On Thursday, we learned that Vladimir Tarasenko had signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Ottawa Senators. The forward now has a year to prove he deserves a lucrative contract. The big problem is that he's 31 years old and his best years are behind him. According to reporter Andy Strickland, Tarasenko had a much more attractive offer on the table earlier this month, but decided to turn it down. We're talking about an offer of four years and 5.5 million a year with the Sens, the team he eventually signed with for one year and 5 million. Still according to Strickland, the forward had two other offers on the table: one year and 5.25 million in Carolina and one year at 6 million in San Jose. If we look at the contracts awarded to autonomous players this summer, they're all pretty short-lived and/or not very lucrative due to the salary cap. Ryan O'Reilly agreed to sign for four years for 18 million . Tarasenko's decision to wait too long was a bad one, as he could have secured an additional $17 million. Time will tell if he did the right thing, as he will be a free agent player again next summer, this time at the age of 32. <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr>Told Vlad Tarasenko had a four-year offer at $5.5 m per season from Ottawa early in free agency. Had 1 year offers from Carolina at $5.25 m and San Jose, 1 yr at $6 m <a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoSensGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>#GoSensGo</a> <a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/sjsharks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>#sjsharks</a> <a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/Letsgocanes?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>#Letsgocanes</a>- Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) <a href=https://twitter.com/andystrickland/status/1684977556355723265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>July 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8>