The Ottawa Senators have announced this morning that they have locked up superstar winger Bobby Ryan for 7 years for $7.25 milion per season. With many of the superstar players in recent years leaving the nation’s capital, there would be nothing more than a sigh of relief to Sens fans that the bleeding has finally stopped and now have their defacto line one all locked up. At the same press conference, Ottawa also announced the captaincy of defenceman Erik Karlsson.
Clarke MacArthur, who earlier signed a five year contract extension, and Kyle Turris who still has three seasons left in Ottawa, are part of this recent successful line one for the Senators, and the future is starting to look bright once again in Ottawa. Had Ryan decided not wanting to sign with the Senators, the organization as a whole would again be taking another step backwards, one of the reasons in why Melnyk hyped up the city in announcing an announcement to come, Thursday morning.
This now makes Ryan the highest paid player on the team followed by newly named captain, Erik Karlsson at $6.5 million.
Since July 1st this year, Ottawa has been without a captain after granting Jason Spezza’s wish of being traded out to the Dallas Stars. Thursday morning the Ottawa Senators made a significant announcement towards their vacant captaincy and named their new face of the franchise, NHL all star and Norris trophy winning Swedish defenceman, Erik Karlsson.
Karlsson, 24, will have some big shoes to fill, but not from Jason Spezza as opposed to Daniel Alfredsson, who had been Ottawa’s longest serving captain, from the 1999-2000 season up until he left Ottawa and signed a contract as an unrestricted free agent with the Detroit Red Wings on July 1st, 2013. To the likes of Alfredsson, Spezza just seemed as a mere temporary replacement in leadership and in a face for the franchise, and one that people recognized, and in the end, he was just as he only served the one season as team captain.
This makes Karlsson the 9th captain of the franchise since the NHL expanded to Ottawa in 1992. Most fans would agree in saying that Karlsson is the present and future of this franchise and it would be more than suitable for a player like Karlsson to lead this new crew of teammates that have gone through some significant changes in the last couple of years.
Since Ottawa acquired Bobby Ryan in a trade with Anaheim in summer of 2013, Ryan played 70 of 82 games and scored a total of 23 and 25 assists, while pulling through the season with a hernia injury, and then eventually shortening his season with surgery.
With Ottawa finishing 11th in the Eastern Conference last year and ultimately missing the playoffs, Sens fans and media alike aren’t having changed expectations in Karlsson’s first year as captain. However, much more will be expected of the young defenceman now that the torch has been passed, and the city of Ottawa looks toward Erik in hoping one day he will be the first one to raise Lord Stanley over his head for the Senators.
photo credit: bridgetds via photopin cc
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