Decision time nearing for Duchene
Matt Duchene was the last one off the ice at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday before the Ottawa Senators made the trek here.
He had just wrapped up a long chat with Senators head coach Guy Boucher on the eve of Wednesday night’s matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the reality is that Duchene has been doing a lot of talking leading into the Feb. 25 National Hockey League trade deadline.
Duchene confirmed that he and agent Pat Brisson met with Senators general manager Pierre Dorion and assistant Peter MacTavish for lunch in Ottawa. While those discussions went well, the Senators’ top centre still wasn’t ready to sign an extension.
“We had a good chat (Monday) and Pierre told me to tell you guys he picked up the bill, so that was good,” Duchene said with a smile. “We’re going to keep it inside, but it was good. We had a good talk.”
With Duchene able to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, the sides have talked about an eight-year deal worth $64 million, but Duchene must also decide if he wants to be part of a rebuild in Ottawa or head to a competitor to win this spring.
Even Duchene admits talks are getting to a point where a decision must be made one way or another. The pressure is building on the Senators because they must also try to sign winger Mark Stone and make a decision on winger Ryan Dzingel. They, too, can become free agents in July.
“It’s getting a little more difficult, maybe, but, at the same time, when I go out on the ice, it’s about playing hockey. It’s not like I’m thinking about anything in the back of my head,” Duchene said. “It’s not going to take away from my game or how I am in the locker-room or anything like that.
“I’ve been through distractions before and this is no different.”
The Senators want to keep Duchene because they view him as a building block. He would be a candidate for the captaincy, depending on what happens with Stone, and Duchene would have a big role with Ottawa if he stayed.
“Right now, if I had a gut feel, I’d probably go with it,” Duchene said. “At this point, we’re not quite at that point.”
He admitted it was difficult to separate his heart and his head.
“Yes, very,” Duchene said. “I have no idea (how long it will take to win). I would need a crystal ball for that. One thing I do know is that they’ve done an outstanding job here building up the young talent in the organization.
“That’s something that anybody in this situation would be looking at.”
Duchene said he wouldn’t get caught up in numbers and money wouldn’t be the deciding factor for him.
“I haven’t even thought about the money part, to be honest with you,” Duchene said. “You’re not going to be like, ‘I’ll play for free,’ but maybe I’m showing my hand too much right now, but I don’t care. It’s never been about that for me.”
For his part, Dorion is choosing his words carefully. Speaking to TSN 1200 on Tuesday, he repeated that he wanted to keep Duchene, Stone and Dzingel, but wouldn’t be doing play-by-play on negotiations.
“Obviously we’re not going to deny that we’ve met with agents,” Dorion said. “Pat Brisson was in town (Monday), but, when it comes to our UFAs, the three bigger guys, we’ve had conversations with all three agents.
“And, from there, we’ve done a good job to keep it (done) private. Negotiations are still going on. We hope to have them signed at some point in time, but, for now, we’re just going to keep things all private between the players, agents and ourselves.”
Duchene said the Senators hadn’t given him a deadline for a decision, but there’s a strong belief in NHL circles that trade talks will heat up if Ottawa doesn’t have an answer by early next week. Expect the market for all three players to be big.
“When you’re talking for a long time, you know,” Dorion said. “I don’t think it would be ideal to take it to 3 p.m. (on Feb. 25), but we have a good idea what time frame we need to have contracts done by.”
That day is fast approaching. The Senators know it and so do Duchene, Stone and Dzingel.