Looking at Pierre Dorion’s 3 best trades
In this part of a two-part mini-series, I look at some Pierre Dorion trades. To be more precise, Dorion’s three best trades as the Ottawa Senators General Manager. Dorion has made a lot of trades during his time with the team, today let’s look at some highlights.
Disclaimer: This list is in no particular order.
Post-Edit: I decided to include an honourable mention. Dorion has made a lot of good trades…
Honourable Mention: Matt Duchene trade(the second one…)
Matt Duchene was not an Ottawa Senator for long. To be precise, he played about a year and a half for the team, and was pretty good for the Sens. However, Duchene wanted playoff hockey. Sadly, Ottawa could not offer that to him at that point, so Pierre Dorion traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Vitaly Abramov(a top prospect), Jonathan Davidsson (a high calibre prospect), and a 2019 first(turned out to be Lassi Thomson. Obviously, the Sens paid a very steep price to acquire Duchene, but it was nice to see that amount of quality pieces coming back our way when he was ultimately moved as part of the rebuild.
Mike Condon Acquisition
On November 2nd, 2016, Pierre Dorion struck genius and acquired Mike Condon from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 2017 5th round pick. Condon then went to become one of the main reasons why the Ottawa Senators made the playoffs that year. Craig Anderson had taken a leave of absence to be with his wife while she was combatting cancer. Condon held his own in net, playing out of his mind and posting a 38-5-17 record with a .914 S% and a 2.50 GAA. Mike Condon was the team MVP during the regular season. He broke the record for most consecutive starts with 26 that year. Condon did not last much longer after this season with the Sens, but his time with the team was memorable. On a side note, I personally find this more impressive than the Hamburglar run just a couple of seasons prior.
Ryan Dzingel to the Hurricanes
Ryan Dzingel had been an amazing player for the Ottawa Senators, but ever since leaving the Sens, Dzingel has not been as apparent on the scoresheet. Dzingel was traded for Anthony Duclair and two second-round picks. If it were just Fzingel for Duclair it would still have been a win considering Duclair’s excellence in Ottawa. But adding TWO second-round picks throws this trade over the board for me. I loved watching Ryan Dzingel as a trade, but Duclair was an apparent upgrade. Duclair had immediately become a core player for the Sens. Dzingel was an asset moved as part of the rebuild, and the trade has worked out so far.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau to the Islanders
Before I start, “JGP” was the heart and soul of the Ottawa Senators, and it is still weird to see him in a jersey other than the Sens jersey. Man would I have loved to see Pager in a 2D logo. That being said, Pierre Dorion took advantage of Pageau’s career year and unloaded him for a first-round draft pick, a second-round draft pick, and a third-round pick. The first turned into Ridley Greig, who in my opinion will be a Pageau-eske player. a guy who is ideally suited for the third line but can play up and down your lineup. The Sens traded the second-round pick to the Leafs. The third-rounder is in 2022 so we will have to wait a bit on that one.
An open-letter to the guy behind the scenes. light. Must Read
In summary
Dorion has had to make a lot of difficult moves in the last few years and I commend him for that. Sometime this week I’ll publish his 3 worst trades.
As always, you can find me on Twitter @JacobLarivire, and Go Sens Go.