Confirmed with Link: Pageau - 3 years, $9.3M (3.1 AAV)

BonHoonLayneCornell

Registered User
Oct 16, 2006
15,227
10,450
Yukon
Interesting that its 3 years. Guess they'll take their chances with him as a UFA and didn't want to pay for those years now.

Edit: Also a little more money than I expected for only RFA years. Thought it would land below 3 mil per unless there were UFA years involved.

I stand corrected, it apparently does not take him to UFA.
 
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topshelf15

Registered User
May 5, 2009
27,993
6,005
About what most here expected,i would have liked a bit more term at that price though .Say 5 years:nod:
 

danielpalfredsson

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Aug 14, 2013
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Straight to UFA doesn't matter all that much these days since extensions usually get done early for key players, and arbitration could take Pageau directly to UFA anyways if they go two years instead of 3.

Also, when a team isn't a cap team there is less incentive to lock a player down to a long term deal because getting cost certainty through a player's cap hit doesn't matter since the salary is what the team looks at. So if the Sens bought UFA years, the ask for the UFA years might have been similar to what they can just sign him for in 3 years time without the risk of going long term. The cap hit will be higher in 3 years when they extend him, but the salary would probably be similar to what he would have made in year 4/5/6/etc anyways. This is probably why the Sens opted not to buy up any UFA years.

I'm a bit surprised with how high the cap hit is considering this is an RFA contract. Doesn't make it a bad deal, but I'm surprised he is getting more than Smith in the last two years despite being an RFA. They had similar production/TOI. Pageau is clearly the better player, so I guess it's justifiable.

A fair deal, but not a home run for the Sens by any means. Makes sense that this took this long if this is the final contract.
 

Tuna99

Registered User
Sep 26, 2009
14,712
6,797
Wanted to see a minimum of 4 and was hoping for 5. But not a bad deal money wise but I'd prefer more term for a player who is getting better each season.

Looks like the players in Ottawa are taking short term deals. Don't want to read to much into it, but would like to see some long term commitments being made from both sides.
 

slamigo

Skate or Die!
Dec 25, 2007
6,430
3,811
Ottawa
Jeez how about we analyze the next three years before lamenting about the next contract? Lol

This is a fair deal and he's an important part of GB's system. Good signing IMHO.
 

PeterSidorkiewicz

HFWF Tourney Undisputed Champion
Apr 30, 2004
32,442
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Lansing, MI
This is the exact deal I pencilled into capfriendly when making lineups, cool. Also, I have a blank authentic jersey I wanted to get stitched for awhile and was waiting to see what happened with Pageau first.
 

danielpalfredsson

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Aug 14, 2013
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If he's RFA at the end then great.
If UFA then it's a bit much.

RFA VS UFA is overstated when players can and almost always do extend a year early.

The team loses a little bit of leverage by going straight to UFA, but they get some added cost certainty for that 3rd RFA year.

If the Sens went two years and both sides were far apart, the result would end up being the same, Pageau would go to arbitration and get a 1 year deal that would take him straight to free agency, except the Sens would be at the mercy of an arbitrator and would not have him cost controlled like his now. If the Sens aren't far apart in 2 years well it doesn't matter anyways because they can extend a year early and avoid unrestricted free agency.

If his salary was the same, his qualifying offer would be 3.3M since that is his year 2 salary. So that would be the LEAST the Sens could pay him for year 3 if he was on a 2 year deal.

There's really not as much benefit of keeping him as an RFA as people perceive in this situation. The real discussion point about this contract should be whether or not the Senators should have bit the bullet and locked him in long term. There's not much benefit to locking him in at 5+ years if the Senators think he has peaked, but if Pageau has another level and becomes a legit top 6 50 point two way C, he's going to have a significantly higher price tag after these three years are up than he might have had to lock in long term right now.

With how expensive his RFA years turned out to be, I think a 3 year deal was probably the right move, but it's hard to say without knowing what price was put on his UFA years. I'm not sure Pageau has that extra offensive gear. On the right team that is willing to use him in that role, maybe he could pump up his stats, but I'm not sure if he'll get that opportunity here.
 

swiftwin

★SUMMER.OF.PIERRE★
Jul 26, 2005
23,559
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Fantastic. Dorion has been great at resigning players to great deals. Smith, Pyatt and now Pageau are all great deals.
 

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