{"id":441409,"date":"2024-07-02T17:54:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T21:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=441409"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:58:45","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T21:58:45","slug":"ottawa-senators-re-sign-important-two-way-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/07\/02\/ottawa-senators-re-sign-important-two-way-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ottawa Senators Re-Sign Important Two-Way Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Ottawa Senators finally have their man, as Shane Pinto re-signs with the club. There were a lot of questions ahead of his new contract on term and amount, but now we have our answers. Pinto has missed a couple of key development seasons and it was unknown what that meant for his contract. But now he can focus on simply playing hockey for his club, likely slotting in as their number two centre. The deal is for two years and carries a cap hit of\u00a0 $3.75 million per year according to Elliotte Friedman.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"et\" dir=\"ltr\">AAV is $3.75 \u2014\u2014&gt; 2.5 and 5 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wq9uQiBdFE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/wq9uQiBdFE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FriedgeHNIC\/status\/1808257285384556702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Shane Pinto Re-Signs with the Ottawa Senators<\/h2>\n<p>As we mentioned, Shane Pinto\u00a0at\u00a023 years old, has already missed some significant time in his development. The <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/shane-pintos-return-to-form-following-shoulder-injury-elevating-senators-third-line\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2021-22 season was a wash for him<\/a> as he\u00a0ended up having shoulder surgery. Furthermore, to start the 2023-24 season, Pinto missed 41 games due to a sports gambling-related suspension. However, this lack of gametime has done little to impact his performance when he&#8217;s on the ice.<\/p>\n<p>Pinto has back-to-back solid offensive seasons.\u00a0In 2022-23\u00a0he\u00a0was\u00a0afforded the opportunity\u00a0to be the team&#8217;s number two\u00a0centre,\u00a0in\u00a0what was\u00a0his NHL rookie season.\u00a0Centring Alex DeBrincat and Drake Batherson, the line of all righties was great for Pinto&#8217;s development.\u00a0It allowed him to work on his two-way game,\u00a0both\u00a0offensively and defensively, but still\u00a0being\u00a0insulating.\u00a0Having responsible NHLers like DeBrincat or Batherson was great for Pinto. He ended up with 20 goals and 15 assists in 82 games played. Also, he showed his all-around game, being strong in the faceoff\u00a0dot,\u00a0and\u00a0winning over 52% of his draws. He grew as an NHL centre\u00a0and\u00a0although it was a difficult season for the club, it was an invaluable experience for the future.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"I7oWvspoTP\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/10\/26\/nhl-has-handed-down-41-game-suspension-to-shane-pinto-for-gambling\/\" target=\"_self\">The NHL Has Handed Down a 41 Game Suspension to Shane Pinto for Gambling Violations<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The NHL Has Handed Down a 41 Game Suspension to Shane Pinto for Gambling Violations&#8221; &#8212; Last Word On Hockey\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/10\/26\/nhl-has-handed-down-41-game-suspension-to-shane-pinto-for-gambling\/embed\/#?secret=Z3OPZNyjS7#?secret=I7oWvspoTP\" data-secret=\"I7oWvspoTP\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Pinto, he\u00a0ended up missing\u00a041 games to start 2023-24. However, when he did come back, he was already in mid-season form. Pinto ended with 27 points in 41 games and\u00a0a very\u00a0impressive over 18 minutes a night. Therefore, he had arrived as a viable, number two-centre option.<\/p>\n<h3>What Does this Mean for Pinto and his Sens Teammates<\/h3>\n<p>Pinto&#8217;s emergence as a number two-centre is\u00a0huge\u00a0for the Ottawa Senators. The reason has been another of their centres, Joshua Norris, who has missed significant time with an injury. When people talk about injuries impacting the Senators outcomes, it is not about how\u00a0many,\u00a0but how impactful they have been.\u00a0If\u00a0we consider just Norris and Pinto going back to the start of the 2021-22 season for a minute. Between them, they should have 492 man games\u00a0played,\u00a0if both played all 82 games for those three seasons. They have laced them up for 252-man games, or 51% of the club&#8217;s man games for their two slots. Now you are probably thinking, whoop-dee-do, yes, they are injuries, and you have to\u00a0do\u00a0deal with them.\u00a0Conversely, given the club&#8217;s season performances, former General Manager Pierre Dorion never did\u00a0do\u00a0a good\u00a0job of replacing their minutes. Especially when\u00a0you consider\u00a0that\u00a0is\u00a0the club&#8217;s number two and three centres. Now is the time for Shane Pinto, a healthy Josh Norris, and GM Steve Staios to lead this club to the promise land (well\u00a0the playoffs). If the Senators key players can remain healthy in 2024-25,\u00a0and mix in a big piece or two, depending on salary cap restrictions, the playoffs aren&#8217;t entirely out of the question.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main photo credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ottawa Senators finally have their man, as Shane Pinto re-signs with the club. There were a lot of questions ahead of his new contract on term and amount, but now we have our answers. Pinto has missed a couple of key development seasons and it was unknown what that meant for his contract. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4222,"featured_media":137558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4547,34,4548],"tags":[662,70,4142],"class_list":["post-441409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senators","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-shane-pinto"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}