With Erik Karlsson trade chatter lowered to a whisper, Senators GM Pierre Dorion is shifting efforts to re-signing restricted free agents Cody Ceci and Mark Stone.

The pair filed for arbitration July 5; and Ceci’s hearing is scheduled for August 1, Stone two days later.

Getting Stone under contract is Dorion’s number one priority. Stone is a potential unrestricted free agent at next season’s end and Dorion isn’t about to let him walk.

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The right wing tied for the team lead in points (62), while surpassing his career high with 42 assists. If not for missing his final 15 games with an ankle sprain, Stone would’ve easily posted career marks in goals and points, as well.

One of the league’s most underrated players, Stone’s 1.07 point per game average in 2017-18 was superior to names such as Gaudreau, Kuznetsov, Matthews, Ovechkin and Tavares.

A two-way forward, Stone leads all NHLers in Takeaways with 283 over the past three seasons. The next closest, Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner, has 235 during the same period. In fact, only two others have more than 200 -- Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (220) and Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin (214).

Would the Senators offer Stone, say, an eight-year $64M contract extension, avoid arbitration and buy out several years of his free agency? Could they afford to do so?

Per Matt Cane of Hockey-Graphs.com, his predictive metric for a Stone contract is $8.1M on a one-year deal to a high of eight-years, $ 76.8M.

However, will Stone even want to put his signature on a long-term extension? Considering the myriad of issues surrounding the Sens? With the spectre of Karlsson being moved, does Stone wish to be part of a major re-build? Stone wields the hammer and controls his own destiny, so-to-speak.

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Conversely, it would be wise for Dorion to play with house money and allow Ceci to reach arbitration August 1.

The 24-year old is two years shy of becoming a UFA, fresh off a down season, especially if you’re a proponent of analytics. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Ottawa resident ranked near the bottom in several categories among NHL defenseman with over 1000 minutes played.

Only Brooks Orpik and Marc Staal held a worse even-strength puck possession rate in 2017-18. Ceci finished 131st out of 133 blue-liners with a negative 43.76 Corsi For percentage (shots + shots missed/blocked).

While Ceci’s 1633:48 was the fifth-most even-strength ice-time, no d-man was on the ice for more shot attempts against (1862).

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The one positive is that the Senators’ coaching staff values the fifth-year pro as a defender. Only Karlsson averaged more ice-time per game, 26:44 to Ceci’s 23:20. The 2012 first-rounder spent more time on the penalty kill (227 minutes), doubling that of any Senator – and even more PK duty than high-priced defenders John Carlson, Drew Doughty and PK himself.

Having earned $2.8M AAV the past two campaigns, one would expect the rearguard’s next contract to be in the $4M-plus range. (On Monday, it was reported the Senator's extended Ceci his qualifying offer of $3.35 million, while Ceci's ask was for $6 million.) Anaheim’s Brandon Montour signed a two-year deal with a $3.387M AAV earlier this week by way of comparison. Ceci and Montour are the same age. However, the Senators defenseman has played 260 more games

Historically, the club has avoided arbitration with its players. Only two of the previous 19 Senators who filed actually had cases heard, Alex Chiasson and Mike Hoffman in 2015 – both lost.