Trades, Signing Form Busy Week for Senators

• The Senators acquired veteran center Derek Stepan from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick
• The Senators also acquired veteran defenseman Brayden Coburn and rugged forward Cedric Paquette, along with a second-round pick in 2022 from the Tampa Bay Lightning
• Ottawa signed 2020 third overall pick Tim Stuetzle to a three-year entry-level contract

While the hockey world awaits the return of the NHL all while taking in the World Junior Championship from Edmonton, the Ottawa Senators front office has been busy in making several moves that have impacts both off and on the ice for the parties involved.

Senators Acquire Stepan From Coyotes

The Ottawa Senators acquired veteran center Derek Stepan from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick that originally belonged to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

News Release: The #Sens have acquired forward Derek Stepan in a trade with @ArizonaCoyotes: https://t.co/VKvwZ138hM pic.twitter.com/KaR2XYtiTA

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) December 27, 2020

Stepan, 30, is coming off a disappointing season with the low-scoring Coyotes in which he notched just 10 goals and 28 points across 70 games. He’s tallied 167 goals and 479 points across 739 career regular-season games between the Coyotes and New York Rangers, who drafted him in the second round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Derek’s acquisition provides us with important stability at center heading into the season, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said:

“He plays a 200-foot game and has proven to be a reliable special teams’ player throughout his career. His addition to our lineup will also represent a valuable leadership presence within our group.”

The move was made in large part to helping the Senators reach the salary cap floor of $60.2M while also adding a veteran NHL player to a young core.

Stepan’s $6.5M cap hit — in the final year of his contract — helps the Sens in term of their salary cap picture, but the low-market club also only owes him $2M in cash as the bulk of his money this season was paid in signing bonus, as per TSN’s Frank Seravalli.

All that said, giving him a valuable asset in a second-rounder for a player coming off a career-worst season is a bit of a head scratcher. Stepan had registered five straight seasons between 53-57 points, offering excellent consistently, but only racked up 63 over the last two seasons combined, albeit on a weak Coyotes offense while missing 22 games due to injury and the shortened 2019-20 season.

Nonetheless, the move kickstarted a busy week in Canada’s capital.

Senators Acquire Coburn, Paquette from Lightning

After solving some of their own cap structure, the Senators helped out another club with theirs.

Of course, it wasn’t a handout as the Senators acquired veteran defenseman Brayden Coburn, bottom-six forward Cedric Paquette and a 2022 second-round pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for forward Marian Gaborik and goaltender Anders Nilsson.

Coburn, 35, is in the final year of his deal that comes with a $1.7M cap hit. The stay-at-home defender is a veteran of 10 NHL seasons between the Atlanta Thrashers, Philadelphia Flyers and Lightning. He dressed for just three postseason games en route to the team’s Stanley Cup championship last season.

Paquette, 27, is also on the final year of his deal that comes with a $1.65M cap hit. The rugged winger has largely filled a fourth-line role with the Lightning over his seven NHL seasons and skated in 25 games in the postseason, tallying just three assists in the process.

Shortly after the trade was announced, it was also released that neither Gaborik or Nilsson will play this season, therefore putting their $7.475M cap hit on Long-Term Injured Reserve. However, the key to the deal for the Lightning was getting rid of the combined $3.35M cap hit of Coburn and Paquette. The Lightning will pay Gaborik and Nilsson their money, but in order to rid themselves of the Coburn/Paquette cap hits, they had to send the Sens a second-rounder as the sweetener.

Trading for Gaborik & Nilsson is neutral for #Lightning cap/LTIR situation; doesn’t help or hurt. They add to LTIR pool but also add to Cap Hit total.

The + in deal was trading Paquette & Coburn.

The LTIR situation allowed them to take the injured OTT guys with no neg. impact https://t.co/VkvCaMGaCg

— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) December 28, 2020

Add it up and the deal allowed the Lightning to put $16.975M worth of cap hits on LTIR, which allows them to overspend the $81.5M salary cap by that amount. Currently $15,816,666 over that $81.5M cap ceiling, according to Cap Friendly, the Lightning are now cap compliant after seemingly being in a cap crisis just last week. We’ll see how the tricky inner-workings of their cap situation manifests itself as the season approaches.

For Ottawa’s sake, they pick up a second-round pick for their effort while utilizing Coburn and Paquette for the upcoming season.

Senators Sign Stuetzle to Entry-Level Contract

While he competes for Germany at the World Juniors, 2020 third-overall pick Tim Stuetzle has put pen to paper, signing his entry-level contract with the Senators.

Stuetzle played last season with the Mannheim Eagles in his native Germany, tallying seven goals and 34 points in 41 games in the country’s top professional league.

“Tim possesses an exceptional blend of both speed and skill and a playmaking ability that our fans are going to enjoy watching for several years to come,” Dorion said. “He’s a dynamic forward who we expect to become a key piece of our roster as we continue trending towards icing an eventual elite-level team.”

Stuetzle is expected to crack Ottawa’s roster this season, although it’s been a tough go with the Germans so far at the World Juniors as they are 0-2 while being outscored 21-5 in losses to Finland and Canada, albeit with a depleted lineup due to positive tests and quarantine rules throughout the roster.