After going through tricky ordeals with Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza in the past two summers, the Ottawa Senators would like to avoid similar drama next year.
Forwards Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur are entering the final year of their contracts and can both become unrestricted free agents. As Wayne Scanlan of the Ottawa Citizen shared, assistant GM Pierre Dorion is trying to get ahead of matters and will be speaking with agents for both players next week.
Recently we shared how the Sens are looking to get a new multi-year deal done with defenseman Marc Methot as well, but with Ryan and MacArthur’s free agency looming next summer, there’s a sense of dread looming if talks can’t progress quickly. After all, when a team loses big time offensive producers in back-to-back offseasons that’ll happen.
MacArthur and Ryan were fourth and fifth on the team in points last season. With Spezza gone, it’ll be up to Kyle Turris to do what he did last season and more to help keep the Sens offense going. With Erik Karlsson putting up monster numbers from the blue line, the forwards have to do their part as well and the production fell off quickly after Ryan.