The Ottawa Senators are in a rebuild. You may have heard this mentioned a couple times over the last few years.
And on trade deadline day, they officially capped off what is a tear-down for the ages. Pierre Dorion was predictably busy on deadline day, pulling off four more trades and acquiring a handful of draft picks in the process.
The day started with a fairly underwhelming trade as Vladislav Namestnikov was flipped to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a 4th round pick in 2021. The Senators acquired Namestnikov from the Rangers earlier in the year for you guessed it…a 4th round pick in 2021.
While it would have been nice to upgrade that pick considering how good Namestnikov has been in Ottawa, Dorion did well to at least recoup the asset.
Before the dust settled on that one, Dorion pulled off his biggest trade of the day.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau was shipped to the New York Islander in exchange for a 1st round pick in 2020, a 2nd round pick in 2020 and a conditional 3rd round pick in the 2022 draft.
If the Islanders 1st round pick ends up in the top three, that pick moves to 2021. The 3rd round pick is only sent Ottawa’s way if the Islanders win the Stanley Cup. It’s worth pointing out the Islander are currently sitting in the second Wild Card spot, only two points clear of 9th place.
The Senators have spent the last few days trying to work out an extension with Pageau but the two sides just couldn’t find common ground. The Islanders signed Pageau to a 6 year/$30 million dollar deal later in the afternoon.
This is a home run deal for Dorion. No other way to describe it really.
Adding another 1st and 2nd round pick to an already ridiculous collection of draft picks puts the Senators in a great position heading into the biggest summer in franchise history.
Especially considering all the talk leading up to today suggested the Senators would not get a first round pick in a Pageau deal.
At the same time, avoiding what is an absolutely wild extension for Pageau is a big win for the organization. Full credit to Pageau for earning that money and here’s hoping it works out for him on the Island but that is two years longer and a million more a season than I would have been willing to consider on Pageau.
And while it’s easy to be excited about the return here, it’s still bitter sweet watching another fan favourite leave town. Pageau was a legend in this city and provided this fan base with two moment’s we’ll never forget.
The Islanders are in town next week by the way. Here’s hoping that’s the only game they win the rest of the season.
Dorion made two other minor deals on Deadline day.
He shipped Aaron Luchuk and a 7th round pick in 2020 to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Matthew Peca. Peca is the definition of a warm-body, as he’s expected to join the Senators in Columbus and could actually play tonight. He’s a UFA this summer.
And as expected, the Senators send Tyler Ennis to the Edmonton Oilers. Ottawa gets a 5th round pick in 2021 in return.
That’s a lot of words when really, a single picture could have summarized things.
It’s…it’s beautiful.
Tonight’s line up, not so much.
Duclair-Tierney-Ryan
Tkachuk-White-Brown
Paul-Anisimov-Hawryluk
Peca-Boedker-Sabourin
Chabot-Hainsey
Reilly-Zaitsev
Englund-Jaros
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