You would have probably expected Shane Pinto to indulge in a celebratory dinner a few hours after signing his new contract on Tuesday evening.
Instead, the Ottawa Senators centreman had one of the staple meals that he learned to cook himself when he lived with Jake Sanderson during the 2022-23 NHL season. Pinto prepared a simple dish of grilled chicken, rice and kale — hardly a dinner commensurate with his new two-year, $7.5 million contract.
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And on Wednesday, Pinto also didn’t break from his routine to bask in the accomplishment. His schedule was jammed with a morning treatment, and a workout, followed by an afternoon pilates session and a skate just after 4 p.m.
“Hey, you’ve got to keep working,” Pinto chuckled during a video call with The Athletic on Wednesday evening. “But I’ll make sure I celebrate on the Fourth of July.” Pinto’s trademark smile was flashed on several occasions during the call — a far cry from the expression he was wearing a few days ago.
Negotiations between his agent Lewis Gross and Ottawa Senators general manager Steve Staios appeared to reach a stalemate. Rumours of potential offer sheets and trade requests started to crop up — neither of which carried much validity — but they certainly painted the picture of a stalled negotiation. And that brought forward an all-too-familiar feeling for Pinto, who went through a very similar fruitless exercise to get a deal last summer, only to have those negotiations derailed by a 41-game suspension from the NHL for a gambling-related infraction.
“Even last week, I thought to myself, ‘This is going to be part two. It’s going to be the same thing as last summer,'” Pinto said. “I thought we would get to September, we’d open training camp and it would just be the same thing.”
But on Tuesday, shortly after Staios dumped Mathieu Joseph’s two-year, $2.95 million contract to St. Louis, the Ottawa general manager phoned Gross with a new offer.
As Pinto explained: “All of a sudden it just kind of changed. It all happened with just one phone call. Lewis said to me, ‘I think this is going to be the last phone call for a while.'” The Senators were willing to bump the AAV up to $3.75 million on a two-year deal, which was enough to convince Pinto to sign without any hesitation.
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“It was such a sigh of relief,” said Pinto. “I said, ‘F— yeah. Let’s do it.” Pinto immediately jumped on a phone call to chat with Staios. In that conversation, there was not a single trace of animosity or lingering bitterness over a contract negotiation that likely went on a bit longer than each party desired.
“We had a great chat. Both Steve and I are super pumped we got this done early. We’re so excited to get this going,” said Pinto. “There’s no ill will against each other at all. Like not at all.”
Pin-to paper 🖋️
The #Sens have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with forward Shane Pinto.
Les #Sens s'entendent sur un contrat de deux ans avec l'attaquant Shane Pinto. pic.twitter.com/luAzIEhnLq
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) July 2, 2024
Pinto said his phone was flooded with congratulatory texts from teammates. One of his favourites came from Sanderson, who texted Pinto to say, “Glad you’re not leaving.”
“He was messing around with me when he saw all those rumours,” laughed Pinto. He also received a text on Tuesday evening from new Senators head coach Travis Green.
The two met in person in Prague during the IIHF World Hockey Championships in May. Since then, Green has also phoned Pinto on two separate occasions to have extended conversations about the expectations for the upcoming season.
“He’s been super open to communicating, which I think is a huge thing,” said Pinto.
One of Green’s consistent messages to the players is they need to be ready for the start of training camp in September. Green’s conditioning skates are notoriously punishing and the head coach has very little tolerance for players who are unable to keep up with the rigorous pace from the outset.
“He told us it’s going to be tough and that it’s going to be a grind,” Pinto said of Green’s training camps. “But it should be that way. I mean, we have to get ready.”
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To that end, Pinto is already putting himself through a series of workouts that will prepare him for the opening of Senators camp in a couple of months. He’s added a pilates element to his regimen this offseason. In the past, Pinto was doing pilates once or twice a month, but now he’s doing it twice a week, intending to increase his flexibility and durability.
“It’s important for my mobility and the longevity of playing 82 games,” said Pinto. “That’s a big thing this summer.”
Pinto is renting out Islanders forward Hudson Fasching’s place on Long Island this summer and spending plenty of time on the ice. In those sessions, Pinto is focusing on specific drills in the offensive zone — and his catch-and-release in particular. He was very effective in the bumper spot on Ottawa’s power play in the 2022-23 season when he got to the 20-goal mark in his only full NHL season. And he believes that is a very realistic target to achieve again this season.
“It’s up to me to put myself in good spots, but that’s one of my goals,” said Pinto. “And I think it’s attainable.”
Green will ultimately determine the line combinations, but Pinto said he hasn’t bothered to sketch out potential lines to see where he might fit in on opening night.
The Senators forward group has undergone some significant changes in the past few days, adding the likes of David Perron and Michael Amadio — both of whom figure to see time on one of Ottawa’s top three lines.
“It’s too early in the summer to think about that,” laughed Pinto. “I haven’t looked too much at the lines. We have a solid top nine or whatever.” Pinto is guaranteed to have elite linemates at some point in late August when he tags along with Drake Batherson to Halifax for a round of training with NHL players. Those skates are usually attended by the likes of the reigning Hart Trophy winner Nathan Mackinnon and Sidney Crosby, who was Pinto’s boyhood idol.
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Just before arriving in Ottawa for training camp, Pinto will spend two weeks in the Maritimes, surrounded by some of the best in the league. “Those two weeks are going to be very valuable for me. There’s so many elite players there, it’s going to be great for me to pick their brain,” he said.
Pinto is currently working with his real estate agent in Ottawa to line up a place when he arrives in town just after Labour Day. This season, he won’t have any roommates, opting to live only with his French bulldog, Jett, as his companion. “I’ve had roommates in years past, but I think I’m good living alone now,” said Pinto. “I love the boys, but I like my alone time.”
Pinto knows better than anybody else what a quiet, normal training camp can do for the hockey club. Last fall, the Senators were plagued by a prolonged sale of the team, which was followed shortly thereafter by Pinto’s suspension — and the club losing a first-round draft pick in the Evgenii Dadonov trade fiasco.
There was simply just too much noise around the franchise, which is something they should not have to contend with in September. “There’s no distractions going into training camp and that’s a huge point. Everything is out of the way,” Pinto said. “We can all just worry about being the best versions of ourselves.
“We all know we have to perform. We have to hold ourselves accountable because there are no more excuses this year. This is a big year for everyone. The guys are super pumped and we’re going to be ready to go.”
(Photo: Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Photography / Getty Images)
