Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
After trading Alex DeBrincat earlier in the offseason, the Ottawa Senators made a splash signing Vladimir Tarasenko, one of the last big free agents on the market.
Terms: One year, $5 million annual average value, no-trade clause
More: Grades for Bertuzzi, Orlov and more signings | Free agent tracker
Where does he fit? Receiving a 20-goal scorer in Dominik Kubalik in the DeBrincat trade with the Detroit Red Wings provided some offensive help in Ottawa. Signing Tarasenko in addition to what they potentially have in Kubalik, who scored 30 goals as a rookie, should enhance the Senators’ chances of doing more than just filling the void left by DeBrincat.
If anything? It adds to the discussion that the Senators could have one of the more alluring top-six and/or top-nine dynamics in the Eastern Conference.
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Injuries created questions about whether or not Tarasenko could still be productive. He’s used the last two seasons to dismiss those concerns. In 2021-22, he had arguably his strongest individual campaign with 38 goals and a career-high 82 points in 73 games. Last season didn’t see Tarasenko reach that level of production, but he still finished with 18 goals and averaged 0.73 points per game in the combined 69 games he played with the St. Louis Blues and the New York Rangers. Over a full 82-game season, Tarasenko would have been on pace to score 21 goals and 60 points.
Let’s go back to that point about the Senators’ potential top-six and/or top-nine configuration. Senators coach D.J. Smith will have options. Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto were part of a group last season that helped the Sens finish with a top 10 power-play unit, but 5-on-5 goals were a challenge at times. They finished 24th in 5-on-5 goals per 60 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. Now they have added Tarasenko and Kubalik to that group with Josh Norris returning from a season-ending shoulder injury in October.
Does it make sense? No question it does. Especially when the argument could be had that signing Tarasenko is something of a statement.
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Fully understanding Tarasenko’s arrival means looking at the big picture with the Senators. They’re a franchise that has not reached the playoffs since the 2016-17 season when they lost in the Eastern Conference final. Since then, the discussion around the Senators has been largely centered around using their resources to return to the playoffs, but also building a team that consistently makes the playoffs as well.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion had been building toward that point, with last offseason creating the belief the Senators could be on the come up. They signed Giroux in free agency and were willing to part with quite a bit to get DeBrincat in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks. Norris’ early season-ending injury coupled with the lack of consistency did not help. But they were still rather aggressive at the NHL trade deadline when they once again parted with quite a bit to get defenseman Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes.
Granted, the Senators ultimately missed the playoffs. But they were only six points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot — the one that belonged to the Stanley Cup finalist Florida Panthers.
It’s the sort of tantalizing gap that can lead one to think the Senators are not that far away from making the playoffs. While DeBrincat’s impending departure was the initial attraction of their offseason, the Senators appeared to be in a position to use free agency to improve their roster considering they had more than $17 million in projected cap space. They used it to replace Cam Talbot by signing Joonas Korpisalo to give them a No. 1 goaltender. Dorion then signed veteran defenseman Travis Hamonic to add to a group that already had Thomas Chabot, Artem Zub and a trio of promising talents in Jacob Bernard-Docker, Erik Brannstrom and Jake Sanderson, in addition to Chychrun.
Then there’s what Dorion did by parlaying DeBrincat into recouping the sort of draft capital the Senators lost when they traded for him a year earlier while getting a proven forward in Kubalik, who has scored more than 20 goals twice in his career.
One of the items that made Tarasenko coveted ahead of the trade deadline was what he could do for a team trying to make a playoff push. Free agency was no different considering a few of the teams that were linked to him were ones that are seeking to make a playoff push. Tarasenko going to Ottawa only adds to the expectations that the Senators could have the talent to end their playoff drought.
It won’t be easy in what’s expected to be a hellish Eastern Conference, with the Buffalo Sabres, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Red Wings also making a push for the postseason after falling short in 2022-23.
Grade: A