Pageau agrees to three-year contract with Senators

Forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau agreed to terms on a three-year contract with the Ottawa Senators on Monday. It has an average annual value of $3.1 million and runs through the 2019-20 season.
Pageau, who was a restricted free agent, was scheduled to have a salary arbitration hearing in Toronto on July 28.

"I wasn't totally sure how the talks were going but I knew that they were going well," Pageau told the Senators website. "We've always had a good relationship with general manager
, in a 6-5 win against the New York Rangers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round.
"Those are the games you want to play every year and that's the compete level that you want to have," Pageau said. "I felt like at the start of my career that I could become more consistent but to be here now and sign this deal shows the confidence that the team has in me and I don't want to disappoint them.
"It's like when I signed my first deal here, I didn't want to disappoint them and that's the way I'm going to approach this one too. I know what I have to do to be good and help the team to win some hockey games so that will be my main focus: show up every day and give everything I have."
Selected by the Senators in the fourth round (No. 96) of the 2011 NHL Draft, Pageau has 101 points (45 goals, 56 assists) in 251 games, all with Ottawa.

"As an organization we're thrilled to get this contract done," Dorion said. "Arbitration is definitely a path that we did not want to go down with Jean-Gabriel, especially with the way he's performed over the course of the past two seasons. He showed that he's definitely deserving of this contract and any player that has a history of raising his game, whether it was in junior playoffs or [the American Hockey League] playoffs or NHL playoffs, I think you have to give credit for what he's accomplished. We're really happy to have him on board for the next three years."
The Senators signed free agent center Nate Thompson on July 1. Forward Ryan Dzingel remains a restricted free agent and has a salary arbitration hearing scheduled for July 21.