The Saving Grace of Tim Stützle's Contract

There are just a few weeks until NHL Free Agency, and once again, a star Ottawa Senator will probably be shipped out because he reportedly doesn't want to stay here. Alex DeBrincat will most likely join a long list of players that have recently been dealt out of town—except, wait...that's not true at all.

If anything, DeBrincat is the recent exception within the Senators organization, as the team has done an excellent job to lock up its core. While it's easy to focus on DeBrincat (whose likely departure has the potential to be painful), his situation is more of an aberration than a trend, nor does it portend doom. The media and fans have been hyperfixated on DeBrincat because, along with the ownership talk, it's been the only real talking point since the season ended and hockey media is 24/7 these days. But let's just imagine for a second a world where Tim Stützle is coming off his ELC and is a pending restricted free agent.

Sounds fun right?!

It's easy to focus on the player that will most likely be on a different team in the fall, but you have to also be grateful for what you have, and Stützle's 8-year contract with an $8.35M cap hit is looking like one of the best value deals in the league. He put up 90 points in 78 games, which ranked 15th in the NHL in points per game at 1.15. That was tied with Auston Matthews and Aleksander Barkov and ahead of the likes of Sidney Crosby, Artemi Panarin, Kirill Kaprizov, and many notable others. Despite that high total, his cap hit ranks just 35th amongst forwards.

Stützle signed that max-term contract right after recording 58 points in 79 games, which was very good, but certainly not worth $8.35M. That AAV was always about his potential, and he's already reached that level, and then some. Can you imagine if he was still unsigned after coming off of a 90-point season though? It's hard to say how the negotiations would have gone, but I think that AAV would have to be well over the $9M range, potentially even closer to $10M.

Just think back to what it was like during the Brady Tkachuk contract saga. It's easy to forget now, but there was a vocal minority (if not more) of fans who were saying to trade him before he signed because he was seemingly "too greedy" and "making it about himself." That was not even two years ago, and since then, Tkachuk has blossomed into an excellent captain for the Senators. Despite the love we have for him now, there were times when it was unclear if he even had a long-term future here.

Stützle doesn't have the luxury of being labeled as a "hard-nosed" North American player who stands up for his teammates, and he has a reputation (which I think is unfair) for not being tough enough. So I would bet my life savings that there would have been negative comments and stories about him if his contract negotiations dragged into the fall as they did with Tkachuk. Those discussions online and in the media would have taken years off my life, and I'm so thankful that Senators fans seemingly have a universal love for Stützle.

I would love to know how that Stützle contract went down because I can't imagine his agent was encouraging him to sign before he broke out. Perhaps he was just so comfortable here and loved the additions to the team that he was confident with his decision, but him staying for another eight years at such a reasonable number has massive implications for the team moving forward. For starters, he's here until he's 29 (at least), which covers all of his prime years, helping to set the Sens up to take full advantage of his all-world abilities.

Secondly, it sets a great precedent for others on the team. Yes, I'm focusing on Stützle for this article, but I also have to talk about how Tkachuk (7 years), Thomas Chabot (8 years), Josh Norris (8 years), Drake Batherson (6 years), and Artem Zub (4 years) have committed to the team because they believe in the core and want to stay here. Pierre Dorion has done a good job getting those players locked up, and it's much easier to do that if Stützle has a lower number too. Having great young players around will make other good players want to stay, even if DeBrincat may not want to in this specific instance. In general though, it's a good thing.

Lastly, it reinforced that not every star wants to leave town, and that he was even willing to sign early and for potentially less than he's worth. That has value simply for the psyche of the fanbase because I no longer feel as if it's an impossible task to keep players here for a long period of time. Sure, DeBrincat might be somebody who doesn't want to stay, but then again, Steve Warne is reporting that a source close to the DeBrincat family said, "Alex likes the coach a lot and loves the team. He would like to stay in Ottawa but knows this is the deal that needs to have term in it. Like a Cole Caufield.” So...maybe even he doesn't want out.

I'm definitely ready to move on with the DeBrincat discussions because we debated the entire season about whether he was worth re-signing or not, and it seems like he will be dealt in the next few weeks for a less than ideal return because of the situation they're in. But you don't have to look far on this team to find the flip side of the coin: Tim Stützle's contract is a saving grace for the Senators because of how good it is financially, what it signifies for the rebuild, and how it can excite others coming in. There is work to be done yet to make this team the best it can be, but today I'm choosing to be grateful that there are no Stützle contract discussions in 2023.