Ottawa Senators sign Colin Greening to a three year extension

The Ottawa Senators announced today that they have signed forward Colin Greening to a three year extension. The annual average salary is $2.65 million. Greening would have been entering the last year of his current contract and will now be with the Senators until the end of the 2016-2017 season.

In 153 regular season games, Greening has 31 goals and 38 assists. He has missed only one game with the Senators since Paul MacLean became head coach and has been trusted by the coach to play in any role. On the other hand, there is evidence that Greening tends to drag down his more skilled teammates.

The Senators now have eight forwards on one-way contracts next season: Greening, Jason Spezza, Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris, Clarke MacArthur, Chris Neil, Zack Smith and Erik Condra. With Mika Zibanejad, Cory Conacher and Jean-Gabriel Pageau also pencilled into the lineup next year, that leaves 11 forward positions taken leaving about two for prospects to make the roster.

As is well known, the Senators are under pressure internally to keep their payroll low. With the contracts of Jason Spezza, Bobby Ryan, Marc Methot, Mika Zibanejad, Robin Lehner and Cory Conacher expiring over the next two seasons, the second winger position on the top line could be one of the areas where the Senators try to save some money. This would allow someone like Greening to be a stopgap on the top line until one of the club's prospects with a higher ceiling develop.