At the end of the 2022-23 season, the Ottawa Senators missed the playoffs and did not have a first-round pick to make up for it. The offseason was important for bringing the Senators back to contention. Did GM Pierre Dorion make the moves that got the team back to being looked at as a competitive roster? No, he did not.
Here are some of the best and worst moves from the 2023 offseason.
Signing an unproven Joonas Korpisalo
The Senators had a hole in the tandem from Cam Talbot leaving, which led to this signing. On July 1st, 2023, Joonas Korpisalo was signed to a five-year, 20-million-dollar contract that had an AAV of $4 million. Although he was one of the better goalies on the market, he didn't have starter potential. He never played more than 40 games in a year until the Senators, and there were a lot of inconsistencies to his game. He had 21 wins, a 3.27 GAA, and an .890 SV% in 55 games.
Re-signing Hamonic, derailed Bernard-Docker's development with the Senators
On July 1, 2023, the Senators re-signed Jacob Bernard-Docker to a two-year, $1.61 million deal, carrying an AAV of $805,000. Bernard-Docker didn't get much of an opportunity with Travis Hamonic also in the lineup, but when he did play, he led the team with 155 blocked shots in 2023-24.
Three days later, the Senators surprisingly re-signed Hamonic to a two-year, $2.2 million deal. Why bring back a veteran whose best days were behind him instead of giving a younger defenceman like Bernard-Docker a bigger opportunity? Unfortunately, Dorion never really made that change, and the Senators' defence suffered because of it.
Giving Zach MacEwen a three-year deal
On July 6th, 2023, Ottawa signed right-winger Zack MacEwen to a three-year, 2.3-million-dollar contract, which carried an AAV of $775K. A true enforcer, MacEwen was meant to be the physical guy who took on Tkachuk’s fights and kept him out of the penalty box. The problem here is he added very little value to the Senators during his time with the team, and Tkachuk still ended up in the penalty box as often as he did before MacEwen was signed.
Trading Alex DeBrincat, which led to the Senators landing Ullmark
On July 9th, 2023, Alex DeBrincat was sent to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for forward Dominik Kubalik, defenseman prospect Donovan Sebrango, a conditional first-round pick, and a fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL draft. Dorion was then able to swap that first-round pick to land Linus Ullmark in a trade with the Boston Bruins. Kubalik only had 15 points in 72 games before heading to the Swiss League. As for Sebringo, he was a fringe NHL player with the Senators who had 4 career games with the team.
Extending franchise defenceman Jake Sanderson
On September 6, 2023, the Senators extended Jake Sanderson to an eight-year, $64.4 million contract, carrying an AAV of $8.05 million. This is widely considered a home run extension from Dorion, keeping one of the team's most important young defencemen under contract long-term. The deal looks better with each cap increase as Sanderson has grown into a top-10 defender in the league, and he's still only 24 years old. By the time he reaches his prime, he could establish himself as a top-five defenceman in the NHL while still being locked into a very team-friendly contract.
After the underwhelming 2022-23 season, Dorion had a chance to get the Senators back on track with moves that could push them toward the playoffs. Instead, most of his decisions did the opposite. Signing Vladimir Tarasenko and keeping head coach D.J. Smith and his staff held the team back even further. To his credit, Dorion did make a smart move by extending Jake Sanderson. But this will be remembered as the offseason that truly derailed the Senators.
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