What to Do With Claude Giroux

Don’t worry Sens fans, Senators hockey is on the way! While we’re still on pause for a couple more days, why not take a look at an interesting expiring contract? Claude Giroux’s three year deal worth $6.5 million per season is coming to an end. That will make him an unrestricted free agent this summer. At 37 years old, he’s closing in on the end of his career. Even still, Giroux remains one of the Senators most important forwards. So, what should Steve Staios do with Claude Giroux? Let’s dive into the details.

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Claude Giroux’s Current Level of Play

Two months ago, I wrote an article about how the Ottawa Senators were overplaying Claude Giroux. Up to that point, Giroux was averaging 19:15 time on ice per game. Since then, Giroux has played 18:20 per game. It’s nice to know that Travis Green is a proud subscriber of Ottawa Hockey Now! In all seriousness, Giroux’s rough November that saw him score just one goal and six points in 14 games while being asked to play over 20 minutes a game was a sign that Giroux was being asked to do too much.

In these last two months, Giroux has scored 19 points in 29 games, tying him for third on the Senators in points during that time. He’s one of the best face-off men in the league, and he’s asked to play in all situations. He has once again shown himself to be incredibly healthy, playing in every Senators game over his three seasons in Ottawa.

As for the negatives, his 54 point pace is 10 points below his 64 points last season, which was 15 points below his 79 points the season before. His biggest weakness is his lack of speed. He is lacking in both acceleration and top end speed, making it hard to create offense off the rush or to break away from defenders.

Joe Pavelski, Mats Zuccarello as Comparables

Pavelski finished up his three contract with the Dallas Stars at the age of 37 in 2022. Mats Zuccarello’s five year contract with the Minnesota Wild was set to expire when he was 36 in 2024. Both were highly important players for those teams at the time they were re-signed. Here are the contracts those two players signed:

• Pavelski: 1 year, $5.5 million (6.67% of the cap)
• Zuccarello: 2 years, $4.125 million per year (4.69% of the cap)

Pavelski ended up signing another one year contract after that, worth $3.5 million. These are essentially the two contract options that Staios should present to Giroux. Not those exact numbers, but either a one year deal worth a little more money, or a two year deal worth a little less per year.

The Bottom Line

Given the Senators success this season, Claude Giroux could very well believe in this team enough to finish out his career with them. Or, at the very least, sign that next contract with them in the next few months. With Giroux’s importance to the team and him still being a solid contributor, Staios should want to keep him around. However, with his age, lack of speed, and declining offensive numbers, this should only be a one or a two year deal. Two years gives Giroux peace of mind for a little longer, while the one year deal allows Giroux the opportunity to become a year by year player.

Given that Giroux’s current contract pays him $6.5 million per season, there should be no problem fitting in his next contract. What the numbers end up looking like is a little harder to figure out, given the fact that the cap is set to go up significantly in the next couple of seasons. Here’s one way to look at it: Giroux’s current contract took up 7.88% of the cap. David Perron’s off-season deal took up 4.55% of the cap.  Perhaps somewhere in between those two deals would make sense. Would anyone complain about Giroux coming back on a short term deal that takes up just over 6% of the cap? I wouldn’t think so.