“Pain in the butt to play against” – Claude Giroux signs three-year, $19.5 million contract with Ottawa Senators
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Claude Giroux
Canadian ice hockey centre Claude Giroux is set to play for the Ottawa Senators from the next National Hockey League (NHL) season after he signed a three-year, $19.5 million contract (average annual value of $6.5 million) on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old forward, who had 65 points (21 goals, 44 assists) in 75 games for the Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers last season, also had eight points (three goals, five assists) in 10 Stanley Cup Playoff games. He played his 1,000th NHL game on March 17 this year, with the Flyers against the Nashville Predators.
“I started thinking about it, and the more I thought about (this move), it made a lot of sense,” Giroux said, as quoted by NHL.com. “And one thing that I remember from playing against this team last year was you don’t like to play against. They’re a pain in the butt to play against and they have a lot of character.”
“Look at package when you get a chance to add player of Claude’s calibre”
Giroux, who was in the final season of an eight-year contract, was selected by Philadelphia in the first round (No. 22) of the 2006 NHL Draft. The Hearst native Giroux has 923 points (294 goals, 629 assists) in 1,018 regular-season games and 81 points (28 goals, 53 assists) in 95 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
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“When you get a chance to add a player of Claude’s calibre, you just look at the package,” Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said. “It’s the skill. It’s the leadership, it’s the intangibles, as far as wanting to win, someone that’s had long playoff runs who still, as of last year, was almost a point a game. He was on one of the best teams and he was the one player that I think a lot of Cup-contending teams were after.
“So to be able to add a player of this calibre to our lineup that we’ve already felt that we’ve already improved.”
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Sachin Arora
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