NHL News and Notes: Ottawa Senators – Cody Ceci and Mark Stone
The Ottawa Senators now have Cody Ceci and Mark Stone under contract on one-year deals.
Ceci gets his arbitration award and the Senators agree with Stone before arbitration

Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen: The Senators offered $3.35 million, Cody Ceci asked for $6 million, and the arbitrator awarded a one-year, $4.3 million deal.

Last season the 24-year old Ceci recorded five goals and 14 assists while playing over 23 minutes a game.

The Senators could walk away from the contract but that is unlikely.

Murray Pam: The Senators second buyout window opens on Monday and the Sens will have another option to buy out a player, but that player has to make more than $3.3 million. They can also walk away from Ceci’s arbitration award.

Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen: The Ottawa Senators and Mark Stone avoided salary arbitration yesterday and agreed on a one-year, $7.35 million deal.

Stone will now be an unrestricted free agent after this season and is not eligible to sign an extension until after January 1st, 2019.

“We’re happy to have Mark under contract,” Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said in a release issued by the team. “Mark is a great leader in every sense; a character person, passionate competitor and talented two-way player. Signing him is the first step in a process that allows us to continue to negotiate a long-term deal in the new year. We look forward to having a long and successful relationship with Mark.”

The Senators now have Stone, Matt Duchene, and Erik Karlsson entering the last year of their deals. If not extended or traded before, they could be potential trade deadline moves.