Senators Taking Care of Stone & Zibanejad

The Ottawa Senators have wasted little time with a couple of their two key restricted free agents, as they put pen to paper with both Mark Stone and Mika Zibanejad on Thursday morning.

Stone, 23, a Calder Trophy finalist, signed a 3-year deal, worth $10.5 million, which works out to an annual cap hit of $3.5 million per season.

Zibanejad, 22, already with three full seasons under his belt, signed a 2-year deal, worth $5.25 million, a $2.625 million cap hit per year.

Stone got his first full season under his belt in 2015, after making brief appearances in 2013 and 2014, but still keeping his rookie status.  He played in 80 games last season, scoring 26 goals and 64 points.  Overall, he finished 48th in pool scoring, 29th among all forwards and was certainly dynamic down the stretch, when the Senators were making that push and into the playoffs.  The 2010 6th round pick has really emerged as a viable scoring option for the Senators and if he continues to grow his game, he could be quite the bargain at that low cap hit.

Zibanejad has slowly been creeping into the consciousness of the hockey pool in recent years, improving his points per game average, season after season.  In 2015, he finished at .575 points per game, scoring 20 goals and 46 points in 80 games for the club, good enough for 136th overall, 96th among all forwards in scoring.  The versatility of Zibanejad through the Senators lineup is one of his greatest strengths, as he seems to be able to play on any one of the top three lines.

Restricted free agency these days isn't really much of a stretch to get deals done, so it was fully expected that these two deals got done before the season started.  The real surprise was the cost for both players, who are going to be mainstays in the roster for a while, going forward.  If Stone can continue to rise and Zibanejad grows at a reasonable pace, the Sens will have a strong core, which could possibly move a little closer to the next round or two of the playoffs.

As for the hockey pools, Stone could very well be a 3rd round pick or higher, when we all sit down to build our teams.  I would imagine that someone is going to be very excited to get him early on.