The Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to make a habit of these strange deals.
In 2016, they pulled off the nine player Dion Phaneuf deal. This past summer, they surprised everyone with the Cody Ceci for Nikita Zaitsev and Connor Brown swap.
And now, they’ve made another trade in the days leading up to the deadline.
The Senators have acquired forward Aaron Luchuk, who I forgot wasn’t still in the organization somewhere, and a conditional 6th round pick in 2021 for Max Veronneau.
The Senators get that pick if Veronneau plays 10 NHL games for Toronto over what remains of the current season or 10 NHL games for the Maple Leafs in 2020-21.
Well alright then.
It’s a shame things didn’t work out for Veronneau in Ottawa. He certainly looked the part of a competent NHLer down the stretch last year but he never really seemed to get going this season. Injuries were a big part of that but he was also mostly outplayed by some of the top prospects in Belleville.
Interested to see if he gets any sort of real opportunity in Toronto.
Aaron Luchuk. who went to Toronto in last summer’s Ceci/Zaitsev/Brown deal, has spent most of the year in the ECHL putting up 49 points in 44 games.
At the same time, the two teams announced another minor deal as the Senators added Darren Archibald in exchange for defenceman Trent Bourque.
This one is a case of the Senators loading up a little bit in the American Hockey League. Archibald should be a nice addition to the bottom six down the stretch and into the Calder Cup playoffs.
So there you have it folks. A trade. Two of ’em actually. Sort of.
