The 26-year-old forward was a restricted free agent who had an arbitration hearing scheduled for Nov. 8.
"I'm really happy to get it done," Tierney said. "I don't think any player or team really wants to go through the process of arbitration. You hear a lot of stories, and it doesn't sound good from either side. I really wanted to get something done and avoid that. The fact that we could get two years is great, and I'm really happy to be back in Ottawa."
Tierney scored 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 71 games with the Senators last season and won 51.2 percent of his face-offs, his third straight season above 50 percent.
"We're pleased to reach an agreement with Chris that will see him under contract here for multiple seasons," Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion said. "He's a reliable veteran who has very good hockey sense and who is consistently among our best centers in face-off success rate. That he's accumulated significant NHL experience in a short period of time is also of considerable importance to our lineup."
Tierney said he is encouraged by the Senators' offseason additions. They acquired goalie Matt Murray, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, in a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 7 and signed him to a four-year, $25 million contract ($6.25 average annual value) two days later; acquired defenseman Erik Gudbranson in a trade from the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 8; acquired forward Austin Watson in a trade from the Nashville Predators on Oct. 10; and signed forward Evgenii Dadonov to a three-year, $15 million contract ($5 million average annual value) on Oct. 15.
The Senators (25-34-12, .437 points percentage) finished 15th in the Eastern Conference last season and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third straight season. They had three first-round picks in the 2020 NHL Draft, including two in the top five. Ottawa selected forward
Tim Stuetzle
at No. 3 with a pick acquired from the San Jose Sharks in a trade for defenseman Erik Karlsson on Sept. 13, 2018; defenseman
Jake Sanderson
at No. 5 with its own first-round selection; and center
Ridly Greig
at No. 28 with the pick acquired from the New York Islanders in the trade for center Jean-Gabriel Pageau on Feb. 24.
"I think they went out and got a lot of key pieces so far that are just going to make the team better," Tierney said. "Murray is a really good goalie in this league. He's won before. He knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup. Along with Dadonov, great scorer, I think he's put up 60-70 points [in 2017-18 and 2018-19], so that's just another weapon we can add to our team. … We got Austin Watson. I played with him in junior, he's a great player. So yeah, really liking what we're adding to the team."
Selected by San Jose in the second round (No. 55) of the 2012 NHL Draft, Tierney has scored 189 points (61 goals, 128 assists) in 436 regular-season games over six seasons for the Senators and Sharks, and 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 40 playoff games.
NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report
