It was hyped up as a franchise-defining moment for the Ottawa Senators.
There is no doubt that the decisions made at the 2020 Entry Draft will ultimately define Pierre Dorion’s time as General Manager and eventually determine whether or not this rebuild is a success.
In the end, the Senators used 10 of their picks on prospects and found other ways to flex some of that draft capital.
One pick was moved in the deal that brought RFA Josh Brown to town and then another helped them land a 26-year old two-time Stanley Cup winning goalie in Matt Murray. On top of that, they landed an elite first-line forward in Tim Stützle, a high-end top pairing defenceman in Jake Sanderson, a two-way centre with an edge in Ridly Greig and an additional seven prospects on day two of the Draft,
Franchise-defining is right.
While Day One of the Draft played out like a celebration of sorts, Wednesday had more than it’s fair share of gambles on the part of the Senators.
Without a doubt, their biggest roll of the dice came in the form of the Matt Murray deal. In what was a stunningly good trade for the Senators, they sent the 52nd overall pick and prospect Jonathan Gruden to the Penguins and in return, got a legitimate starting goalie with his name on the Cup twice already.
It’s not a deal without risk of course but for a team in Ottawa’s spot, it was a chance they could afford to take. They are hoping that Matt Murray can bounce back after what was an injury-riddled season in Pittsburgh and maybe just as importantly, that they can sign him to a reasonable deal.
The Senators were not able to speak to his agent directly before the trade but it does sound like Ottawa is pretty confident they can get something done. And likely a three-year deal.
The other gambles came in the form of an interesting array of selections in rounds two through seven. In guys like Roby Jarventie and Egor Sokolov, they swung for the fences a little bit, selecting players with high ceilings and intriguing offensive upside.
Meanwhile their decision to trade up and grab left-shot defenceman Tyler Kleven (ranked 36th overall on Bob McKenzie’s) at 44th overall raised more than a few eyebrows. Kleven brings an interesting physical element to his game but there are legitimate question marks about his upside.
Such is life in the NHL draft though.
The Senators also selected goalie Leevi Meriläinen (an off-the-board guy with elite numbers in Finland), LW Eric Engstrand (an overager with intriguing offensive potential), Phillipe Daoust (a late-blooming centre playing in Moncton) and LW Cole Reinhardt (another overager playing in Brandon).
There will be and already has been a rush to evaluate Pierre Dorion and Trent Mann’s work on Day Two of the Draft but it’s mostly noise. Everyone knows we won’t really know how they did until years down the line.
And as if all that wasn’t enough for 48 hours, there was some classic Sens-style drama in their qualifying offers. Not because of who got them- Connor Brown, Chris Tierney, Rudolfs Balcers, Nick Paul, SensChirp, Filip Chlapik, J.C. Beaudin, Christian Jaros, Matt Murray and Joey Daccord.
But more who didn’t- Anthony Duclair.
Duclair was coming of a breakout albeit inconsistent season with the Senators and was viewed by just about everyone as a useful piece on this team, at least for the next couple years while some of the younger forwards pushed their way up the depth chart.
Only it didn’t work out that way in negotiations.
In a sort of odd move, Anthony Duclair elected to represent himself and ultimately, according to Pierre Dorion, declined the offer the Sens had presented. And while most teams could go ahead and qualify the player in that situation, it sounds like the Senators were a little bit nervous about the idea of Duclair going to arbitration and landing an amount that was beyond what they had budgeted for but also less than they could walk away from.
The realities of a budget team, I suppose. Especially in an uncertain economic climate.
Duclair will now have a chance to test free agency and see what the open market has to offer. Will be interesting to see if that ends up being more than what he would have got from the Senators.
And so ends a chaotic couple days for Pierre Dorion and his staff.
No time to rest though with the opening of free agency now just a couple days away and still plenty of holes to fill on the roster.
Now if anyone needs me, I’ll be buying 2D jerseys, recording a podcast I guess and watching this wonderful video on loop.
