When the Ottawa Senators hired D.J. Smith to be their new head coach, few knew it would help spark a massive player exchange between the Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.
In the early hours of NHL free agency, a trickle turned into a flow as Ottawa acquired three Leafs via trade and then two more as free agents. Smith’s intel as a former Leafs assistant was key to completing the deals.
In a move that has been taking shape since the end of the season, the Senators traded defencemen Cody Ceci and Ben Harpur, forward prospect Aaron Luchuk, plus a third-round draft pick in 20202 (formerly belonging to the Columbus Blue Jackets) to the Leafs for defenceman Nikita Zaitsev, winger Connor Brown and forward prospect Michael Carcone.
When the smoke cleared on the day’s activity, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said he had achieved his goal of adding “quality” veterans for his young group of prospects. Four new roster players: all four are former Leafs.
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“We realized we had to cut down on our goals against,” Dorion said. “We knew with the system D.J. is going to bring in, we needed better personnel.”
There was a time when the Senators would not have dared do a deal of this magnitude with their sworn provincial enemy in blue and white. The unspoken pact that the teams don’t swap players was broken in a large way by the late Bryan Murray, who acquired veteran defenceman Dion Phaneuf from Toronto in a 2016 blockbuster trade.
Then, as now, the Leafs were looking to clear salary room, while the Senators were in position to add veteran help with cap space to burn.
It’s easy to see why the Leafs wanted to move Zaitsev, the 27-year-old right-shot defenceman from Russia. Not only had his production and ice time dropped, Zaitsev has five years and $31.5 million remaining on his contract. Among other priorities, the Leafs are desperate to find space to re-sign RFA forward Mitch Marner.
From the Senators perspective, while that Zaitsev contract “sounds expensive,” in fact, Ottawa received a Canada Day discount by waiting until Toronto willingly paid out Zaitsev’s $3 million bonus on July 1. The Leafs might be cap tight, but they’re filthy rich cash-wise, so paying out this bonus while clearing long-term cap space is a relatively painless proposition.
And the bargain-hunting Senators get further breaks. Though his cap hit is $4.5 million, Zaitsev has a mere $1.5 million in base salary for 2019-20, thanks to that $3 million bonus already in the books. Over the next two seasons, Zaitsev has no bonus pay but gets $4.5 million in base salary for each of 2020-21 and 2021-22. In the final two years of the deal, he gets a $2 million bonus on July 1 and $2.5 million in salary. So, while obtaining some financial incentives, the Senators have a contract they can tolerate and a player they hope can provide some defensive stability while Ottawa’s blueline prospects sprout their wings.
After coming over from CSKA Moscow in 2016, Zaitsev had a decent first year with Toronto, producing 36 points in 82 games (although -22). He had just 13 points this past year, including five goals. His ice time fell to 20 minutes per game, from 22-plus minutes in his first two seasons with the Leafs.
Brown, 25, had just eight goals and 21 assists this past season, but scored 20 goals and 36 points in 2016-17. The Leafs also took care of Brown’s $500,000, leaving Ottawa to pay $1.6 million in salary this season for Brown, who is an RFA in 2020. Brown is “good in the room” in spades.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion was enthused over the “competitive” additions of Zaitsev and Brown, who will jump right into Ottawa’s lineup. Brown, he noted, was the most excited of all to get started with the Senators.
“Both are the type of true professionals who match the culture we want to put in place here in Ottawa,” Dorion said. “Nikita is a physical, right-shot defenceman who defends hard, fills lanes and blocks shots. Connor has scored 20 goals in the league and is excellent on the forecheck and penalty kill. We feel both players will add to our depth and fit well within the structure we want our team to play.”
The departure of Ceci ends a painful saga that played out over the last few seasons, as a once popular, homegrown player, became a lightning rod for fan criticism for his defensive play. After showing some promise as an offensive defenceman as a junior with the OHL Ottawa 67’s (17 goals and 60 points in 2011-12), Ceci was increasingly asked to provide shutdown defence with the Senators, without having much protection in the lineup. From 2016-2018, Ceci logged well over 23 minutes per game, alongside a variety of defensive partners, including Phaneuf before he was traded.
It would be nice to say that Toronto represents a fresh start for a player who is just 25, but Ceci’s window of opportunity could be limited. While waiving his rights to arbitration – which would have secured him more money – Ceci agreed to a one-year, $4.5 million deal with the Leafs. The audition starts now.
Harpur, at 6-6 and 225 pounds, offers some AHL/NHL depth for the Leafs blueline.
HAINSEY, ENNIS TO OTTAWA
In two separate free agent deals that again had the fingerprints of D.J. Smith all over them, the Senators added former Leafs Ron Hainsey and Tyler Ennis.
Dorion was proud to be able to say that both Hainsey and Ennis had options, but chose to come to Ottawa (no one’s idea of free agent heaven).
Hainsey, at 38, becomes the oldest Senators player, which will make goaltender Craig Anderson happy. Hainsey is two months older than Ottawa’s reigning senior. On a one-year contract at $3.5 million, Hainsey will provide leadership on the back end, and will help Zaitsev eat some of the minutes gone with Ceci.
“We have talked about a desire to bring in quality veterans to help our younger players on their development path and Ron fits that role perfectly,” said Dorion. “Ron can play both sides and is an excellent penalty killer, but we feel he’ll be equally valuable to our team as a leader and a professional mentor to our current group.”
Smith, especially, felt Hainsey was a vital, positive influence on Toronto’s young defencemen.
With five veterans now in the D-corps: Hainsey, Thomas Chabot, Zaitsev, Dylan DeMelo, and Mark Borowiecki, Dorion insisted it still left room for the young defencemen to compete for a couple of spots – Christian Jaros, Christian Wolanin, Erik Brannstrom etc.
Ennis, 29, signed a one-year deal worth $800,000, an inexpensive addition who can provide needed experience on a variety of forward roles and kill penalties. Ennis knows the Senators well from having spent parts of eight seasons in Ottawa’s division while with the Buffalo Sabres from 2009-17.
The additions of Brown and Ennis bring some needed energy to Ottawa’s forward group. In a minor signing, Ottawa added forward Jordan Szwarz on a one-year, two-way deal. Szwarz led the AHL Providence Bruins in points last season with 46.
With that, Dorion said his work here is done, he doesn’t expect to do much else in free agency. Talks with RFA centre Colin White are progressing, he said.
A White deal should push Ottawa over the cap floor. After Monday’s deals, the Senators cap hit grew to $58,660,000.
