As the NHL enters into the second phase of the free agency period and the bodies keep moving around, one potential incoming defenceman has been taken off the board for the Ottawa Senators.
John Marino, who had featured prominently in the speculation about filling a hole on a top defence pair, was traded to the New Jersey Devils from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In return, the Penguins acquired defenceman Ty Smith and a third round draft pick.
Marino, who has five years and $23.65 million remaining on his contract, had one goal and 24 assists and was a steady defensive presence in 81 games with the Penguins last season.
He might have fit in well in Ottawa, where questions remain about exactly who will slot in where on the top pairings after Thomas Chabot and Artem Zub.
Rookie Jake Sanderson, currently sidelined following wrist surgery, could get a shot, along with Travis Hamonic, whom the Senators acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in a trade deadline deal last summer.
Jakob Chychrun does, however, remain in play. Impatient about the rebuild with the Arizona Coyotes, the 24-year-old Chychrun has also been linked to the Senators. He scored seven goals and 14 assists in 47 games with the Coyotes last season, a down year after netting 18 goals and 23 assists in 56 games in 2020-21. He carries a salary cap hit of $4.6 million, with three years and $16.4 million in actual dollars remaining on his six-year contract.
The price tag to acquire Chychrun is likely considerably higher than what the Devils gave up to secure Marino and the Senators are also looking to dump Nikita Zaitsev and the two years and $9 million remaining on his contract.
As it is, the Senators have spent significantly more than in previous years, after the additions of Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux, along with the eight-year, $63.6 million extension to Josh Norris.
The club has a salary cap hit of $70,859,881, according to capfriendly.com, with Alex Formenton, Erik Brannstrom and Mathieu Joseph remaining as restricted free agents.
On Sunday, Joseph officially filed for salary arbitration. After coming to the Senators from Tampa Bay in the trade deadline deal for Nick Paul, Joseph scored four goals and eight assists in 11 games before suffering a season ending upper body injury. In 69 games combined with Tampa and Ottawa, he had 12 goals and 18 assists.
Meanwhile, former Senators Chris Tierney and Michael Del Zotto have joined ex-Senator Colin White with the Florida Panthers. Well, sort of.
Tierney and Del Zotto signed identical two-way deals with the Panthers — $750,000 if they crack the NHL lineup and $450,000 should they end up with the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers — in a bid to keep playing in North America.
Indeed, in addition to filling out the NHL rosters, there’s work to be done to build AHL teams.
In that regard, the Senators have signed a five-pack of players — forwards Jake Luccini and Scott Sabourin, along with defencemen Kristians Rubins and Jacob Larsson and goaltender Antoine Bibeau — to two-way deals.
Luccini led Belleville in scoring in 2021-22, with 20 goals and 31 assists.
Sabourin, the Orleans native who is familiar to Senators fans for his rugged play, scored five goals and 12 assists with Belleville last season, while also stepping up to play seven big-league games.
Rubins has switched sides in the Battles of Ontario. He played in 58 games for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies and three games with the Maple Leafs last season.
Larsson comes to the Senators organization from the Anaheim Ducks. He spent six games with the Ducks in 2021-22 and scored two goals and 13 assists in 55 contests with their AHL affiliate in San Diego.
Bibeau, who played with Charlotte in the AHL last season, is expected to lend some experience to the young Belleville tandem of Mads Sogaard and Kevin Mandolese. Bibeau, 28, has spent the bulk of his pro career in the AHL, and has played in four NHL games with the Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche.
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