- Ottawa signs Xavier Bourgault to a one-year, two-way deal worth $850K at the NHL level
- The settlement avoids arbitration and follows a 57-point season with AHL Belleville
- Read below for the terms and where the 23-year-old fits in Ottawa’s plans
The Senators and Xavier Bourgault won’t need a hearing after all. Ottawa signed the 23-year-old forward to a one-year, two-way contract, settling before the case reached arbitration.
The deal pays Bourgault $850,000 at the NHL level and $265,000 in the minors, Elliotte Friedman reported. It’s the first pre-arbitration settlement of the offseason after his camp filed for the process earlier in the week.
PuckPedia laid out the numbers:
Bourgault earned the raise in the AHL. He put up 25 goals and 32 assists for 57 points in 70 games with Belleville last season, finishing second on the team in all three categories.
That’s a big jump for a player who had just 26 points in 61 games the year before.
Edmonton took Bourgault 22nd overall in the 2021 draft before he landed in Ottawa. He made his NHL debut this past season, playing two games without a point as the Senators reached the playoffs for a second straight year before Carolina swept them in the first round.
The signing is a small piece of a busy Ottawa summer. The Senators already brought back Claude Giroux on a one-year deal, and they’re still reshaping the roster after Brady Tkachuk’s departure.
Bourgault gives them cheap forward depth and a call-up who can score at the AHL level. Keep trending up like this, and those two NHL games won’t be the last ones.
