A bottom-feeder team with no salary cap flexibility is not a good place to be. It’s a rare situation, but it’s one the Senators find themselves in. They’re 29th in the NHL despite lacking the cap space to carry a full roster all season long.
That unfortunate combination has new Senators GM Steve Staios examining possible trades to finally kickstart the Senators’ rebuild out of low gear while freeing up financial maneuverability in the process. Their internal list of expendable names includes blueliner Jakob Chychrun, according to a report from The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta.
The 25-year-old has been a constant in trade talks over the past few seasons as a member of the Coyotes, but most assumed that would end when Arizona finally pulled the trigger on a deal to send him to Ottawa for three draft picks days before last season’s deadline. Less than 11 months later, though, his name has re-entered trade discourse.
Per Pagnotta, multiple league sources and one anonymous NHL GM have heard Chychrun’s name pop up in recent weeks. No one would go so far as to claim the Senators were actively shopping the 2016 first-round pick, though.
The fact that Chychrun is back on the trade block is not at all a reflection of his play since joining the Senators. He’s put up 31 points in 50 games (a 51-point pace), including last season’s post-deadline stint, all the while playing over 22 minutes per game and logging solid possession metrics.
His pairing with sophomore Jake Sanderson is top-10 in the league at limited expected goals against among duos with over 100 minutes together, per MoneyPuck data, seeing tougher competition than most others at the high end of that stat. He’s also logged significant minutes on his off-side with Thomas Chabot this year, controlling 55.3% of expected goals.
This season, he leads Senators defensemen in all scoring categories with seven goals, 19 assists and 26 points in 38 games. Injuries remain a concern and will limit his trade value, having never played more than 70 games in a season since debuting with Arizona in 2016, but he remains a top-pairing caliber defenseman when in the lineup.
Locked into a $4.6M cap hit through this season and next, that’s tough value to beat. Nearly every contending team looking to add an impact player on defense will ring Staios over the next seven weeks before the March 8 trade deadline if Chychrun’s name remains on the table.
Per CapFriendly, Chychrun has a 10-team no-trade clause, so he has some say in any potential deal.
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