Report: Sens exploring trade market for DeBrincat

Alex DeBrincat's future with the Ottawa Senators appears to be in doubt.

According to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia, the Senators are exploring all options with the pending restricted free agent forward after his agent, Jeff Jackson, informed the team DeBrincat is not ready to discuss a long-term deal.

Garrioch adds the Senators are believed to have begun scouring the trade market for the 25-year-old.

The report comes less than a week after Senators general manager Pierre Dorion told TSN Radio 1200 Ottawa that the team was hoping to re-sign DeBrincat. Dorion and the Senators acquired DeBrincat last year in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, sending the seventh and 39th overall picks in the 2022 NHL Draft and a 2023 third-round pick the other way.

“Obviously as an organization when we traded for him, we wanted to sign him to as much term as possible,” Dorion said in an interview on TSN 1200. “He wanted to feel his way out in Ottawa.

“We’ve had preliminary talks with Alex’s agent. We’re waiting to see what transpires. First and foremost, we’d like to sign him. And if we can’t sign him, you know, he had 27 goals last year, but I think if he plays with Josh [Norris] or Timmy [Stützle] I think he would get more, and if you look at all the posts and crossbars he hit, even half of them or a quarter of them, he’s in the 30s.”

DeBrincat, who had 27 goals and 66 points in 82 games in his first season with the Senators, is coming off a three-year, $19.2 million contract with a cap hit of $6.4 million. His qualifying offer is set at $9 million.

Dorion also noted that the Senators plan to be a cap team in 2023-24 and will spend the money allocated for DeBrincat elsewhere if needed.

“There’s a situation where we sign him to a long-term deal,” said Dorion. “There’s a situation where we qualify him at $9 million next year on a one-year deal. There’s a situation where we see if we’re not making any progress, we’re going to do our due diligence.

“Because we’re going to be a cap team, so maybe we go to club-elected arbitration, and if they came to us and said they don’t want to sign here, there’s a situation where we might have to trade him and see what’s out there on that market.

“Obviously, we’d love to sign him first, but I think we have to look at every option. If they come back and they want a number that doesn’t work for us, we’re going to have to look at other options too with Alex.”

The Farmington Hills, Mich., product has 187 goals and 373 points in 450 career NHL games and has scored 40-plus goals twice in his NHL career.

The Senators missed the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, finishing six points shy of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 39-35-8 record.