Bobby Ryan’s contract a necessary evil for the Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators have a problem with Bobby Ryan’s contract, but it is a necessary evil that they need to retain for the time being.

When the Ottawa Senators acquired Bobby Ryan back in 2013, the team believed he would add to their goalscoring options for many years to come – giving him a pricey extension just over one year after moving to the Canadian capital.

The returns on Ryan’s $7.25 million annual cap hit have left much to the imagination of Sens fans, with the American scoring over 20 goals just once since the deal kicked in.

Three seasons followed where Ryan failed to even reach 15 goals in two of them, with 15 goals in the 2018/19 season being his highest season-total since 2016.

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Understandably, there have been many calls for the Senators to look at every avenue possible to get rid of Ryan’s hefty deal.

While it was never an easy task to accomplish, it may be even more difficult now that the team has entered into a rebuild.

Per CapFriendly, the Senators currently have a project cap hit of just over $45 million – leaving the team with roughly $34.5 million in cap space based on the current cap limit of $79.5 million.

While this sounds great to many, with the team having plenty of space to target free agents in the summer, it actually leaves the Senators sitting around $13.8 million below the cap floor – the minimum amount an NHL team needs to spend in a season.

If the Senators managed to somehow remove Ryan’s contract without taking anything financially significant in return, that would leave the team with a $20 million hole to fill.

A buyout of Ryan’s contract wouldn’t help much either, with his cap hit dropping to $3,583,333 per season for three years before dropping to $1,833,333 for a further three year – double the length of his existing deal.

The buyout option would save owner Eugene Melnyk roughly $11.5 million but would also force him to spend more money on other players to offset the cap shortfall – something he isn’t likely to want to do right now.

With the Senators looking to go younger next season, with a few free agent additions in the summer to bulk up a fairly depleted roster, it will be highly unlikely that Ryan’s contract is moved in any way.

Unless the Ottawa Senators are able to take on some very short-term expensive deals in exchange for Ryan’s, he will play out the entirety of next season in the Canadian capital – with his final two years more questionable.

While no one likes the deal that Ryan is on, except himself no doubt, it is something that will need to simply be accepted for the immediate future.

Once the Ottawa Senators’ young guns start to emerge and come to the end of their ELCs, then his position in the team can be reassessed – with a trade still being viewed as the most satisfactory way of removing him from the equation.

What do you think Sens fans? How much longer will Ryan need to be kept by the team before he is inevitably moved on? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!