The Ottawa Senators announced Friday that they have signed forward Mark Stone to a one-year contract extension worth $7.35 million, and thus avoiding arbitration.

The 26-year-old Stone is coming off another stellar season, in which he tallied 20 goals and 62 points despite missing 24 games. Stone has reached the 20-goal and 50-point mark in each of the last four seasons, and has surpassed 60 points three times.

One of the better two-way forwards in the game today, Stone brings excellent leadership to the Senators as well. Despite the horrid 2017-18 season - filled with drama in the locker room and woeful play on the ice - Stone remained humble and tuned in another strong season for the Sens.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman noted that the Senators cannot sign Stone to another extension until Jan. 1, though the two sides are able to have discussions. Besides Stone, center Matt Duchene and captain Erik Karlsson are also eligible to hit free agency next year.

That means either general manager Pierre Dorion will have to start saving up money to re-sign his core players long term, or the Sens will be having one busy trade deadline in 2019. But with owner Eugene Melnyk notably refusing to dish out long-term extensions to star players, the Senators front office will have plenty of difficult decisions this offseason.

The Senators will need Stone and their other core players to lead this team in what's expected to be another dreadful campaign. This team did draft Brady Tkachuk with the fourth overall pick, giving them a future superstar to get excited about.

However, the Colorado Avalanche own Ottawa's 2019 first-round pick from the Duchene trade, so the Sens could very well be losing a top-five pick. But for now, extending Stone is now out of the way, and the Sens can only hope he'll be able to lead them to a bounce-back season.

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