Senators offered an eight-year, $52-million deal<\/a> in mid-October.<\/p>\nThat deal would carry an average annual value of $6.5 million, which is a far cry from the eight-year offer the club made in the summer that carried a $5 million AAV in the summer. The new offer wasn\u2019t enough to get it done, but it does serve notice to Pinto that the club wants him.<\/p>\n
The talk in league circles is that Pinto\u2019s camp feels his contract should be somewhere between the $7.1 million that Dylan Cozens is making on a deal he signed with the Buffalo Sabres before being traded to Ottawa and the $8.35 million that Tim Stutzle is pulling in.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re also told that Pinto has to determine if he wants to stay in Ottawa for the next eight seasons or does he wants a shorter term to see how the franchise progresses. Staios wants to solidify the middle of the ice with Tim Stutzle signed through 2031 and Dylan Cozens on board until 2030.<\/p>\n
Captain Brady Tkachuk\u2019s contract will be up at the end of the 2027-28 campaign, which raises the question of whether the Senators can keep this group together. Tkachuk will be a free agent in the same class as Toronto captain Auston Matthews and Edmonton captain Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n
Some have suggested to Postmedia that a deal in the range of three to six years might make more sense for Pinto. A three-year contract would allow him to see where the franchise is headed and, by then, everybody will know whether Tkachuk is signed to another extension.<\/p>\n
It should be noted that Gross is considered one of the most difficult negotiators in the league and he\u2019ll use every avenue possible to squeeze the Senators for what\u2019s best for Pinto \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t mean Staios doesn\u2019t have some leverage here as well.<\/p>\n
Pinto is two years away from unrestricted free agency and, with the cap going up, we\u2019re seeing salaries rise. That means there is more money in the pool for players and, as a result, general managers are trying to keep their key pieces from going to market anytime in the near future.<\/p>\n
This week alone, forward Logan Cooley signed an eight-year deal in Utah that carries an AAV of $10 million per season, and Martin Necas got a whopping $11.5 million AAV for eight years from Colorado. Defenceman Thomas Harley signed with Dallas for $10.59 million per year over eight seasons.<\/p>\n
Entering play Friday, seven players were tied for the most goals in the NHL this season with nine. The eight goals Pinto has scored have him tied with Cooley, Pittsburgh\u2019s Sidney Crosby, Edmonton\u2019s Leon Draisaitl, Detroit\u2019s Dylan Larkin and Jack Eichel of Vegas.<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
The fact that Pinto can go to arbitration means the Senators will get him signed one way or another because the reality is an offer sheet likely wouldn\u2019t be more than five years, and that Ottawa would match.<\/p>\n
An experienced agent told Postmedia on Friday that the Senators can leverage the final two years before free agency to help lower the AAV on Pinto\u2019s next contract.<\/p>\n
Yes, he could fetch $8 million on the open market in 2028 if he continues this pace, but the Senators can still offer Pinto security, and two years is a long time to see what happens.<\/p>\n
There is a willingness on both sides to get something done, but the Senators and Pinto are still trying to find common ground.<\/p>\n
bgarrioch@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators and Shane Pinto need to determine the right price. The Senators centre continued to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[532,536,229,26,826,192,155,196,599,2804,595,198,5,1041,4810,370,1522,513,21,4,72,25,5157,1469,73,1795,768,5158,1796,2392,681,66,824,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-278059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-brady-tkachuk","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-calgary-flames","12":"tag-canadian-tire-centre","13":"tag-colorado","14":"tag-connor-mcdavid","15":"tag-dallas","16":"tag-detroit","17":"tag-dylan-cozens","18":"tag-dylan-larkin","19":"tag-edmonton","20":"tag-hockey","21":"tag-jack-eichel","22":"tag-lars-eller","23":"tag-leon-draisaitl","24":"tag-logan-cooley","25":"tag-martin-necas","26":"tag-montreal-canadiens","27":"tag-nhl","28":"tag-ottawa","29":"tag-ottawa-senators","30":"tag-ottawasenators","31":"tag-pittsburgh","32":"tag-senators","33":"tag-shane-pinto","34":"tag-sidney-crosby","35":"tag-steve-staios","36":"tag-the-senators","37":"tag-thomas-harley","38":"tag-tim-stutzle","39":"tag-toronto","40":"tag-travis-green","41":"tag-vegas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}