NHL's Ottawa Senators re-sign Jim O’Brien for two years in a one way deal
Jim O’Brien, a former 1st round pick, who was selected 29th in the 2007 NHL draft by Ottawa Senators, is now re-signed by the same team in a two-year, one-way deal which is worth $1.275 million. This is the second contract that O’Brien
has signed with Senators after his entry-level three-year contract in 2009-2010 which was worth $2,037,500.
Jim O’Brien started his hockey career with team USNTDP in North American Hockey League (NAHL) in 2004 and played there for two seasons, before moving to university hockey in Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) for University of Minnesota.
At the age of 18 he made his professional hockey debut in Western Hockey League (WHL) with Seattle Thunderbirds and then got a contract with Ottawa Senators so moved to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliates Binghamton Senators in between the 2008-2009
season.
23-year-old centre played two full seasons with Binghamton Senators where he scored satisfactory performance in the first season by scoring eight goals, nine assists and 17 points but showed extra-ordinary performance in the second season by scoring 24 goals
and amazing number of 32 assists, which got him 56 points and earned him Ottawa Senators’ call in NHL at the end of 2010-2011 season.
In first tenure at Ottawa Senators’ team, O’Brien could not do much as he played six games, in which he could not score any goal or assist. However, when he was asked to come back and play for team based in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, he scored three goals
and three assists, which were enough to get him a new contract.
Assistant Manager of the Senators, Tim Murray held many talks Mike Liut, O’Brien’s agent, before getting this deal done and said,
“We’re very pleased to get Jimmy signed. They were willing to work with us, to get the one-way contract, so I think we got a deal done that suits us from a money point of view, gives him two years more in the organization, gives him a little bit of stability
in the fact that he got a one-way, and it gives us money that we like for our young NHL players to have. So a good contract on both sides.”
Tim Murray also told that he is hopeful that O’Brien has that confidence that can get him through and he can show same performance in the NHL which got him 56 points with Binghamton in AHL.
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