SENS WILL KEEP CLOSE EYE ON KANE CONTRACT
It created plenty of fodder for sports talk radio and social media, but Daniel Alfredsson really offered very little insight on Erik Karlsson’s future in Ottawa last weekend.
“To me, he says that he wants to stay,” Alfredsson, who was in Copenhagen for induction into the IIHF Hall of Fame, told reporters when asked about his good friend’s contract situation with the Senators.
“But it’s not all in his hands.”
It actually is, if he wants to take less than what he’d get on the open market 14 months from now.
Last we heard, Karlsson is not about to give the Senators a hometown discount, which means he’ll say thanks but no thanks to their offer on July 1 and get traded at some point thereafter.
Meanwhile, signing Mark Stone and Matt Duchene to extensions may be pricer than the Senators originally anticipated. That is, if Evander Kane is inked to a rumoured seven-year, $49-million US deal with the San Jose Sharks.
Kane’s situation is different. He can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The Sharks paid a sizeable price to obtain him from the Buffalo Sabres at the deadline, and they see him fitting nicely into their future plans.
Yeah, Kane is a very good player. He’ll be 27 in August. He’s a goal scorer who, in nine NHL seasons, has only reached the 30-plateau once.
And he has attendance problems. Prior to the 2017-18 campaign, when he suited up in 61 games for Buffalo and 17 for the Sharks, he had never played more than 74 games in a season. And only three times played at least 70.
If Kane is going to get '7 for 7,' Duchene and Stone should be looking for something in the same neighbourhood. And as much as the Senators would like to long-term them both, Stone is restricted while Duchene is in the same boat as Karlsson.
That boat could soon be hitting some waves, too.