The Ottawa Senators have ensured another of their core forwards will be with the team for a long time.

It was announced today team captain Daniel Alfredsson had signed a four-year, $21.6 million contract extension designed to keep him a Senators for the rest of his career.

As per TSN.ca, his new deal is structured as follows:

The contract, which includes a no-movement clause, pays $4 million in salary in the first year with a $3 million signing bonus, plus $2.1 million for the removal of the option years from his old contract for a total $9.1 million.

Alfredsson will then make $4 million in Year 2 with a $3 million signing bonus for $7 million, a third year salary of $2 million with a $2.5 million signing bonus for $4.5 million, and $1 million in Year 4.

The deal will count as $5.4 million against the Senators cap for each of those four seasons. 

Alfredsson's current contract contained three option years worth $3.8 million per season but given his value to the franchise the Senators ownership and management didn't want to risk losing him to next summer's UFA market if he opted for free agency.

He joins Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly and Chris Phillips among those the Senators have re-signed since the spring of 2007 to lucrative, multi-year deals.

While it's good news for the Senators that they have their popular long-time captain under contract for four more years there is a potential downside to this deal.

The Senators had nearly $43 million committed to next season's payroll for 16 players, including Alfredsson's old contract. They'll be able to put $3 million of Alfredsson's new deal under the cap cushion for next season (this season is the only one in which there is no "cap cushion" for bonuses). They might also be able to put that $2.1 million for the buyout of his option years under that too, provided it doesn't exceed the maximum allowable.

If so, Alfredsson's new contract will push the Senators to just over $44 million in base salary for next season. If that buyout option is included it'll push it to over $46 million.

The problem either way could involve a potentially flatlined or lowered salary cap for next season, which could limit the Senators to between $7-$10 million in available cap space for 2009-10.

That won't leave much space to re-sign tough guy Chris Neil and veteran blueliner Filip Kuba, both of whom are eligible for UFA status next summer, and of course barring a trade they'll also be in the market for a quality starting goalie as Martin Gerber is also a UFA next summer and unlikely to be re-signed.

It was worthwhile to keep Alfredsson and it was to an affordable deal but it does highlight the fact that the Senators could face some cap juggling next season if the cap doesn't increase.

After spending the summer embroiled in a contract stand-off with defenseman Andrej Meszaros Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray resolved the problem on Friday night, dealing Meszaros to the Tampa Bay Lightning for defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard plus a first round pick in 2009 which the Lightning had acquired from the San Jose Sharks.

The deal came after speculation in recent days of the Lightning attempting to sign Meszaros to an offer sheet, which they were unable to do as they lacked part of the appropriate compensation, their third round pick in 2009, which they’d dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins back in June for Ryan Malone.

Reportedly the Bolts tried to re-acquire the pick from the Penguins but there were conflicting reports suggesting the Penguins management were unwilling to deal it back or that a deal was in place but the Lightning were trying to directly acquire Meszaros via trade.

Regardless of the aforementioned intrigue the move is yet another in a string of significant roster-altering deals made by the Lightning since new ownership and management took over back in June.

Meszaros is a promising young defenseman but Murray made this move as the young blueliner was reportedly seeking a deal in the range of $4.5-$5 million per season, comparable to the contracts recently signed by Nashville’s Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, Washington’s Mike Green and Chicago’s Brent Seabrook.

The Senators unfortunately lacked the cap space to pay Meszaros that much and still have enough remaining to land a scoring winger, plus there were reports out of Ottawa suggesting that his struggles last season also made Murray leery of committing that kind of coin to him.

Murray got back a pretty good return for Meszaros, fulfilling both a short-term need with the experienced Kuba (who’ll likely play on the second pairing with Christoph Schubert) and possibly a long-term one with Picard, who at 22 still has time to develop into a decent NHL defenseman.  Landing a first round pick in next year’s draft was also a nice catch, demonstrating perhaps Murray’s management experience over that of the Lightning’s new group.

Meszaros is a good pickup for the Lightning and could be a key part of their future but he doesn’t address their glaring need for more experienced defensive depth. He’s only got three years of NHL experience and with Kuba now gone that makes he, Matt Carle and Paul Ranger the Lightning’s most experienced defensemen.

That’s a promising young defense corps but one that could find itself struggling against strong offensive opponents this season.

This move also means the Bolts will still have to shed some payroll, for while they moved Kuba and Picard’s combined $3.8 million salary for this coming season re-signing Meszaros to his anticipated $4.5 million per season salary still leaves them closer to the cap than ownership would prefer.

Perhaps Jussi Jokinen, Michel Ouellet and/or Jason Ward could be packaged for an experienced defenseman, but given new owner Oren Koules’ comments this summer over his happiness with his young defense corps it might be picks or prospects those forwards get shopped for.

This deal works well for the Senators as the combined salaries of Kuba and Picard are close to what Murray was originally offering Meszaros ($3.5 million per season) and still leaves enough cap space to pursue a scoring winger .

In the long term this deal could work out for the Lightning but in the short term it appears to favor the Senators.