A word that caught me in the description of Sens re-opening contract talks with Stone was that they were going to get "creative".
What does that mean?
Could we see something like a 2-3 year contract at a huge over-payment money wise, like max salary?
Gives Stone a chance to evaluate Ottawa's rebuild, Ottawa won't have a way to spend that money anyways with Duchene, Dzingel, Ceci, Anderson, etc all being traded. Sets Stone up to sign a more appropriate AAV 8 year contract at the age of 30 and the beginning of our supposed run for success.
I still don't understand why we don't just pay this one player the lockout bonuses on a regular 8 year contract. It's the cost of doing business right now, and if the Senators expect fans to buy in, they need to retain Stone. The can let everybody else go, but retaining Stone is an investment that has to be made if the Senators expect to sell fans on the team in short term via season tickets, and have the fans buy in to the long term strategic plans that Melnyk and co outlined in Toronto a few weeks back.