contracts, and Clarke MacArthur as dead money as well, but they shouldn’t have cap issues once they start selling off their big players.
Stone will get paid what he’s worth this season, and could find a new home soon via trade or unrestricted free agency. The Senators can tear everything down to the foundation to start rebuilding from scratch. This deal seems like a win-win to me.