Developments regarding an Offer Sheet made by the Montreal Canadiens to the young forward Shane Pinto? A possibility to watch

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Elias Edmonson
August 25, 2023 (6:23 PM)

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As training camps are fast approaching, many restricted free agents are still without a contract. Players like Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Shane Pinto, to name just a few, have not yet agreed with their respective teams. The situation of the latter is particularly interesting, especially when analyzing the state of affairs with the Senators.

The 32nd overall pick from the 2019 draft certainly has a bright future ahead of him. With his 35 points, including 20 goals, in his first full NHL season, expectations are high for the 6-foot-2 center.

In a recent article, Ian Mendes, who covers the Senators for The Athletic, was kind enough to give his opinion on Shane Pinto's situation. According to him, the dead cap hits paid to Matt Murray, Bobby Ryan, Colin White, and Michael Del Zotto are currently hurting the team. While it was okay to take on bad contracts during the team's rebuild, these contracts, amounting to nearly $5M on the Sens' cap, currently hurt in this new stage of the club aiming to make the playoffs.

Mendes believes that Pinto could receive a bridge contract that would pay him an average of $1.8M for two seasons. If we rely on the excellent website Capfriendly, the Ontario organization has only $895,953 available under the cap. This means Dorion is short by about $800,000 to finalize this contract under these terms. Unless, of course, Pinto's camp has a different idea of the forward's value!

While NHL teams can exceed the cap by 10% during the summer, time is running out for Pierre Dorion to resolve the situation. At this stage of the summer, most teams have nearly finalized their lineups. The Sens' GM will thus have to find a team that is willing, just a month before training camps open, to take on a bad contract. Not an easy task these days, just ask Kyle Dubas how happy and especially lucky he was to have the Canadiens as allies in the Erik Karlsson trade.

A prolonged Pinto contract situation could certainly interest many league teams, especially those with good cap room. An offer sheet as the season is fast approaching, could put the Sens in a tricky situation.

It would not be surprising if Kent Hughes is keeping an eye on the situation, as Pinto is a perfect candidate to fill, as mentioned by JB Gagné from DLC, the Canadiens' center line. Jake Evans' contract, however, might ruin the chances of the Montreal GM to make an offer sheet to Pinto. At $1.7M per year for two more years, the now 27-year-old Canadiens' center will be tough to trade, especially with his injury history. It would be even worse with Christian Dvorak and his annual $4.45M for two more seasons.

However, it would have been good to see Hughes try his luck with Pinto. A contract below $2,145,061, say $2.1M, would have only cost a 3rd round pick as compensation. While it's likely that Dorion would have matched the offer, the gamble would certainly have been worth it for Hughes.

Speaking of Hughes, let's hope he's taken notes on this issue. He now sees what bad contracts can bring as drawbacks when moving to another stage of rebuilding. It's hoped that the retention on Jeff Petry's contract ($2,343,750 for two years) doesn't come back to haunt the GM when signing players in the future!