Number 3 – Derick Brassard, Vince Dunn & 2018 third-round pick to Pittsburgh AND Vegas for Filip Gustavsson, Ian Cole, 2018 first-round pick & 2019 third-round pick
I don’t know that we’ve ever seen a General Manager pull off this many three-way trades in such a short amount of time! Three-way trades are always a little complicated, so I’m just going to focus on the Ottawa Senators part of the trade.
Since Robin Lehner left the Ottawa Senators organization there really has not been a “goaltender of the future” in the organization. Pierre Dorion was able to bring in a goaltender that at the time was considered one of the best outside of the NHL. The fact that he managed to get a first-round pick and a third-round pick is even better. (We can’t forget that a few days after this trade the Ottawa Senators traded Ian Cole away for another third-round pick.)
Filip Gustavsson struggled a little bit down in Belleville last season, his first complete season in North America. The organization remains high on him, and goaltenders generally do take a little longer to develop than defencemen or forwards do.
Essentially, this trade ends up leaving the Ottawa Senators with Filip Gustavsson, Jacob Bernard-Docker, Johnathan Tychonick & Mads Sogaard. The 2018 first-round pick acquired from Pittsburgh was traded at the Draft to the New York Rangers for a 2018 first-round pick and a 2018 second-round pick which became Bernard-Docker and Tychonick. The 2019 third-round pick was packaged with a 2019 second-round pick to move up and select Mads Sogaard.
So in the end, the Ottawa Senators got two goaltenders with potential starter written all over them, a future top-4 right-handed defenceman and a defenceman that should develop to being a second or third pairing guy for this team down the road.