Uncertainty about Pageau’s future hard to ignore
Down the road, down the middle for the Ottawa Senators, the conversation has largely revolved around Colin White, Logan Brown, Josh Norris and maybe a name or two from the 2020 entry draft.
But what about the short- and/ or long-term future of Thursday’s game-winning goal scorer, Jean-Gabriel Pageau? As if seeing into the future, Senators coach D.J. Smith labelled him as “our leader upfront” before the puck dropped against the Los Angeles Kings.
Pageau promptly scored the overtime game winner, extending his goal-scoring streak to three games and adding more to resume.
Will the Senators re-sign or trade Pageau, who is clearly on a roll offensively, defensively and in a leadership capacity?
Pageau has a team-high seven goals, four in his past three games. His short-handed effort against the Islanders on Tuesday was his second of the season, tying him for the NHL lead. Somehow, on a team that won only five of its first 15 games, he also owned a league-leading plus/minus of plus-15.
“I’m trying to take it day to day,” Pageau said about nearing the end of the three-year, US$9.3-million extension he signed in 2017. “Right now, I’m a Senator. I’m trying to get better. I’m trying to help everyone who has questions. I’m not focused on that right now.”
That’s the boring, team-first answer to his personal situation, but Pageau has never created public relations problems for the organization.
In fact, the Gatineau native has been a solid bridge in selling the organization to fans on both sides of the Ottawa River.
But from where we sit, the uncertainty about his future is hard to ignore.
Pageau, who turns 27 on Monday, is a glue player in the dressing room, the centre that both prospects and veterans want to play with because of his reliability and responsibility.
In NHL terms, he’s neither old nor young, headed into what was once considered the prime years of a player’s career.
While the Senators have cemented White to the organization with a six-year extension and have high hopes for fellow first-round draft picks Brown and Norris, it says here there’s a need for a more veteran presence to guide the early 20-somethings.
Which brings us to the questions surrounding general manager Pierre Dorion’s mindset and owner Eugene Melnyk’s wallet.
How much is too much for a player who, if things work out the way the organization dreams they will, would eventually evolve into an ideal third-line pivot? Players with Pageau’s list of intangibles don’t come cheap on the open market.
Just ask Smith, who started the season with Pageau on a fourth line. The spark plug has since moved from third line to second line to top line, given the club’s injury situation.
“He’s practising hard, he’s skating hard and therefore he’s skating in games,” Smith said. “A player that is smart like him, he capitalizes on other team’s mistakes and there’s a lot to be learned there.”
If Boston’s Patrice Bergeron is the leader for fellow Bruins forwards to follow, Smith says Pageau is the role model for his Senators forwards to emulate. Wherever possible, Smith is using the line of Pageau, Connor Brown and Nick Paul against the opposition’s best units.
If the Senators can’t afford Pageau, he could become an intriguing trade-deadline pickup for a Stanley Cup contender.
His set of skills are even more valuable come playoff time, as witnessed by his success with the Senators in 2017 and 2013.
At this point, Pageau is showing extra jump, fully recovered from the torn Achilles he suffered on the opening day of training camp in 2018. Outwardly, anyway, the unknown future has been anything but a distraction.
“There are no talks right now and it’s not my main focus,” he said. “I barely think about it. I’m just trying to give my 100 per cent, just so I don’t have regrets. I just want to leave everything out there. I take pride every night I wear a Senators jersey right now, so we’ll see. I’m not too worried about it.”