After Signing Tarasenko, Senators Officially Have Cap Issues: Now What?

After acquiring winger Vladimir Tarasenko Thursday, the Ottawa Senators now have just over $780K in salary cap room and still haven't signed RFAs Shane Pinto or Egor Sokolov. Sokolov probably isn't in the NHL plans anytime soon, but a new deal for Pinto – their opening night, third-line centre – is certainly going to push them over the cap.

Teams can spend the offseason flying 10% over the cap but, by opening night, the cap hardens and teams have to fall in line. So the Senators are going to need to dump some money, not just to create the space they need to get Pinto signed, but to give themselves a rainy day fund.

So how, exactly, might GM Pierre Dorion try to reclaim cap space this summer?

With a contract of nearly $3 million, moving winger Mathieu Joseph might provide the most painless solution, although the Senators may need to add a significant sweetener. Everyone likes Joseph, but not at that number. His point-per-game explosion after arriving in Ottawa was clearly the outlier, not the norm.

Some would look at moving Erik Brannstrom ($2 million) as another easy solution and just giving his money to Pinto. But Brannstrom is a player who looks like he's starting to figure things out in the NHL. With Thomas Chabot, Jakob Chychrun and Artem Zub all missing significant time with injuries last season, the Sens need to maintain their blue line depth. But it's an option.

Another possibility is to play hard ball with Pinto. Would he be happy about it? No. But you can't please everyone, and there's truly no compelling reason to break the bank right now on a third line player who's only played 99 NHL games. Barring injury, Pinto isn't scheduled to be a top two centre in Ottawa at any point in this decade.

You'd still need to move some things around a little, but the Sens could give Pinto a one year contract worth $1 million and then sign him to a longer term extension in the new year. If he balks at that, so be it. You still have Ridly Greig as a possible third line centre option. If Greig can stay in one piece, he can be every bit as good this year as Pinto was last season.

And, of course, if Dorion wants to restore a more meaningful salary cap buffer zone, he's going to have to look at moving a player with a bigger contract. It's going to be interesting to see whose salary he decides to dump.

Of course, with the Senators injury luck, or lack thereof, a solution may show up all on its own. Who'd be shocked if someone on the roster hurts their back while playing golf and slips onto the long term injured reserve?