𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

OTTAWA — Shane Pinto is entering the season on an expiring contract, but the Ottawa Senators forward and pending restricted free agent isn’t concentrated on a potential extension.

“If something comes into fruition, then we’ll see,” Pinto said after practice Friday morning. “But for right now, (I’ll) just focus on training camp and go from there.”

The 24-year-old scored a career high 21 goals and 37 points in 2024-25 with the Senators, adding a goal and an assist in six postseason games as the team returned to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2016-17. Pinto also won gold with the United States at this spring’s IIHF World Hockey Championship and later attended Team USA’s Winter Olympics orientation camp as one of 24 forwards to earn an invitation in August.

Pinto is about to play out the second year of a two-year, $7.5 million deal signed in July 2024. He has played parts of five seasons in Ottawa since being drafted in the second round in 2019. The New York native has 51 goals and 107 points in 210 career games, all with the Senators.

“I think it’s a big year for everyone,” Pinto said, when asked whether he’d rather not have contract negotiations in-season. “I don’t want to be a distraction to anyone. And I want all of us to take the next step and hopefully have a good start, and then we’ll see what goes from there.”

Days earlier, Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios said he engaged in “discussions … a couple of weeks ago” with Pinto’s agent, Lewis Gross.

“It was positive dialogue,” Staios said Wednesday. “They felt like, getting the season started and not having it as a distraction was the way they wanted to go. They know, I’m open to discuss it at any time. We talked about Shane. He’s an important part of this team, and I look forward to having more discussions to make him part of this core.”

Through two days at training camp, Pinto has skated alongside captain Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux. Pinto told the media that he spent the offseason working on his quickness and being tougher along the boards.

“I think the game now, especially in the playoffs, is along the boards.” Pinto said. “Making those little plays and trying to protect pucks. So, I tried to do that throughout the summer, tried to be a little bit bigger and stronger and hopefully that results into some good things.”

(Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)