What Acquiring Derek Stepan Means for the Senators

Pierre Dorion is NOT messing around. He wants to make the playoffs THIS year. The Ottawa Senators have just acquired Derek Stepan from the Arizona Coyotes for a 2nd round pick in this upcoming draft.

Why Stepan?

Recently, owner Eugene Melnyk had mentioned wanting to make the playoffs this year. Many fans, me included, were just thinking it was an empty statement that owners will often make to fans. I think Mr. Melnyk was serious.

The rebuild has been underway for a few years now, and the Sens may now be ready to start turning the page.

To do this, you have to incorporate some of the young guns, while building around them. I think that the Sens have done a great job this offseason acquiring key pieces to fill out the holes in this roster.

At first, it seemed like a lot of prospects in the AHL would make their jump to the big leagues, but I don’t think that is the case anymore. I’ll explore that later.

Let’s look at the money

Derek Stepan has been rumoured to be on the trade market for quite some time. I think an attractive factor here was his high cap hit, but a low salary. Derek Stepan’s cap hit is 6.5 million dollars for this year and next. However, Stepan is only owed 2 million dollars for this season, and a 2 million dollar salary including a 3 million dollar signing bonus next year.

What can he produce for the Sens?

Derek Stepan was amazing when he played for the New York Rangers. He was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in a trade that brought himself and Antti Raanta to the desert.

With the Rangers, Stepan was basically a guaranteed 50-point player. Which is really good in the NHL. I would not say that Derek Stepan was ever a superstar in the NHL, but he was a consistent top-6 center for the Rangers.

In Arizona however, he has seen his numbers dip slightly. In his first year in the desert, he reached 14 goals and 42 assists for 56 points, but for the first time in his NHL career, he was a minus player in the +/- statistic. I know that stat does not do a good job of representing a player’s defensive game, but it is something to be mentioned. Stepan scored 10 goals and 18 assists for 28 points in 70 games. Not a great season by his standards, but he played in Arizona.

I’d say that with the right linemates and in the correct role, Stepan can get back to scoring 50 points.

Who does he play with?

I think that Stepan is a top 6 center for Ottawa this upcoming season, and I will go more in-depth into that in a future article, but basically, I could see him mentoring Tim Stuetzle on the second line to start.

Expansion bait?

I think that acquiring Derek Stepan can be influential in who the Sens lose in the upcoming expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken. I think if Step

an has a good season, the Sens can either leave him exposed to be selected by the Kraken or even be traded to the team to avoid someone else being selected.

Closing thoughts

Derek Stepan has great potential to do great things with Ottawa. I’m not a fan of the price we paid for him,  but he provides great leadership and great play overall.

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