Ottawa Senators Sign Eller, But Opt To Retain Cap Flexibility

Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios hinted last week, July 1 was only one day on the NHL calendar and there’ll be further opportunity down the road to add to his roster, stating, “July 1 is an exciting time. It’s exciting time for me and our team to try and look at areas to improve, but also it’s only one opportunity, and I think there are significant things that happen later on in the offseason as well. So I don’t feel like we need to force anything at this point in time. I like our group, but we’re working hard to see where we can upgrade.”

With many star players off the board before noon on July 1, the opening of Free Agent Frenzy, Staios sought to fill a need for a fourth-line centre, inking Lars Eller to a one-year, $1.125 million contract. Eller can earn an additional $1 million in bonuses.

In addition, the club officially announced the re-signing of forward Nick Cousins to a one-year, $825,000 deal, joining Claude Giroux, who extended his contract for one year on Sunday, and restricted free agent goalie Leevi Merilainen, signed to a one-year, $1.05 million extension on Monday evening.

The 36-year-old Eller replaces Adam Gaudette, who left for San Jose, agreeing to a two-year, $4M contract.

A 16-year veteran of 1,228 games, including 116 in the postseason, registered 10 goals, 12 assists in 80 games last season, 63 of those with the Washington Capitals in his second go-round with the team. The Dane was a member of the Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup-winning team, where he posted 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) during their playoff run.

Of Eller, Staios said, “We’re excited to bring Lars into our group, another veteran with experience, a high character individual that can move around the lineup. And you know, we’re looking to continue to build on our depth…It was comforting going into this year, where really we were looking for one specific area that if we could improve in it, we would, and we had our sights set one certain individual and it was Lars. And if not, then we would have looked at other avenues to be able to do it. But we’re excited to have him.”

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On bringing Cousins back to the fold, “He’s a high energy player, competitive, great teammate, you know, tons of courage. And throughout the regular season that’s important, but as you continue to get into those tougher games at the end of the season and into playoffs, that’s type player that you want on your team you talk about.” 

Having Giroux agree to a bonus-laden deal permits the Ottawa Senators GM to maintain cap flexibility. The Senators currently possess $5 million in space and clearly have an opportunity to fine-tune their roster when the time comes.

“It was one of the most challenging starts to a negotiation for me, because you want to be fair to the player. What is that number? Not to get into specifics, you know as a manager, you want to be fair as a player, but you also want to the goal is to continue to grow the team and also to win, and to be able to do that, you need to manage the salary cap properly. And negotiation with Claude allowed us to do what we did today, and also give us the flexibility moving forward with that,” Staios explained.

With goaltender Anton Forsberg signing a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings, Staios confirmed the plan for Merilainen is to back up starter Linus Ullmark. While Mads Sogaard and a soon-to-be-signed netminder will be the Belleville duo.

Three BSens forwards moved on Tuesday, including Angus Crookshank (New Jersey), Matthew Highmore (NYI), and Cole Reinhardt (VGK).

Forward Wyatt Bongiovanni returns to Belleville on a one-year, two-way deal, ($775,000 NHL, $160,000 AHL), while RW Ollie Lycksell who played 19 games for the Philadelphia Flyers last season, earning five assists, inked a one-year, two-way contract, ($775,000 NHL, $450,000 AHL, $500,000 guaranteed) and should provide much-needed offense on the farm. Lycksell produced 19 goals, 25 assists for Lehigh Valley, the Flyers AHL affiliate in 2024-25.

On the signing of Lycksell, Staios told Full Press Hockey, “Ollie Lycksell a is a skilled forward that played games the NHL last year. And we feel that adding that type of player to our team is he’s a great call up option for us, and we hope that he’s still at that age (26 at season’s start) where I think he’s got some room to develop, but certainly we think very highly of Ollie.”

And a piece of good news, Staios confirmed he’d like to open talks with Shane Pinto on a contract extension.