The Ottawa Senators made some additions over the last few days. On Friday, they signed Ryan Dzingel to a two-year contract worth $3.6M (according to Spotrac). They were also busy on Monday as they signed John Oduya to a one-year deal worth $2.25M, including several incentives. The deal for Oduya carries a cap hit of $1M for the defenseman (Spotrac). Oduya, who will turn 36 years old in October, was with both the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks last season.

But the defenseman had an injury-filled season last year. All totaled, he only appeared in 52 games combined for the two clubs that he skated for.

According to Oduya's injury log with Fox Sports, there were four occasions when something was noted for him last season alone. Back in November, December, and January he had lower-body problems. More recently in March he had an ankle problem. Last season certainly wasn't the best of his career as he only had 9 points between the two clubs and he went -4 overall for plus/minus. The season prior he had 21 points and he went +8 as part of a Dallas team that had a surprising year. It's that kind of performance that the Ottawa Senators will be hoping to get out of him in the 2017/18 season.

Oduya's numerous incentives

The contract, if Oduya does make the full $2.25M, is largely incentive based. That makes it a reasonable risk for Ottawa.

There are five bonuses in total for the defenseman. According to the Twitter account for the Senators' communications those bonuses are for "top 5 in TOI for d-men, top 3 for TOI for d-men, play in 41 games, play in 65 games and qualify for the playoffs." The TOI considerations (time-on-ice) and numbers for game appearances do reference Oduya's missing games last season.

Those kind of bonuses guard against overpaying a player who spends a lot of time on the disabled list. "41 games" is precisely half of the regular season while "65 games" would be roughly 80% of the season. In three of the last four years he would have met either total, so it's what happened last year that has to be of concern to the Ottawa Senators.

Senators remain longshots

With Oduya's recent injury history and declining production he can't be considered a game changer at this point in his career. So far in the free-agency period, Ottawa has not made a blockbuster move. They did sign Jean-Gabriel Pageau about a week ago, noting his playoff contributions. However, the Senators remain long shots to win the Stanley Cup, priced at +3300 with bet365 sportsbook in that futures market.
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