Reviewing the Major Trades of the Ottawa Senators Rebuild
Ottawa has made some significant moves since the last half of 2018
Coming off of an Eastern Conference Final appearance in 2016-17, hopes were high in Ottawa and when they traded for Matt Duchene in November of 2017, it was clear they were chasing the cup.
Ottawa now had a nucleus which consisted of Erik Karlsson, Matt Duchene and Mark Stone who were all elite players at the time, and Karlsson was widely regarded as the best defenceman in the game. All signs were pointing towards a cup contender but… the season would take an unexpected turn.
Karlsson would miss the first five games of the season while still recovering from the torn ligaments he suffered from the playoff run the year prior, while Ottawa started the season a solid 3-0-2 without him. Karlsson would return and go on an absolute tear up until after the Senators trip to Sweden to play the Colorado Avalanche.
Karlsson was phenomenal, with 1 goal and 16 assists in just his first 11 games and with Ottawa playing well everything seemed status quo, with the team 8-3-5. Then the Matt Duchene trade would happen, and everything would change. In a three-team trade between Ottawa, Colorado and Nashville that shocked the hockey world:
In a ridiculous haul for Colorado, they would be set up for future success, as Ottawa would grow to regret the deal.
After the trade Ottawa would go 20-40-6 and at this seasons trade deadline, the Senators would start a rebuild nearly four months after they were thinking about contending for a Stanley Cup.
The Trade:
Three days before the trade deadline on February 23rd, 2018, Ottawa traded away the struggling Derek Brassard for a great haul, including top goaltending prospect Filip Gustavsson who was a star earlier in the World Juniors.
Ian Cole would later be traded at the deadline for AHLer Nick Moutrey and a 2020 3rd Round Pick, a savvy move by Dorion to pick up a trade asset in the Brassard trade and swap him quickly for more draft capital.
The Brassard trade was a huge win for Ottawa as they would get the 22nd overall selection from Pittsburgh as a huge sweetener. During the 2018 NHL Draft Ottawa traded back with the New York Rangers from 22nd overall.
Pierre Dorion made a trade back to get their guy in defenceman Jacob Bernard-Docker and grab his future teammate at North Dakota Jonny Tychonick. Bernard-Docker has proven to be a great prospect as he’s enjoyed two solid seasons at North Dakota and represented Canada at the 2020 World Juniors, where he won gold. While Tychonick hasn’t had the same success, struggling for ice time for two seasons with North Dakota and has now transferred to the University of Nebraska-Omaha trying to find his footing.
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While Gustavsson has struggled through his first two full seasons in Belleville, posting a career save% in the AHL of 0.891 to go along with an abysmal 3.21 goals against average. Goalies are usually hard to judge early in their careers and with Gustavsson just 22 years of age, he could still turn out to be the goalie many people made him out to be.
Ottawa made yet another trade with an asset acquired in the Brassard trade, when they traded the 2019 2nd and 3rd round pick to move up and select goaltender Mads Sögaard.
Now Ottawa has two potential goaltenders of the future that stemmed out of the Derek Brassard trade.
The Trade:
In the middle of controversy because of conflict between his and Erik Karlsson’s significant others, Mike Hoffman was dealt to San Jose for a marginal return. While the incident may have diminished Hoffman’s value a bit, the return was nothing short of laughable for a consistent 25+ goal scorer with 30 goal talent.
Picking up a declining Mikkel Boedker who had two-years left on his contract with $8 million left to pay him, while the contract wouldn’t affect Ottawa during a rebuild, taking on a bad contract for San Jose should of made the trade markedly better, but did not.
To add to the absurdness of the trade, San Jose would later flip Hoffman to Florida with 2018 7th round pick for a 2018 4th, 2018 5th and a 2019 2nd, which is light years better than the return Ottawa got for Hoffman.
After being traded, Hoffman has went on to have two great seasons in Florida, while scoring a career high 36 goals in 2018-19, and was on pace for 30 before the season was shortened due to the pandemic in 2019-20.
Arguably one of Dorion’s worst trades as general manager with the Senators, right up there with his trade of Mika Zibanejad to the Rangers.
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The Trade:
On September 13th, 2018 Ottawa dropped a bombshell on the NHL, when they sent superstar defenceman Erik Karlsson to San Jose for a haul of assets. At the time of the trade, rightfully so, most Senators fans were upset. They had just traded away the most talented play to ever play for the franchise for 2 middling NHLers (Tierney, DeMelo), and at the time two prospects with middle-tier ceilings (Norris, Balcers), also with one 1st round pick and two second round picks.
While Ottawa did pick up a lot of assets, they targeted quantity over quality, which was looked down upon many experts. Many people were upset about Ottawa’s inability to grab top prospects such as Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier, while Ottawa settled for Josh Norris.
During the 2018-19 season, the trade looked to be paying off for San Jose as they made an appearance in the Western Conference Finals, while Karlsson was showed some dominant flashes during the postseason. Ottawa was in the midst of a disastrous season, where they would end up finishing last in the NHL, and remember that 2019 1st round pick surrendered in the Matt Duchene trade… yep, Colorado now had the best odds at getting the first overall pick. Thankfully, the pick would end up falling to 3, where the Avalanche would end up selecting defenceman Bowen Byram, a player Ottawa could of definitely used.
Heading into the 2019-20 season it was clear Ottawa was in full rebuild mode, and now owning their own draft selection for the upcoming draft the team had a more clear plan.
At the trade deadline Ottawa unloaded some veterans, gaining some more draft capital, but to many fans dismay traded Dylan DeMelo at the deadline to Winnipeg:
DeMelo, who had success playing on the top pairing with Thomas Chabot and was just 26 years old, this didn’t seem like a very rebuild conscious trade, especially with the minimal return.
Other than the trade of DeMelo, everything went Ottawa’s way in terms of the Karlsson trade. Josh Norris won AHL rookie of the year after being stellar in Belleville, Chris Tierney was solid with the big club and Rudolfs Balcers was good once again in Belleville. All of those events pale in comparison to the fact that San Jose finished the season with the third worst record in the NHL at 29-36-5, leaving Ottawa with the second and third best odds at first overall. Despite getting 3rd and 5th overall Ottawa has to be happy with how the trade looks now, as they look like the team who has came out on top.
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The Trade (Duchene):
After Ottawa was struggling through another season, it was thought that trades were imminent for Matt Duchene, Mark Stone and Ryan Dzingel, and it took a few days before the trade deadline for the first domino to fall.
On February 22nd, 2019 Duchene was traded along with AHL defenceman Julius Bergman to Columbus for a great return.
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Ottawa would get one of the top prospects in Columbus’ system in Abramov, a late bloomer who almost cracked the Blue Jackets roster in Davidsson, a 2019 1st rounder and a potential 2020 1st rounder if Duchene signed with the Blue Jackets (which he did not). Regardless Ottawa got tremendous value for a rental in Duchene and accelerated the rebuild.
Lassi Thomson would be brought into the fold with the 19th overall pick in 2019 from the pick acquired from Columbus. While Abramov enjoyed his best year in the pro ranks in 2020, Davidsson tried to gain his footing in North America. All around a great trade by Dorion to add some more prospects to a growing Senators prospect pool.
The Trade (Dzingel):
It was rumoured that Columbus was interested in both Dzingel and Duchene, but when the latter was traded a few days before the deadline, there were thoughts Columbus was out.
On February 23rd, 2019 a day after Duchene was dealt to Columbus, Ottawa would also send Dzingel to Ohio as another rental. Ottawa would get two 2nd round selections the following years (2020 and 2021) but arguably the biggest piece coming over was Anthony Duclair, who has been great for Ottawa since coming over. In 87 games with Ottawa since the trade, Duclair has 31 goals and 53 points and an all star appearance. Duclair has outplayed Dzingel since the trade, and this one marks as another win for Dorion.
The Trade:
On trade deadline day, February 25th, 2019, Mark Stone was sent to Vegas. While Pierre Dorion tended to think more about quantity over quality, he went for quality in the blockbuster trade. Ottawa was able to get one of the best defensive prospects in the league in Erik Brannstrom, who as a 19-year old was enjoying a great year in Chicago (AHL) with 7 goals and 28 points in 41 games.
Trading away a player of Mark Stone’s caliber will always be met with criticism, while Ottawa did get a top prospect, it would of been nice to grab a first round pick, but as the saying goes “beggars can’t be choosers”. Stone proceeded to sign an 8 year $9.5 million per season contract with Vegas, the reality of Stone not being a rental hurt the value of the trade.
Ottawa also acquired Oscar Lindberg who was just a filler in the trade and was done in Ottawa following the season.
Stone has went on to be arguably Vegas’ best player to nobodys surprise, that was a given at the time Ottawa traded him, it’s all about what the Senators got in return.
Brannstrom started the 2019-20 season making the big club out of camp, and would play 31 games total on the season for Ottawa, where he didn’t quite look ready, only adding 4 assists. Brannstrom was stellar in the AHL though, playing 27 games with 3 goals and 20 assists, the AHL stint was good for the young swede to regain his confidence in the offensive zone.
Brannstrom has come with mixed reviews during his time in Ottawa, but at just 20 years old he is expected to form a formidable duo with Thomas Chabot on the blue line for the future.
This trade is tipped a little bit toward Vegas because of how great Stone has been, with Brannstrom young and developing there’s no way to tell who will come out better on the other side until it’s all said and done.