You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS
Well, the Mike Hoffman saga is over.
No, the Senators didn’t acquire Edmonton’s 10th overall pick in the draft. Nor did they acquire a top prospect or a couple of draft picks. Instead, they got the most underwhelming package you can think of:
For starters, let’s go through each asset and compare them. Hoffman has averaged 59 points per season ever since he became a regular, and Mikkel Boedker has averaged 38 points per season while being a consistent third line winger. So the Senators got an NHLer in the deal, but they downgraded from 1st liner to 3rd liner.
Then the two prospects they swapped were Cody Donaghey and Julius Bergman. Donaghey was a longshot to make it, as he spent all but one game in the ECHL last season as a 21-year-old. I’m not worried about losing him at all. Bergman is one year older and a 2014 second round pick who has spent the past three seasons in the AHL. His career high in points is 30 in 64 games, so he isn’t much of a point producer, and since he’s turning 23, he might not be much of an asset.
Furthermore, according to Dobber Prospects, he was the Sharks 10th ranked prospect in a below average system.
Lastly, in a deal where they had the best asset, Ottawa somehow
downgraded on a draft pick, by moving down from the 5th round to the 6th round in 2020. This trade is just baffling because they clearly downgraded on left wing (which was going to be obvious), downgraded on a draft pick, and ever so slightly upgraded on an AHL defenseman. What a trade. I understand that Dorion’s hands were tied, but he decided to go with receiving nothing of true value, since Boedker will just be an alright player on a terrible team, and you can’t even really sell hope on Bergman or a 5th round pick turned into a 6th.
The part that is the most frustrating about all of this is that the Sharks immediately flipped Hoffman to the Florida Panthers in exchange for a 2nd, 4th, and 5th round pick. GM Dale Tallon wanted Hoffman all along, but apparently Pierre Dorion wasn’t willing to just acquire picks for Hoffman, as he wanted a roster player (perhaps maybe to reach the cap floor). The thing is though, if Ottawa’s going to be going through a rebuild, why not stock up on picks? The picks wouldn't have been equal value to Hoffman, but it'd at least be exciting to add more prospects in the future.
The Sharks were able to do very well in this as they dumped some salary, upgraded a pick, and received three other picks. I’m sure that Tallon didn’t offer quite as good a package to Ottawa, but it must have been similar. And for whatever reason, Dorion didn’t want all picks in the deal, as I can see the team trying to pose this as “we’re still trying to win,”
Furthermore, Dorion might not have even wanted to listen, if this tweet is true:
If Dorion actually does not want to trade within the division, then he’s heavily hampering himself by knocking seven teams off the list, and is actively negotiating against himself by making the trade pool smaller. Perhaps that’s not totally true, but it’s still frustrating to hear that. I mean, if you feel like you’re winning a trade, wouldn’t you feel like you’re making your division rival worse?
I’d keep my eye on the Senators in the next few days too, as there is plenty of talk about more trades coming:
All in all, Doug Wilson and Dale Tallon came out on the winning end here, and this note is just depressing:
I didn’t expect much for Hoffman after the drama that came out, but it is still an incredibly unexciting package. Remember when there was talk about getting Robert Thomas or Jordan Kyrou from St. Louis? Onto the next trade...
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»