NEW YORK — Make no mistake: Daniel Alfredsson will almost certainly finish his career as a member of the Ottawa Senators.
There is too much history, too much good faith and too much for both sides to lose by letting contract negotiations go awry.
But that doesn’t change the fact that it won’t be easy placing an exact value on what he is worth to the budget-conscious Senators. There is a delicate dance to be done here in the coming days.
Sens general manager Bryan Murray and agent J.P. Barry met face-to-face Saturday night to open negotiations on what will likely be the final NHL contract the 40-year-old ever signs. Alfredsson was among the team’s top players last season and all indications are that he’s looking to be paid like one.
He was a bargain during the lockout-shortened season, where he earned a pro-rated $580,000 at the end of a heavily front-loaded deal. It’s hard to imagine him taking a hometown discount now.
Murray met reporters ahead of the NHL draft on Saturday afternoon and spoke carefully about the negotiations. The team had learned of Alfredsson’s plans to return to the NHL through a Swedish media report on Friday and Murray didn’t show his cards a day later when asked if he was open to giving him a two-year deal.
“I think it’s just a matter of what we get talking about,” said Murray. “I think that J.P. and I at some point in time will start talking. We’ll talk about term and dollars at that point in time.”
Of course, if they aren’t able to reach a deal by Wednesday, other NHL teams would have the ability to enter the conversation as well.
That would be interesting.
Alfredsson has never previously become an unrestricted free agent and could command as much as $6 million per season, which would be a steep price to pay for an Ottawa team expected to be closer to the salary floor than the salary cap next year.
However, it’s tough to overstate how valuable he is to the franchise.
Alfredsson was third on the team in scoring last season with 26 points in 47 games and remains its emotional leader. All 17 of his seasons have been spent in Ottawa.
No one knows that better than Murray, who has had plenty of time to plan for this particular negotiation. The veteran GM felt all along that Alfredsson had at least one more year in him.
“I had a feel after talking to Alfie that he would probably want to try to play again for a period of time,” he said. “I’m not overly surprised. I think he walked out of Ottawa at the end of the year in great shape. He looked healthy, he was excited about some of our young people on the team.
“Obviously, we’re pleased that he’s made the decision to play again.”
It’s likely to be a quieter off-season for the Sens than most other NHL teams. They have much of their core in place – assuming the Alfredsson deal gets done in a timely fashion – and are operating under a budget.
Murray indicated that he would like to make a move to bolster his lineup, but didn’t seem overly optimistic that anything would happen on draft day.
“I put some feelers out to a different group of teams talking about the possibility of moving (in the draft) — either way — and made a couple of proposals, but nobody has gotten back to me at this point,” he said.
