Report: Sens trade coming down to the wire

The clock is literally ticking on Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton's season. The team and the unsigned player have until this afternoon to come to an agreement or Formenton will be forced to sit out the entire season.

For those who don't know, the 23 year old Formenton is without a contract for... reasons...

Officially, the Sens have said that they can't come to financial terms with Formenton on a new deal, but there's plenty of speculation online that there are more serious reasons why he's not under contract. Fans have speculated for months now that Formenton is involved in the sexual assault allegations against members of the 2018 Team Canada World Junior team, as he is one of the very few players who have issued a statement on the allegations. He's kept his mouth shut, he didn't show up for training camp and has now essentially faded into non-existence. To many, that's enough evidence to connect the dots. 

NHL insider Frank Seravalli reports that the asking price in a trade for Formenton is a 2nd round pick but that other teams have been scared off of acquiring him due to the potential PR nightmare it could pose.

Check it out:

Again, I think we can read between the lines a bit here. I don't know if Formenton has any involvement in these allegations. No one does. But the fact is that no one is speaking on this matter, so we'll have to wait for the results of a proper investigation before we pass any judgements. In the meantime, I think the Sens are doing the smart thing by holding off until they get all the facts.

What we DO know is that Formenton has until 5pm ET today to sign a deal or he cannot play in the NHL this season. My prediction: The deadline comes and goes and Formenton ends up taking his services to the KHL. After all, where do disgraced NHL players go if not Russia? We've seen it time and time again and Formenton would be following in the footsteps of noted scumbags Slava Voynov and Jake Virtanen.