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.