To say the Ottawa Senators are having a bad day might b🌃e the understatement of the NHL season thus faꦆr.
On Wednesday morning, the NHL announced the Senators will forfeit a first-round draft pick because of the botched ꦯtrade of Evgenii Dadonov in July 2021. The Senators had tried to trade Dadonov to Vegas, where he was subsequently being traded to Anahei🔯m in March of 2022. Dadonov had a no-trade list that killed the deal; it was invalidated after the fact.
In the wake of the lea⭕gue taking away the pick, the Senators quickly fired general m💫anager Pierre Dorion.
Dorion initially joined the Senators as a scout in 2007 and replaced Bryan Murray as the team’s general manager in 2016. Before joining Ottawa, Dorion spent 11 years with the Montreal Canadiens and two with the New York Rangers.
According to the of the discipline, “Ottawa will forfeit its first-round draft pick in one of the 2024, 2025 or 2026 Drafts. The determination as to which pick will be forfeited will be made by Ottawa within 24 hours of the conclusion of the Draft Lottery for that year.”
Last week, Senators center Shane Pinto — a good, young center who was the only remaining un-signed restricted free agent in the NHL — was suspended for 41 games by the NHL for activities relating to sports wagering. The NHL indicated Pinto had in some way bet on hockey but had not bet on NHL games. Clear as mud, right?
To say Dorion’s track record hasn’t been great might be an understatement. While he was the team’s general manager, the Senators had a record of 221-257-59 and qualified for the playoffs only once — back in 2016. Ottawa lost in Game 7 of the conference finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins that year.
Most notably for Blackhawks fans, he traded the team’s first and second-round picks to the Blackhawks for forward Alex DeBrincat before the 2022 NHL Draft. The first rounder, No. 7 overall, was used on Kevin Korchinski. The second was used to select forward Paul Ludwinski.
DeBrincat scored 27 goals in 82 games for the Senators — his lowest out-put since his rookie year with the exception of the COVID-interrupted 2019-20 season. After one underwhelming season in Ottawa, DeBrincat traded to Detroit this past summer. The return for 367 days of DeBrincat: Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, a conditional first-round pick and a fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
