Claude Giroux's Decision Says Something About the Senators

There is a tendency to look at a 38-year-old NHL player and immediately start asking how many goals he has left. That's understandable. Father Time doesn't negotiate, and eventually every player reaches the point where the question isn't whether he can still play, but whether he can still play well enough to matter.

Claude Giroux appears to have answered that question for the Ottawa Senators.

Giroux could have gone somewhere else. The possibility of returning to Philadelphia was always going to be part of the conversation, and there would presumably have been other teams interested in adding a veteran who still produced 49 points while playing all 82 games last season. Instead, he chose to stay in Ottawa for another year at $2 million.

That tells fans something. The Senators aren't simply paying Giroux for 14 goals and 35 assists. They're paying for the player who has been around their young core for four seasons and understands what it takes to play meaningful hockey in the NHL. After Brady Tkachuk was traded away, that becomes even more important.

Tkachuk wasn't just Ottawa's captain because he scored goals and played hard. He was part of the team's identity. Losing that kind of personality creates a hole that doesn't necessarily show up on a depth chart.

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Giroux helps the Senators fill their leadership gap.

Giroux can't replace Tkachuk. Nobody should pretend otherwise. But he can help fill some of the leadership gap left behind. And there is something else worth considering. Giroux isn't coming back because Ottawa offered him the most money or because it was the only place willing to give him a contract. By his own account, he came back because he wanted to be there. He talked about the relationships he had built with the players and described the team as feeling like a family.

That matters more than it used to. Older players who have already made their money don't necessarily need to chase every last dollar. They can start making decisions based on where they want to live, who they want to play with and whether they believe the team has a chance to do something meaningful.

Ottawa is home for Giroux, and he clearly still believes in the team.

Giroux's belief in the team is a pretty good endorsement for Steve Staios and the Senators. The $2 million contract is the easy part to understand. The harder part to measure is what Giroux can provide when things get difficult. Ottawa is trying to move beyond being a team with potential and become a team that expects to play in the postseason every year.

Giroux has been through enough hockey to know the difference. At 38, he may not be the player Ottawa once hoped he would become when they signed him in 2022. But perhaps he has become something the Senators need even more right now: a veteran who has chosen to stay because he believes the room is worth staying in.

Sometimes that's worth more than another 10 points.

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