Stone contract could mean rock bottom for Senators

The Ottawa Senators and forward Mark Stone avoided arbitration on Friday, agreeing to a one-year deal that should leave fans worried for the future of the franchise.

Let’s start with a piece of good news for the Ottawa Senators: Mark Stone is returning, Matt Duchene is still in town and it doesn’t seem likely that star defenseman Erik Karlsson will be traded any time soon. Those rumors have died quite a bit to the point of nonexistence.

Of course, you might have an idea where this is headed. We’re talking Senators, after all. There’s a lot more bad to go around than good.

We’ll simply pour it on you in one large heap: Mark Stone’s one-year deal of $7.35 million is a good indicator that the talented winger — he scored 62 points in 58 games last year — probably won’t be around beyond the 2018-19 season, as he now qualifies for unrestricted free agent status once the new campaign is over.

We could also look at the fact that, despite what may be said in terms of how a team bargains during arbitration, the Senators lowballed Stone with a paltry offer of $5 million, one which he countered at $9 million before the two settled in the middle.

There’s more: It also means Ottawa will potentially lose all three of its best players at the same time.

For a team that finished with a laughable 67 points last season—and one that has been shopping a generational talent for a year now—this is concerning. What’s more is the number of players actually signed beyond 2019-20. Take a guess. It’s three.

With this, speculation is circling that Ottawa could be either on the move soon or set to sell off. For current owner Eugene Melnyk’s part, he’s outright denied that he’s parting ways with the team. Greg Wyshynski detailed in June the NHL’s denial on the subject also, though we can just as well go back to December of 2017 when Melnyk stated in an article by Mary Clarke that he would move the Senators if the team went full disaster scenario.

He later retracted those comments. Yet it doesn’t change the fact that this is indeed heading towards a pretty awful scene. The chances of Ottawa competing in the Atlantic Division against the likes of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins is slim to zero, meaning it will have to be sellers in February.

There is no more room for negotiation. The Senators held on to Erik Karlsson past the latest deadline with the idea that they had a year left to figure things out. They won’t have that option with Stone. They won’t have that option with Duchene either. We could be in for a massive fire sale if things go as horribly as expected up in Canada.

Melnyk can’t sit back and hope any of Karlsson, Stone or Duchene resigns next July. The probability is incredibly low, especially for Karlsson who is about as ready to move on as you could imagine.