Mr. 300: Shane Pinto Is Just Getting Started

For Shane Pinto, it's a milestone that once seemed almost unimaginable.

When the Ottawa Senators face the Utah Mammoth on Saturday night, Pinto will become just the 41st player in franchise history to reach 300 games.

And for the 25-year-old centre, the significance of that accomplishment is still sinking in.

“No, I don't think it ever does,” Pinto admitted when asked whether the milestone has registered with him. “You could ask any other guys. They probably never would have thought you could play in the NHL for even just 10 games. To get to that accomplishment, it's obviously really cool.

“(Time) it flies by. Every year it feels like it's going faster and faster. I think it's cliché, but it's true. As you get older, you try to enjoy it. But obviously you play so many games, and every month goes faster, but you try to enjoy it.”

After crediting his family for helping him reach this point in his career, the 25-year-old centre acknowledged that he is still learning and progressing as a player before quickly crediting veteran teammate Claude Giroux with taking him under his wing and helping his development at an early age.

“I've learned a lot from (Giroux),” Pinto affirmed. “He's taught me a lot. Coming in, he was the older guy for my first year. He's obviously taken me under his wing, and taught me a lot.”

Since becoming a regular during the 2022-23 season, Pinto has learned a lot, emerging as a matchup centre who can win faceoffs, take on difficult defensive assignments and provide some secondary scoring.

After establishing new career highs in goals (23) and points (46) last season, Pinto is on pace to shatter those marks this season. Through 17 games for the Senators, he has recorded 6 goals and 12 points. Health permitting, if that pace holds, Pinto would finish the year with 29 goals and 59 points.

They are numbers that current linemate Drake Batherson believes are attainable for Pinto.

“He scores 20 every year playing the role he does,” exclaimed Batherson. “He'd score 30 or 30-plus if he was given the opportunity.”

Recently, Pinto has had that opportunity.

Thanks to injuries and a lack of production from certain wingers, head coach Travis Green has been forced to shuffle his lines to find that offence. The result is a lineup that has featured Pinto in an elevated role away from his prototypical shutdown role on the third between Michael Amadio and Claude Giroux.

Throughout Pinto’s career, he has rarely had the opportunity to get those offensive opportunities. He has predominantly been entrusted with challenging matchups against the opposition’s best offensive players, with a healthy dose of defensive zone draws for good measure.

Of the forwards who logged more than 800 minutes of five-on-five ice time, only six skaters had a lower percentage of offensive zone starts than Pinto (30.3%) per Natural Stat Trick. This year, of the forwards who have logged more than 200 minutes of five-on-five ice time, only 16 players have a lower offensive zone start rate than Pinto.

Despite those tough responsibilities, he has found a way to not only limit the opposition’s chances, but generate offence of his own.

In Buffalo on Wednesday night, Green used Pinto in an offensive role alongside Philip Tomasino and Drake Batherson. That combination was on the ice for the Senators’ go-ahead goal eight and a half minutes into the third when the Pinto line was put onto the ice following a Sabres icing.

Pinto won the draw cleanly back to Thomas Chabot, who fired a pass net front to Tomasino. Colten Ellis stopped Tomasino’s backhand, but the rebound came out nicely to Pinto, who buried it into the yawning cage.

For a player who has jokingly referenced in the past how nice it would be to get some of those offensive zone draws, this clean sequence was certainly befitting a player who should get more offensive opportunities moving forward. Travis Green won’t have a choice in the matter if Pinto continues to get minutes alongside Batherson.

Batherson certainly enjoys playing with him.

“He's an awesome player,” the winger stated. “He's a guy that can be your first line center or can be a shutdown guy. He's got it all. If he was given the opportunity, he'd be a guy who puts up a lot of numbers, but he's so good at shutting down the other team's top guys. Obviously, he's just the guy you can filter in and out of the lineup. His skill set and shot are underrated.”

That offensive skill set may be underrated, but it's still developing.

In a league where so many other franchises are envious of the Senators’ centre depth, if Pinto can transform into a staunch defender who can flirt with 30 goals and 60 points, his progression could be a vital piece of the puzzle that helps transform the Senators into a viable Cup contender.