{"id":295180,"date":"2025-11-10T16:34:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T16:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/295180\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T16:34:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T16:34:19","slug":"shane-is-an-important-player-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/295180\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shane is an important player for us\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/ottawa-senators\/9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/ottawa-senators\/9\" target=\"_blank\">Ottawa Senators<\/a> have several of their core players already signed to long-term contracts and the team could add forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/shane-pinto\/8481596\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/shane-pinto\/8481596\" target=\"_blank\">Shane Pinto<\/a> to that group in the near future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Pinto got off a hot start this season, scoring eight goals in his first nine games. While he has cooled off since then, with zero goals and five assists in his past seven contests, Pinto has become a key piece in the Senators lineup, especially with captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/brady-tkachuk\/8480801\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/brady-tkachuk\/8480801\" target=\"_blank\">Brady Tkachuk<\/a> out with a thumb injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Senators\u2019 general manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/steve-staios\/8458541\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/steve-staios\/8458541\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Staios<\/a> said on Monday that he plans to sit down with Pinto\u2019s agent, Lewis Gross, to continue to talk about a contract extension. The Sens already have forwards Tim Stutzle and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/dylan-cozens\/8481528\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/dylan-cozens\/8481528\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Cozens<\/a> as well as defenceman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/jake-sanderson\/8482105\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/jake-sanderson\/8482105\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Sanderson<\/a> signed through the 2029-30 season, while Tkachuk, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/ridly-greig\/8482092\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/ridly-greig\/8482092\" target=\"_blank\">Ridly Greig<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/linus-ullmark\/8476999\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/linus-ullmark\/8476999\" target=\"_blank\">Linus Ullmark<\/a> also have multiple seasons remaining on their current deals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He said he is confident that the Sens and Pinto\u2019s camp will come to an eventual agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cShane is an important player for us,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/radio\/ottawa-1200\/article\/tsn-mornings-sens-gm-steve-staios-i-feel-like-were-getting-closer-to-our-identity\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/radio\/ottawa-1200\/article\/tsn-mornings-sens-gm-steve-staios-i-feel-like-were-getting-closer-to-our-identity\/\">Staios on TSN 1200.<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019ve been there for him along the way and watched him develop within the group. I do feel comfortable we\u2019ll get something done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Pinto, a second-round pick (32nd overall) by Ottawa in 2019, had a breakout season in 2022-23, playing in all 82 games with the Senators, scoring 20 goals with 35 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However, he missed half of the 2023-24 season after he was suspended for 41 games for violating the NHL\u2019s rules on sports betting and also missed all of training camp that year because of a contract dispute. He made his season debut on Jan. 21, 2024 after signing a one-year deal, finishing the year with nine goals and 27 points in 41 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Despite missing 12 games with injury last season, Pinto hit career highs in goals (21) and points (37) as the Sens made the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season. Pinto had a goal and one assist in six postseason games before the Sens were eliminated by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/toronto-maple-leafs\/10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/toronto-maple-leafs\/10\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> in the first round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve been upfront about how good of a player he is and an important player for our group,\u201d said Staios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators have several of their core players already signed to long-term contracts and the team could&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5104],"tags":[4759,5,4,72,25,33540,5157,73,38578],"class_list":{"0":"post-295180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa-senators","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-ottawa","12":"tag-ottawa-senators","13":"tag-ottawa-senators-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-9","14":"tag-ottawasenators","15":"tag-senators","16":"tag-shane-pinto-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8481596"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115526373500358038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295180","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=295180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}