Senators expected to take 2022 trade acquisition to arbitration

“He doesn’t want to sign here.”

That’s how blunt Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia was Thursday when discussing Alex DeBrincat’s future with the Ottawa Senators. Garrioch reports that the Senators elected to take DeBrincat to arbitration, attempting to get the possible 15% reduction on his $9M qualifying offer.

That does not mean they will necessarily receive it. As suggested by the name, an arbitrator will decide what DeBrincat’s salary in 2023-24 will be based on his previous contracts and performance.

It was always a risky play going after the young forward. Ottawa sent the seventh and 39th overall picks in 2022 (plus a 2024 third-rounder) to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for DeBrincat last July with only one season remaining on his contract. The three-year, $19.2M deal was heavily back-loaded, forcing any RFA qualifying offer to skyrocket to $9M.

If DeBrincat doesn’t want to play in Ottawa, he could simply take the one-year arbitration decision and hit unrestricted free agency in 2024 as a 26-year-old with two 41-goal seasons under his belt.

The Senators could get up to 15% off that $9M, meaning the award could be as low as $7.65M.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll actually play in Ottawa next season. The club is in active trade talks to move the young winger and recoup some of the draft capital it spent last year.

Though he didn’t put up 40 goals, DeBrincat still showed off his scoring touch with the Senators. In 82 games, he lit the lamp 27 times and racked up 66 total points, good enough for fourth on the team behind Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux. In a 450-game NHL career, he now has 187 goals and 373 points.