The Ottawa Senators contract impasse with defencemen Cody Ceci has been settled by an arbitrator. He awarded Ceci a one-year contract worth $4.3 million. Ceci will be a restricted free agent again next summer.
Arbitrator awards Cody Ceci $4.3M
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 3, 2018
Ottawa Senators Re-Sign Cody Ceci
Cody Ceci has spent his entire five-year NHL career with the Ottawa Senators. He has put up 25 goals and 67 assists for 92 career points in 366 career games. He was originally drafted in the first round, 15th overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 2012 NHL Draft. His best year was in 2015-2016 when he scored 10 goals and 16 assists for 26 points in 75 games played.
Last season, he scored five goals and 14 assists for 19 points in 82 games. He also added 12 minutes in penalties. His possession numbers were 43.8 percent Corsi with a relative Corsi of -6.1 percent.
Ceci is coming off a to two-year, $5.6 million contract ($2.8 million AAV) that he signed in August 2016.
What This Means for the Sens
The Ottawa native spent most of the year paired up with Dion Phaneuf before Phaneuf was traded to the Los Angeles Kings at the NHL deadline. At the deadline, Sens general manager Pierre Dorian hinted that the Senators planned on re-signing Ceci this summer. “I’m a big Cody Ceci fan,” Dorion said. “Cody is one player – and I know a lot of the pundits out there might disagree with it – I’d like to have as a Senator for a long, long time.”
Ceci’s advanced stats and other analytical measures indicate that he is overused and overpaid by the Senators. However, Dorian along with Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher seem to disagree with those measures. They see Ceci as a big part of the Sens organization, both now and going forward.
Main Photo: Cody Ceci of the Ottawa Senators during the third period of a game at Honda Center on December 11, 2016 in Anaheim, California. (Getty Images)
