According to two league sources quoted by The Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday, Jake DeBrusk is attracting interest from a number of organizations, including the Ottawa Senators.
Ken Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen is credited with writing the report, which includes a significant detail that alters the equation.
Vancouver might not be asking for much in exchange.
According to reports, the Canucks are looking to get out of DeBrusk’s contract. That alone transforms this into something Steve Staios and the Senators might seriously ponder, moving it from a typical trade discussion.
DeBrusk has a $5,500,000 cap hit. For a squad that concluded the season with 58 points and a goal differential of -100, removing that number is a major accomplishment.
The season in Vancouver was dreadful. twenty-five victories. A team that placed last in their division and was far from making the playoffs. Adam Foote took over a mess, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.
If the agreement is completed, what does DeBrusk actually contribute to Ottawa?
Senators love DeBrusk’s power play surge.
DeBrusk scored 23 goals and 42 points in 81 games this season despite the team surrounding him collapsing. He finished -31, which says a lot about Vancouver’s defensive strategy.
He has scored seven goals in his last 10 games, though. On the power play, six of those occurred.
That’s not a fluke. That is a shooter who peaked just in time for trade discussions and found his range late in the year.
Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson were already at the wheel of Ottawa’s power play. The framework is compatible with adding a trigger man who just hit 19 power play goals in a campaign Travis Green sprints.
With 99 points, the Senators went 44-27-11. They have the desire to go further, the cap space, and the basis for their roster. DeBrusk, at a lower purchase price, is just the sort of low-risk, high-reward move Staios would probably consider making.
The issue is whether the offensive output translates in a market where the team is truly competitive. DeBrusk’s Vancouver stats were on a sinking ship. Ottawa doesn’t qualify as that.
That might go either way. When the stakes are high, certain athletes step up. Still others have quietly cruised after the atmosphere improves while pulling a battling squad.
A -31 score doesn’t go away just because the shirt’s insignia changes. More than just misfortune is shown by that number.
Still, it’s worth considering this if Vancouver is effectively requesting Ottawa to assume the contract without losing a significant asset. The financial side of the risk is the primary concern.
Wednesday night, Grady Sas retweeted the original assertion on X, at which point it began to gain momentum throughout the hockey community.
The Senators need to increase their forward depth before the offseason. DeBrusk is 29 years old and still in a period where his shot and skating are effective at a top-six speed.
Whether Ottawa is the landing spot or just one of many teams testing the waters, the fact that Vancouver is prepared to swallow some of this agreement to move on speaks volumes about the present state of the Canucks organization.
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