Alex DeBrincat has submitted a list of preferred trade destinations to the Senators, leading to speculation that a trade is very likely between now and draft day June 28th.
Back in April, when the Ottawa Senators held their final player availability of the season, soon-to-be-restricted free agent Alex DeBrincat told the media he was "definitely open to anything," including the idea of staying in Ottawa long term. However, if you buy into body language and tone, Debrincat didn't have a lot of enthusiasm about the notion of staying. Picture a teenager begrudgingly agreeing to cut the lawn.
Now reports are surfacing today that DeBrincat is definitely open to anything, including leaving town.
Pierre LeBrun reported on TSN that DeBrincat has submitted a list of preferred trade destinations to the Senators. The 25-year-old doesn't have any trade protection in his contract, so if they make a deal, the Senators are well within their rights to ship him wherever they want. But if they trade him to a place DeBrincat wants to be – where he'd be willing to sign a long-term deal – the Senators would likely get more for him in a trade
Simply put, the Senators can place a higher price tag on eight years of DeBrincat than they can for just one.
DeBrincat is an RFA July 1st but also just one year away from unrestricted free agency, with a chance to play wherever he wants. And that's particularly meaningful to DeBrincat, who spoke at length at his season-ender about how hard it was for his family transitioning to a new team, new city and new country for the first time.
None of this means DeBrincat is hell-bent against the idea of playing for Ottawa long-term. It may just be a case of the Senators exploring all options, as Dorion has suggested he would do. And you can't properly explore the option of a trade without first getting a list of the NHL towns DeBrincat might like.
It's believed that DeBrincat just wants to delay a decision on a long term commitment until new ownership arrives. And that's completely reasonable. That said, there are really only two reasons why the fate of Ottawa's ownership would matter to DeBrincat. 1) To ensure the new owner is willing to invest in building a competitive team. 2) To see who the head coach will be.
But time is a factor. Since the Senators want an answer from DeBrincat before the NHL Draft, which is less than three weeks away, it's impossible to believe that both ownership and coaching will be settled away by then. The Sens can't risk waiting around for that answer. If DeBrincat won't close the door on leaving (and agreeing to submit a trade list is the exact opposite of that) they need to get the best return they can between now and the draft.
So a trade seems all but certain at this point. And who knows? Perhaps it was always heading this way.