Confirmed with Link: Cody Ceci extended for two years, AAV $2.8 million ($2.25M, $3.35M)

[Ouroboros]

Assuming the budget is still 68M, this signing puts Ottawa right around the 68M mark. Prior to this signing, according to cap friendly they had 65.3M with only Ceci's spot left to fill (22/23 players filled). Depending on who makes the team, that number could go up or down by a few 100k since each depth player (Dzingel, Paul Pyatt, etc) will have different salaries, but most are in the 700k-900k range. With Ceci's first year being a bit lower, Ottawa might have some wiggle room to sign a depth defender who is asking for a bit more than 1M per.

The team is just under 65M in salary, and that's counting one of Claesson or Kostka as the 7th defenseman. They have enough flexibility for a substantial upgrade here.

I'm expecting them to bring somebody to camp with the expectation that they'll win a job.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I think Franzen and Vitale will be on the IR.

Gotcha thanks

 

[Senzilla]

Good signing. I like the term and amount, well done.

 

[Sensinitis]

This dcore is already better than any group since we went to the finals.

Standard hasnt exactly been very high. This team needs a vet that can slide into the top 4 if there is an injury I agree.

2011-12
Kuba-Karlsson
Cowen-Gonchar
Phillips-Gilroy/Carkner/Lee

vs

2012-13
Methot-Karlsson
Wiercioch-Gonchar
Phillips-Gryba/Benoit

vs

2016-17
Methot-Karlsson
Phaneuf-Ceci
Jackman-Wideman


If we get a good vet for the 3rd pair this D blows the other two competitors out the water.

 

[Langdon Alger]

So we afford get a good bottom pair defenseman?

Probably not a lot of money left at this point. Maybe 1 million? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see someone brought in on a PTO. Give him a look, and if he does well in camp, give him a one year deal at one million or less.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

The team is just under 65M in salary, and that's counting one of Claesson or Kostka as the 7th defenseman. They have enough flexibility for a substantial upgrade here.

I'm expecting them to bring somebody to camp with the expectation that they'll win a job.

No they aren't.

According to cap friendly they are just a scrape below 68M in actual salary (not cap).

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/senators/salary

If you're looking at a different cap site, the issue might be that they aren't accounting for a full 23 man roster.

Depending on who makes the final roster, Ottawa are within a few 100k of 68M.

 

[Langdon Alger]

Can we stop *****ing about the budget for a day now?

 

[danielpalfredsson]

So we afford get a good bottom pair defenseman?

Assuming the budget is still 68M (see here: http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/03/22/senators-eugene-melnyk-says-nobody-is-safe) The Sens might have enough extra money to sign a veteran for in the low 1M range instead of paying Kostka or Claesson 700k-800k to play in the NHL. This also depends on how strict their 68M budget is. But unless they trade somebody, or unless something has changed since 6 months ago when we learned this is a 68M team, there shouldn't be money to go out and get a 3M type defender.

 

[Ouroboros]

Looks like they're counting Brassard as 5M, but 2M of that has already been paid by New York.

Hoffman (3.8) - Brassard (3.0) - Ryan (7.0)
MacArthur (4.5) - Turris (4.0) - Stone (3.75)
Smith (2.35) - Pageau (1.1) - Lazar (.8325)
Pyatt (.8) - Kelly (.9) - Neil (1.5)
Puempel (.9)

Methot (4.9) - Karlsson (7.0)
Phaneuf (7.5) - Ceci (2.25)
Borowiecki (1.1) - Wideman (.8)
Claesson (.7)

Anderson (4.75)
Hammond (1.35)


F = 34.4325
D = 24.25
G = 6.1

Total = 64.7825

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

So we afford get a good bottom pair defenseman?

Define good

All depends on how tight the reins are on the budget. I am hoping we can go up to close to 2 mil per to get an upgrade to the bottom pair LD.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Can we stop *****ing about the budget for a day now?

The team's budget is pretty relevant to a multi year signing.........

No different than CHI signing someone and their fans speculating on how it might effect their cap structure next season or how it might effect moves that the GM said they want to make this season under their cap.

It is one thing if people are needlessly *****ing, but I am not sure why there is a trend of hating on people acknowledging Ottawa is a budget team, and speculating about how certain contracts will fit in under that budget. There's a reason why cap sites are so popular and prominent. It is a big part of the sport. It just happens that Ottawa has an internal budget, and not a cap set by the league.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Looks like they're counting Brassard as 5M, but 2M of that has already been paid by New York.

Hoffman (3.8) - Brassard (3.0) - Ryan (7.0)
MacArthur (4.5) - Turris (4.0) - Stone (3.75)
Smith (2.35) - Pageau (1.1) - Lazar (.8325)
Pyatt (.8) - Kelly (.9) - Neil (1.5)
Puempel (.9)

Methot (4.9) - Karlsson (7.0)
Phaneuf (7.5) - Ceci (2.25)
Borowiecki (1.1) - Wideman (.8)
Claesson (.7)

Anderson (4.75)
Hammond (1.35)


F = 34.4325
D = 24.25
G = 6.1

Total = 64.7825

I did not catch Brassard's bonus. Maybe you're right then and Ottawa has an extra 2M. Good call.

 

[Sens]

Looks like they're counting Brassard as 5M, but 2M of that has already been paid by New York.

Hoffman (3.8) - Brassard (3.0) - Ryan (7.0)
MacArthur (4.5) - Turris (4.0) - Stone (3.75)
Smith (2.35) - Pageau (1.1) - Lazar (.8325)
Pyatt (.8) - Kelly (.9) - Neil (1.5)
Puempel (.9)

Methot (4.9) - Karlsson (7.0)
Phaneuf (7.5) - Ceci (2.25)
Borowiecki (1.1) - Wideman (.8)
Claesson (.7)

Anderson (4.75)
Hammond (1.35)


F = 34.4325
D = 24.25
G = 6.1

Total = 64.7825

I like the roster a bunch but it really needs a bottom pair upgrade... Then if the teams going good another upgrade during the season in the top nine... Trade for a 20G RW ideally

 

[Ice-Tray]

Can we stop *****ing about the budget for a day now?

Not a chance.... There's a new sheriff in town

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Excellent news.

Team is set and good to go.

Should be a solid season.

 

[Back in Black]

Dorion is a stud!

Gonna be a great turnaround season, and hopefully a good playoff run!

 

[Samboni]

I'm very pleased that the contract is settled as well as the dollars and term. I suspect that Dorion has been working the phones today to see about bolstering the bottom pair. It wouldn't surprise me if he gets that done before the end of the week.

 

[Langdon Alger]

I'm very pleased that the contract is settled as well as the dollars and term. I suspect that Dorion has been working the phones today to see about bolstering the bottom pair. It wouldn't surprise me if he gets that done before the end of the week.

Now that we know Ceci's dollars, we can address the issue of the bottom pairing dman. What a time to be alive.

 

[rdogg]

Good signing. Not a big cap hit, and he'll still be a RFA after that contracts up

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Good deal.

Now, it's up to Ceci. He has a solid partner and a new contract in his pocket. Time for him to take the next step and show he can be the one to start driving the play offensively on his pairing and show he has what it takes to eventually be the anchor on the second pair.

 

[Hutz]

Sweet, looks about right, good job!

 

[source]

Good signing. Now we need one more to play ahead of Borowiecki.

 

[Knave]

It's like a slightly better Subban bridge signing but obviously Subban made it big during his bridge contract (and I doubt Ceci will... but I do think he'll play well enough to earn a good, long term contract at a fairly high price).

I agree with others. Our top 4 is the best it has been in quite a while. I agreed with Dorion when he said if we had Phaneuf for a full year - we would have likely made the playoffs. It turned us from a 1 man defense corps to a solid 4 man corps.

Phaneuf-Ceci and Karlsson-Methot/Claesson (basically Karlsson makes anyone with some mild ability look pretty good).

 

[DJB]

If here is any hope that we were going to improve that bottom pair the time will be now. Now hat Dorion knows how much money he has after getting ceci locked up. Hopefully something happens.

 

[BonkTastic]

The "Bridge Contract" is still alive!

Seeing some of the other post-ELC contracts going around the league over the past 12-14 months or so, I thought Dorion was going to be forced into giving Ceci a deal based on future projections instead of past performance, and pay out the nose for anticipated future production. Glad to see I was wrong!

Dorion's been knocking it out of the park on the internal stuff so far in his limited stint as GM. Hoffman's contract was surprisingly low (especially having him commit to that $3.8mil number for his last RFA year, based on what a lot of people expected, and based on the market value for players with his kind of numbers over 2+ seasons), and he managed to talk Ceci into taking a bridge deal with a high QO number rather than a 4 year deal that would have taken him to his last RFA year and in his prime (basically the same situation Hoffman was in this year).

I won't dock Dorion any marks for not grabbing any big UFA names this summer, because that was never going to be in the cards for us due to the budget. Dorion can't control the budget.

So after Ceci's deal, we currently sit, what... $6mil shy of the cap, with essentially a completely full roster?

I imagine we might still sign that depth defenceman Dorion has been talking about, but even if we sign a guy for like $1.5-2mil, we'd still have ~$5mil open under the cap (because then we wouldn't count Kostka's $800k NHL salary, who is our current 7th D).

Not horrible. Not great, I'd love to see that spare $5-6 mil we have open used towards the on-ice product (short-term depth additions, etc...), but at least we're around 20th in league spending, instead of bottom 3-5, where we used to be. Baby steps.