Ottawa Senators 2010-2011 trade deadline revisited

Another trade deadline has come and gone with the Ottawa Senators selling four established players for five draft picks.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau was sent to the New York Islanders for 1st and 2nd round picks as well as a conditional 3rd round pick. They also traded Vladislav Namestnikov to the Avalanche for a 4th round pick, Dylan Demelo to Winnipeg for a 3rd and Tyler Ennis to Edmonton for a 5th. Were these good trades? Ultimately we won’t know until we see who the Senators draft and how good they turn out.

With this in mind I decided to revisit the 2010-11 trade deadline because this was another season where the Ottawa Senators struggled and shipped off veterans in an effort to rebuild. Ironically they traded four veterans for five draft picks just like their most recent deadline. Did the strategy work? Let’s take a look.

We’ll start with the history. Bryan Murray was GM and Cory Clouston was the coach. Notable players included Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher, Alexei Kovalev and Milan Michalek.

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Brian Elliott was the number one goalie because backup Pascal Leclaire was always injured. However Elliott was traded at the deadline for Craig Anderson. Sergei Gonchar had signed as a free agent and was expected to lead Ottawa’s defense, but was eclipsed by sophomore Erik Karlsson who was starting to show signs of becoming the dominant player he would one day become. 2010-11 was also Zack Smith’s rookie season.

The Senators went into 2010-11 with low expectations and they didn’t disappoint. By January they were last in the Eastern Conference. Eugene Melnyk assured frustrated fans that changes were coming (where have we heard this before?)

Melnyk wasn’t lying. The Senators started their rebuild by trading Mike Fisher to Nashville for 1st and 2nd round drafts picks. Ironically that would be the same return Ottawa would get for Pageau, another popular third line center. Next up was the steady and reliable Chris Kelly getting traded to Boston for a 2nd round pick. The enigmatic Alexei Kovalev was traded to Pittsburgh for a seventh round pick. And finally Jarkko Ruutu was traded to Anaheim for a sixth round pick.

It should also be noted that the Senators seriously considered trading Chris Phillips. Phillips was 33 years old and was set to be a UFA so he was very much rumoured to be on the move. But in the end he re-signed. Partially because he wanted to stay and partially because the Senators couldn’t find a good enough trade.

They figured the veteran leadership Phillips provided would be more valuable than whatever was being offered. And seeing Chris Phillips number being retired with people praising his longevity, they were probably right.

So after trading Fisher, Kelly, Kovalev and Ruutu, the Senators went into the 2011 draft with 10 picks, including three in the first round. These picks were supposed to get the Senators back to Stanley Cup contention. And now that the dust has settled, we can see the results.

The Senators used the first round pick acquired in the Fisher trade to draft Stephane Noesen 21st overall. Noesen would never play for Ottawa and was later sent to Anaheim as part of the Bobby Ryan trade.

The Senators would then package Nashville’s 2nd round pick with their own and trade them to Detroit for the 24th overall pick where the Senators would draft Matt Puempel. Bryan Murray really like Puempel and was willing to trade up to get him.

Yet Puempel would only play 52 games for Ottawa before being placed on waivers and picked up by the Rangers. He’s spent most of his career in the AHL. Meanwhile Fisher would play six productive years for Nashville and would eventually be their captain. So this trade was a bust.

Let’s move on to Chris Kelly who was traded for a 2nd round pick. The Sens used that pick to draft Shane Prince who played 44 games for Ottawa before he was traded to the New York Islanders for a 3rd round pick. Meanwhile Kelly would finish the 2010-11 season by winning the Stanley Cup with Boston getting 13 points in 25 playoff games.

He would play another five seasons for Boston before coming back for a final season with Ottawa. Another lousy return, but good for Kelly for winning the Stanley Cup.

The next player gone was 35 year old Jarkko Ruutu to Anaheim for a 6th round pick. Ruutu had played three seasons for Ottawa and was arguably their best agitator. He once bit Buffalo’s Andrew Peters during a scrum. After the trade Ruutu would have no impact for Anaheim and would leave the NHL for Europe the following season.

The Sens used the 6th round pick to draft Max McCormick who played most of his career in the AHL, but managed to get in 71 games over four seasons with the big club. Not an impact player, but not a bad return for a 35 year old grinder who was set to leave the NHL.

Which leaves us with Alexei Kovalev. Kovalev had played a season and a half for Ottawa getting 76 points in 131 games. Fans thought he was underachieving, but considering he was 36 when he originally signed, his numbers weren’t bad. But he was old and about to be a UFA so he got dumped to Pittsburgh for a lousy 7th round pick.

And amazingly, the Ottawa Senators used that pick to draft Ryan Dzingel. Yup, the same Ryan Dzingel that got traded for Anthony Duclair and two more 2nd round picks. Which means Duclair is residual from the Alexei Kovalev era.

So the Ottawa Senators ended the 2010-11 season by trading Fisher, Kelly, Ruutu and Kovalev for Noesen, Puempel, Prince, McCormick and Dzingel. Not the type of players that were going to turn the Senators into Stanley Cup contenders. But on the bright side, the Senators bad season allowed them to have the 6th overall pick which they used to draft Mika Zibanejad.

Zibanejad was about to become a franchise player before the Ottawa Senators traded him in one of their worst trades ever. And in the fourth round, the Senators drafted Jean Gabriel Pageau! Keep in mind the Senators drafted Zibanejad and Pageau with their own picks and not picks acquired through trades. And hindsight is 20/20.

The Ottawa Senators could have used a 2nd round pick to draft Nikita Kucherov (who was drafted 58th overall by Tampa) or they could have used any of their picks to draft Artemi Panarin who was draft eligible, but passed up by every team (well done scouts!) The Senators history would have been very different.

But drafts are a crapshoot, sometimes you hit a homerun and sometimes you strike out. Hopefully this summer we’ll see the Senators draft another Zibanejad, Pageau and Dzingel and hopefully they won’t squander first round picks on another Stephane Noesen or Matt Puempel. We’ll wait and see.