The cloud hovering over the Ottawa Senators has grown darker as the calendar flips to February.

With decision day looming for the Sens, pending unrestricted free agent Matt Duchene spoke on Thursday as Ottawa resumed practice following their bye week.

His outlook wasn’t exactly positive.

“The biggest thing is if I don’t have an answer for them I would expect that they’ll make a move,” Duchene told the Ottawa Sun. “You can’t really afford to let guys go for nothing anymore in this league, or probably ever; you couldn’t do that. I understand that’s the situation.”

Duchene said it’s going to be a “hockey decision,” and that he’s trying to educate himself on the future and the Sens’ pipeline.

Now, the thinking is that if Duchene is unable to come to an agreement on a long-term extension to keep him in Ottawa, that fellow UFA Mark Stone might follow him out the door for a lot of the same “hockey” reasons. Duchene would be one less building block to help Stone resurrect the Sens.

That’s why Stone has surged to No. 10 on TSN’s latest Trade Bait board. No tangible progress is believed to have been made in negotiations with Duchene or Stone in recent weeks, though Stone told the Sun that would all be done “privately” through his agents at Newport Sports.

Stone would generate interest from contenders and rebuilders alike, including his hometown Winnipeg Jets, as an elite 200-foot winger who is averaging a point per game this season.

The clock is ticking. TradeCentre is three weeks from Monday and GM Pierre Dorion and the Senators would ideally like an answer by Feb. 10, or two weeks before the trade deadline, so the necessary preparations can be made.

“I’ve been in this situation before with teams where we’re kind of starting from the bottom and the biggest thing is you need a crystal ball to see how it’s going to pan out,” Duchene told the Sun. “That’s what I’m trying to do as much as I can but, at the end of the day, it might be something too hard to predict.

“I see these guys and this team is going to be outstanding at some point, but the question is: ‘When?’ ”

That when question is being asked by many players on the Trade Bait board. For some of them, like the Rangers' Mats Zuccarello, it's been hanging over them all season. He has found his game of late with 15 points in his last 14 games.

Across the Hudson River, rugged New Jersey pending UFA Brian Boyle (No. 17) is one of two new players to join the board. Boyle is on pace to set a new career-high in goals with 23. Winnipeg’s Jack Roslovic (No. 21) is the other. He could well be one of the chips on the move if GM Kevin Cheveldayoff goes big-game hunting at the deadline.

Here is the latest TSN Hockey Trade Bait board, which always seeks to blend prominence of player with his likelihood of being traded:

1. Artemi Panarin, CBJ
2. Matt Duchene, OTT
3. Wayne Simmonds, PHI
4. Micheal Ferland, CAR
5. Mats Zuccarello, NYR
6. Dougie Hamilton, CAR
7. Gustav Nyquist, DET
8. Derick Brassard, PIT
9. Jimmy Howard, DET
10. Mark Stone, OTT
11. Jakub Silfverberg, ANA
12. Cam Talbot, EDM
13. Sergei Bobrovsky, CBJ
14. Brian Boyle, NJD
15. Kevin Hayes, NYR
16. Alec Martinez, LAK
17. Charlie Coyle, MIN
18. Brayden Schenn, STL
19. Jeff Carter, LAK
20. Brett Pesce, CAR
21. Jack Roslovic, WPG
22. Cody Ceci, OTT
23. Alex Edler, VAN
24. Andre Burakovsky, WSH
25. Marcus Johansson, NJD
26. Chris Kreider, NYR
27. Colton Parayko, STL
28. Nick Bjugstad, FLA
29. Justin Faulk, CAR
30. Alex Steen, STL
31. Jay Bouwmeester, STL
32. Kasperi Kapanen, TOR
33. Andreas Johnsson, TOR
34. Ryan Dzingel, OTT
35. Patrick Maroon, STL
36. Jesse Puljujarvi, EDM
37. Adam McQuaid, NYR
38. Niklas Kronwall, DET
39. Jamie McGinn, FLA
40. Chris Tanev, VAN
41. Vlad Namestnikov, NYR
42. Luke Glendening, DET
43. Carl Hagelin, LAK
44. Nathan Beaulieu, BUF
45. Mikkel Boedker, OTT
46. Tobias Rieder, EDM
47. Bogdan Kiselvich, FLA
48. Dale Weise, PHI
49. Sam Gagner, VAN
50. Jeff Skinner, BUF