OTTAWA — Senators general manager Pierre Dorion is excited about his team's crease tandem heading into next season.
Ottawa's general manager signed goaltender Joonas Korpisalo to a five-year, US$20-million contract as free agency opened Saturday.
Korpisalo had a .914 save percentage in 39 games last season. The 29-year-old joins Anton Forsberg in Ottawa's goal.
"The fit was just perfect for us, that contract, that term, that tandem," Dorion said. "I think we're really comfortable moving forward now with our goaltenders."
Cam Talbot, who Dorion acquired last summer for promising youngster Filip Gustavsson in a swap of netminders at opposite ends of their careers, signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings for $1 million.
Dorion called Korpisalo his "No. 1 target" in free agency, adding he feels Ottawa addressed its biggest need, and believes the Finnish goalie is "just scratching the surface" of his potential.
Forsberg, who suffered a pair of devastating knee injuries, posted a .902 save percentage in 28 games last season.
Dorion said the 30-year-old netminder, with two years remaining at a $2.75-million salary-cap hit, will be healthy by training camp.
"We're going (into next season) with what we feel will be one of the better tandems in the league," said Dorion. "We'd like to have guys at the calibre of (Andrei) Vasilevskiy, but there's only a few of them.
"We feel in that next group, as a tandem, those guys will be really good. They're good friends, I think they will push each other."
Ottawa (39-35-8) finished six points out of a playoff spot this past season.
Though Dorion said he addressed Ottawa's biggest need, the Senators' biggest piece of off-season business still looms with sharpshooter Alex DeBrincat's future unclear.
DeBrincat, 25, is a restricted free agent. The forward has a $9-million qualifying offer.
Ottawa acquired the two-time 40-goal scorer from the Chicago Blackhawks at last year’s draft, but DeBrincat didn’t match his best production in the nation’s capital, totalling 27 goals and 39 assists in 82 games.
Dorion confirmed that DeBrincat doesn't want to sign long-term in Ottawa, but didn't rule out the possibility of a short-term deal.
"We like the player. If the player comes back for a year, nothing wrong with that," said Dorion.
"There's varying degrees of interest (from other teams). Teams call, we get close to a deal, I give them permission (to speak with DeBrincat). Sometimes they're not ready to pay the term that we're ready to pay."
Dorion added that free agency could be holding some teams up from pulling the trigger on a DeBrincat deal.
"I think a lot of the teams are in on other players and maybe if they don't get them, they would be interested later today or tomorrow or the day after," he said. "We know that most likely when the arbitration period comes, we're gonna have to make a decision."
The Senators signed two young players to contract extensions Saturday.
Erik Brannstrom agreed to a one-year, $2-million deal, while fellow defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker signed a two-year, US$1.61 million contract.
Brannstrom, a 23-year-old Swede, established career highs in assists (16), points (18), penalty minutes (38) and games (74) with the Senators this past season.
Bernard-Docker, 23, split 2022-23 between the American Hockey League and the NHL. He registered one assist and 11 penalty minutes over 19 games with Ottawa.
Dorion said he's consistently communicating with unrestricted free-agent defenceman Travis Hamonic, but uncertainty over DeBrincat affects what offer Dorion could make.
"I want to make sure we put an offer to him and I said the offer could be a bit higher if you just wait a bit," he said.
Ottawa also signed forwards Rourke Chartier, Josh Currie, Bokondji Imama, Matthew Highmore and Garrett Pilon to one-year, two-way contracts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2023.
The Canadian Press