Jake Sanderson's Eight-Year Contract Just Kicked In And It's Already A Steal For The Ottawa Senators

Jake Sanderson has just started year one of an eight-year contract, and it already looks like one of the most club-friendly deals in the NHL.

The Ottawa Senators have had some fine defencemen in their history. Chris Phillips and Erik Karlsson spring immediately to mind. Karlsson was (and is) fast, and his strength was (and is) skill and offence. Phillips was bigger and all about defence and longevity.

If you combined the best of both, you'd have an extremely well-rounded defenceman, one who might resemble Ottawa's current number one, Jake Sanderson.

Sanderson truly seems like the complete package. He has size, speed, acceleration, puck skill, poise, vision, passing, excellent shot, and skill at both ends. He leads all Senator defencemen in ice time on the power play and the penalty kill. 

What he's bumped up this season is his offensive production. With seven points in five games, he's second in the league in scoring among defencemen, behind only Cale Makar. More offence was a goal for Sanderson heading into this season, but this early spike has as much to do with how he's being used as anything else. 

After a three-assist performance in a 5-4 win over Tampa Bay on Saturday afternoon, Sanderson was asked about how he feels about his first five games this season.

"Yeah, not bad," Sanderson told the media after the game. "A little bit different looks than last year, getting a little more power play time and whatnot. But you can put me in any situation, and I won't complain. So I'm liking (my game) so far."

Compared to last season, Sanderson now plays 2:36 minutes more overall per night (25:49, sixth most in the NHL), and when the opponent takes a penalty, the new coaching staff doesn't even glance in Thomas Chabot's direction. Sanderson is now getting 4:09 per night on the top power play, where six of his seven points have come. 

Chabot gets 2:22 and has one point. Overall, he has two points and a team-worst minus 6. With new decision-makers and a fresh set of eyes, the blueline chess pieces are finally being set up properly in Ottawa.

But that doesn't mean former management doesn't deserve a boatload of credit. 

Sanderson is in year one of an eight-year contract with a cap hit of $8,050,000 per season. His contract expires at the end of the 2031-32 season when he will be 29 years old. With most deals like this, teams tend to overpay in the first couple of years, hoping the numbers will look a little better a couple of years down the line.

With Sanderson, it's already a team-friendly deal right out of the gate. And yes, we know how crazy it sounds to call an $8 million salary a bargain. But when former GM Pierre Dorion looks back at his best days in charge of his team, signing Sanderson to this deal will be near the top of his list. 

And don't sleep on his decision to draft the player where he did.

Dorion and his amateur scouting staff selected Sanderson fifth overall in the 2020 Draft. It was seen as a forward-rich draft, and there were plenty of options up front still on the board. Many "experts" thought that if the Sens were so hell-bent on taking a defenceman at 5, it should have been Jamie Drysdale, who went to Anaheim next at 6.

But Dorion and company did it their way, and while that didn't always serve them well, they hit a home run here. 

Sanderson is tracking to be a Norris-trophy-level defenceman for the Ottawa Senators for at least the next eight seasons, and except for the Olympic years, he will be fun to watch.