Welcome to LWOS Hockey’s summer series. After the historic 2016 NHL Free Agency period, it’s a good time to look at the best free agent signing in the history of all 30 NHL franchises. Up next: The all-time best Ottawa Senators free agent signing.
Make sure to check out the previous articles in our 2016 summer series here.
The All-time Best Ottawa Senators Free Agent Signing
1996- Ron Tugnutt $400,000 offer sheet
The Player
Tugnutt began his NHL journey backstopping the Peterborough Petes. Over three seasons with the team, he won the F. W. “Dinty” Moore Trophy, awarded for the rookie with the best goals against average (GAA), as well as the Dave Pinkey Trophy (top team goaltending), and was named to the OHL All-Star team in 1987.
His performance was enough to get him a fourth-round nod from the Nordiques, and the Scarborough, Ontario native was selected 87th overall in the 1986 NHL entry draft. Over the next three campaigns Tugnutt played just 32 games for the Nordiques, bouncing between Quebec and their AHL affiliate the Halifax Citadels posting a combined 3.93 GAA and .874 save percentage in 227 combined games. His time in Quebec wasn’t completely forgettable. On March 21, 1991 Tugnutt stopped an unfathomable 70 of 73 shots (second most in NHL history) to give the Nordiques a 3-3 tie against the Bruins. It was so impressive that after the game Bruins players skated over to congratulate him. Unfortunately, an inconsistent season the next year posting a .864 mark and 4.08 GAA saw him fall back into a backup role.
That pattern continued over the next five seasons as Tugnutt journeyed across the NHL playing a backup role for a number of teams. It wasn’t until 1995 that Tugnutt finally found his breakthrough. Playing in the AHL at the time, Tugnutt started a career-high 58 games, earning a 21-23-6 record while in addition posting a .915 save percentage and 2.76 GAA in 13 playoff contests for the then-AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, the Portland Pirates.
The Deal
His performance caught the eye of a team recently added to the League through expansion, the Ottawa Senators. A carefully crafted offer-sheet that paid Tugnutt more to play in the AHL than the NHL was all it took to acquire the journeyman backstopper. At the time the Senators didn’t expect much from Tugnutt. Then-General Manager Pierre Gauthier went as far as saying Tugnutt was probably “the best goaltender this young franchise has ever had, although obviously fifteen years from now he won’t even be top ten.”
The Result
Blunt as it sounded, Gauthier was right. At the time, Tugnutt was far and away the best goaltender the Senators had ever employed, and although in his first season his .895 save percentage was well below the .905 league average, it was still a marked improvement over Darrin Madeley’s .868 mark in 1993-94.
Over the next three years Tugnutt gave the Senators a near-league average save percentage, and backstopped the team to it’s first ever playoff appearance in 1997-98. It’s a moment that is unforgettable for Sens fans: Tugnutt’s father had just passed away, and after shutting out the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 to seal their trip to the playoffs, Tugnutt stood and pointed to the rafters dedicating the win to his father. The image has become iconic.
During the 1998-99 season Tugnutt posted a ridiculous .925 sv%, good for second in the league, and a league-leading 1.79 GAA on route to earning a 22-10-8 record in his 43 starts. The goaltender that had originally been signed as a fill-in until the Senators could acquire a franchise net-minder had quickly become a fan-favorite and Vezina candidate.
The Decline
After his all-star season, Tugnutt came back to earth. His save percentage slipped to a mere .899 mark and his GAA jumped to 2.54. Tugnutt remained a favorite among the fans, but his time in Ottawa was quickly coming to a close.
On March 14, 2000, in an effort to find a more proven performer, management traded Tugnutt and defenceman Janne Laukkanen to the Penguins for Tom Barrasso. The move saw Barrasso play a grand total of 13 games in an Ottawa uniform performing to the tune of a .881 save percentage.
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