In this episode of The Hockey Writers Senators Roundtable, Ottawa Senators writers Jacob Billington, Dayton Reimer, and Paul Quinney get together to discuss their takeaways from the Senators’ 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, their thoughts on Steve Staios’ moves (or lack thereof) at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, Josh Norris’ latest injury, whether the Senators should buy him out in the offseason, and more.
0:00 Intro
1:33 Takeaways From Senators’ 2-1 Win Over the Penguins, Including Zack Ostapchuk’s NHL Debut
6:26 How should the Senators tackle the rest of the season?
10:19 Reaction to the 2024 Trade Deadline
18:36 Dealing With Josh Norris’ Latest Injury
23:53 Should the Senators buy out Josh Norris?
The Senators Roundtable crew are great writers too –
Jacob Billington – https://thehockeywriters.com/author/jbillington/
Paul Quinney – https://thehockeywriters.com/author/pquinney/
Dayton Reimer – https://thehockeywriters.com/author/dreimer/
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10 Comments
You can't buy out an injured player. Also after this year he will be entitled to 2/3 of his salary. Therefore but out is not an option.
Smejkal is gone to Europe for sure. I don't know how your panel suggests he stays next season. He struggled even in the AHL.
Buying out Norris would be insane.
I agree on buying out Norris in principal, but he can't be bought out injured.
Sens can't buy out Norris when he is on LTIR, so the whole convo doesn't work. He will return next year and maybe try him on LW and see what he can do. You can buy him out in 2025 if he regressed. Sens are invested in him in the near term
You guys need to stop huffing paint.
Getting rid of Norris would be incredibly stupid.
The most productive years start between 24-26 and he’s already scored 35 in a season.
You want to get rid of him because he’s been battling injuries basically.
You lose all credibility because of your take.
They already have Pinto, Stutzle, Greig that can play center. Why not play him on the wing.
If they trade him a hope he scores 40 goals a season to make you all look like more ons
Exactly!! Tanking isn’t a thing. You’d have management, coaching and players saying collectively let’s lose as many games as possible. That doesn’t FUCKING happen
Injuries are a big issue
Its not as insane as it sounds. The salary cap is not staying stagnant. Its going to go up. According to capfriendly, the buyout for Josh Norris is 12X1.4M per. If you add in a Korpisalo buyout, its 8X1.3M per. The core of this team is locked up long term already at pretty good contracts. The salary cap next season goes up 2M, and is going up year after year. If you talking buying both players out, the Sens would pay 600K per year for both buyouts combined, with the rest absorbed with this year's cap increase. In turn, the Sens would have an extra 10M in cap space to fix the roster by buying out those 2 players. You can do a LOT with that extra cap space to fix your roster, let alone Kubalik walks, Chychrun gets traded, waive Hamonic to send him to the minors or trade him for a dead end draft pick, now you are talking about having an extra 8M of cap space dumping off those 3 guys, you now have 18M of extra cap space overall. Sanderson's new contract is covered by the buyouts and retained money coming off the books this year, so his contract doesnt count. If you guys are really serious about fixing the issues needed, like a top 4 RHD, and extra depth in the 3rd and 4th lines, and goaltending, that 18M will be needed to make it happen. Im not saying thats what will happen, but its not in the realm of insanity, as if Staios doesn't buyout Norris or Korpisalo, he has no cap space to make any new moves and you lose time on guys like Brady, Timmy, Jake, and Thomas all because you didnt want to buyout those 2 guys and give yourself as much cap flexibility as possible to fix what's needed to be fixed, these are moves Staios should really think about to save the now of this team. If the buyout theory is in play, I would be buying out Korpisalo this season, and when Norris is off LTIR, buy him out too after July 1, cause no team will touch either contract.