Dorion’s job ‘never done’ as arbitration with Dzingel approaches
The job is never finished for general manager Pierre Dorion.
Still, once the Ottawa Senators either head to salary arbitration with winger Ryan Dzingel on Friday in Toronto or settle before then, Dorion will likely have most of the roster in place for September’s training camp.
The Senators are trying to avoid arbitration with the Dzingel, 25, who had 14 goals and 18 assists last season, but the two sides are not close to a deal at this point even though Dorion talked to Dzingel’s Torontobased agent Don Meehan on Monday.
“We’re still in negotiations. We talked this morning,” Dorion said during an afternoon teleconference. “While we’d like to avoid arbitration and Don Meehan would like to avoid arbitration too, but at the same time we understand it’s a process and if we can’t come to an agreement, we’ll just go to arbitration Friday at 9 a.m.”
Dzingel is the last remaining restricted free agent from the Senators’ 2016-17 roster, but that doesn’t mean Dorion will put his feet up for the rest of the summer even though the team is coming off an appearance in the Eastern Conference final this past spring.
“You’re never done,” Dorion said. “Is this the last thing we’ll do all summer? I don’t want to tell you yes because you never know. As recently as this morning, I was talking to another GM about a possible trade and there’s always that avenue.
“There’s always guys looking for a job. There’s always the possibility of bringing guys to camp on (pro tryouts). We feel that we have depth right now, especially with good young prospects that can step in right away. Right now, we feel we’re headed in the right direction with the group of guys we have, but shopping is never done.”
The Senators really haven’t made a lot of changes to their roster. It appears the only significant departures will be defenceman Marc Methot, who was taken in the expansion draft, and winger Viktor Stalberg, who left as a free agent.
“We’re very close to being the same roster that we finished the year with. We feel we’re almost as good a team as we had last year and last year we were an overtime away from being in the Stanley Cup finals,” Dorion said. “I think, if we can continue on the same path we were last year, I think we proved a lot of people wrong.
“Not many had us going into the playoffs. This year our goal is the same: get into the playoffs and build upon that.”