The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
After signing goalie, is Batherson next?
The Ottawa Senators have gotten another piece of business off the books.
With training camp set to open Sept. 22 at the Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators signed restricted free agent goaltender Filip Gustavsson to a two-year deal Sunday.
The deal is worth $750,000 in the NHL in the first year. and has an AHL salary of $125,000. It switches to a one-way deal in the second year and Gustavsson will make $825,000 in 2022-23.
Getting a deal done with Gustavsson is another important piece of work done by general manager Pierre Dorion. The club still has to sign RFA forwards Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Logan Brown.
“We were very pleased with Filip's performance last season,” said Dorion Sunday. “After spending the early part of the year playing in Sweden, it was evident to us that he is committed to continually improve his overall game. He's someone we regard as a high-end talent and we're looking forward to seeing his progress in 2021-22.”
Gustavsson was acquired in the deal that sent centre Derrick
Brassard to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the trade deadline in 2018. Drafted No. 55 overall by the Penguins in 2016, he has spent the last three seasons with Ottawa's AHL affiliate in Belleville and 2019-20 went on pause last year Gustavsson was in a battle for playing time with Joey Daccord.
He felt that coming into last season he had to earn a second
contract and he certainly achieved that goal.
What he did was force the Senators to hold onto him and protect him from the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft in July. The Senators would have protected Joey Daccord before last season got under way but the way Gustavsson performed left the club with no choice but to protect him.
Forsberg finished with a 5-1-2 record with a .933 save-percentage and a 2.16 goals-against average down the stretch and helped the Senators have a successful finish to what was a difficult season.
He came when the club was without the injured Matt Murray, Anton Forsberg, Marcos Hogberg and Daccord and there were no expectations. Gustavsson had never shown he could play at this level but he had never gotten the opportunity either.
Gustavsson would have been eligible to file for arbitration after this season so this takes that option off the table because he could be the club's fulltime backup in the second year of the deal.
Sometimes a change is better than a rest and, perhaps, a change of scenery before the NHL season started last year in January did Gustavsson a lot of good.
He suited up for Sodertalje SK in the second division of the Swedish league to start the year and had good success. He left there with a 11-7-0 record and .919 save-percentage.
The reality is Gustavsson will likely play with the club's AHL affiliate in Belleville next season while Forsberg is the backup in Ottawa. He signed a one-year extension after being picked on waivers but that doesn't mean Gustavsson won't get a chance to play here because there's going to be injuries.
Of course, all eyes will now be on Tkachuk and Batherson. As noted in this space earlier this week, talks between Dorion and agents both camps continue to try to get extensions in place.
The belief is the Senators would like to get the 21-yearold Tkachuk signed to an eightyear contract extension before camp gets underway. Talks between the two sides have naturally intensified in recent days and owner Eugene Melnyk has made it clear the club wants to keep the core together.
As noted in this space earlier at the end of last season, the Senators were expected to table a significant, long-term offer to Tkachuk and it's likely those discussions have taken place. Both sides want to get a deal in place and are trying to work out something that makes everybody happy.
As for Batherson, there was speculation a couple of weeks ago the two sides were focused on a short-term deal but the belief is the club would like to get Tkachuk signed first then move to Batherson.
In any case, stay tuned because the club is also trying to deal for a top end winger before camp opens as well. Give Dorion and the Senators credit because they're putting the necessary pieces in place with camp getting closer.