Sens sign controversial defenseman to a new deal

The Ottawa Senators have announced that they’ve signed 23 year-old defenseman Patrick Sieloff to a one year, two-way contract worth $650,000. 

If that name sounds familiar, you may remember Sieloff as the assailant in a high hit to the head of Senators fan favorite Clarke MacArthur from training camp last season. The thunderous hit left the veteran MacArthur concussed for the fourth time in 18 months and brought his entire NHL career into question. In the moment, tempers flared and MacArthur’s linemate and close friend Bobby Ryan immediately jumped Sieloff in an attempt to exact revenge. Later during the same scrimmage game, veteran Chris Neil also attempted to instigate a fight with Sieloff. Eventually, Sieloff was removed from the ice to allow tempers to cool and was subsequently sent down to the team’s AHL affiliate in Binghamton.

As you may have guessed, Sieloff is a physical defenseman. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound blue liner put up just two goals and 12 points in 52 games for Binghamton last year while adding 93 penalty minutes. 

While it’s clear that the organization still values Sieloff’s on-ice contributions, you have to wonder what his teammates think of his return for 2017-18. It’s a unique situation for the team and will be interesting to see how things go down at training camp later this summer.