Dorion hopes to make Borowiecki a 'Senator for life'

Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion wants defenseman Mark Borowiecki to finish his career in the nation's capital.

"We hope to make Mark Borowiecki a Senator for life," Dorion said Thursday morning on TSN Radio 1200 Ottawa.

The 30-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and Dorion says he's begun discussing an extension with Borowiecki's agents.

The rearguard is enjoying a career-best season in 2019-20, recording seven goals and 18 points in 53 games. With the Senators in the midst of a rebuild, Dorion assured the veteran he wouldn't be moved ahead of the trade deadline.

"I told Borowiecki sometime in December he wasn’t going to be traded,” Dorion said, according to the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch. “There’s got to be a human side to how we do our business here and everyone here knows that Mark and his wife were expecting their first child.

“To get the return that we probably would have gotten wasn’t worth it," Dorion said. "We wanted Mark to be here until the end of the year and possibly talk contract negotiations moving forward because we really like what he brings to our team and how he shows our younger kids how to play and how he practices hard every day and those are key elements for us in the rebuild.”

The Senators selected Borowiecki in the fifth round in 2008. The Ottawa native is the second-longest tenured player on the club behind netminder Craig Anderson.