An open letter to Pierre Dorion

I, along with many Ottawa Senators fans have been critical over Pierre Dorion in the past, but here I’m attempting to put my feelings in one message. Here goes nothing.

Dear Pierre Dorion,

From the day you were promoted from Assistant General Manager to General Manager, the first thing I have noticed from you is you are an extremely emotion-driven guy. I respect this from you. Your tenure so far has included playoffs, a rebuild, and a lot of funny quotes in between.

While at times you have made some moves that were deemed controversial at the time of said moves, mostly everything you have done so far as GM has resulted in a win, one way or another.

The original acquisition of Matt Duchene was an interesting one. He was what the Sens needed, things did not work out the way many of us fans would have hoped. But, you were able to turn Duchene into assets for the rebuild. You were able to get Vitalii Abramov and Jonathan Davidsson from the Blue Jackets. They both are considered top prospects. That’s not to mention the first-round pick you were able to secure in that deal too. That first-round pick turned out to be Lassi Thomson, ANOTHER top prospect.

Or perhaps the Ryan Dzingel trade: You were able to acquire Anthony Duclair, a player who had become a core member of this team. While it sucks that he is no longer part of the team(at least at the time of writing this, remaining optimistic) He was definitely a very important part of the team.

In the Erik Karlsson trade, you were able to secure assets like Josh Norris, Chris Tierney, Dylan DeMelo(who you have since traded to the Jets), a few drafts picks, and even the draft pick that turned into Tim Stuetzle.

You have had to make extremely difficult decisions, like moving on from fan favourite in Craig Anderson, buying out Bobby Ryan, and even trading away the players I have mentioned above.

I admire the fire and passion you have. You know your stuff.

Rebuild suck. There is no sugarcoating that fact. Seeing my favourite team lose a lot has definitely sucked, but I know that sometimes you have to take a step backwards in order to take two steps forward.

You’ve dealt with a lot of drama so far. Whether it be the Karlsson-Hoffman feud or the infamous uber video. You have seen it all so far as our GM.

Pierre, you have proven to be an amazing scout, and amazing at drafts. While some of us may consider some of the picks you made to be head-scratchers, I believe in the rebuild, and I believe in your ability to turn the Ottawa Senators into a Stanley Cup winner.

I know I have failed to mention many highlights and many misfortunes over the last few years, I wanted to keep it somewhat short.

What I’m trying to say is, while you have had your questionable decisions, there is no General Manager in NHL history who was flawless. You have done a great job with the Ottawa Senators since your promotion, and I am glad that you’ve been such a trooper with everything. It absolutely sucks having to tear an entire team apart after finishing one goal away from the Stanley Cup Finals. But, if I had to pick any GM in the NHL to guide our rebuild, I’m glad it’s you.