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Todd Cordell
I love the deal for San Jose and strongly dislike it for Ottawa.
Erik Karlsson has been arguably the best defender in the league for years and he still has plenty of gas in the tank. Though he is only under contract for one more season, it still feels like the Sens should have gotten a much better return. There was a lot more quantity than quality involved to be sure.
They didn't land *one* of San Jose's promising young NHLers like Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl, or Kevin Labanc. They didn't land their top prospect in Ryan Merkley. They didn't even get a 2019 1st in a year they're without one.
I don't think any player or prospect the Senators acquired will be a top-6 forward or top-4 defender and they'll have to wait years to benefit from the draft picks – if they ever pan out.
Quite honestly, I think the Canadiens acquired more for Max Pacioretty. That says a lot considering he's coming off a 37-point campaign and the Habs openly said he wasn't going to be re-signed. What a mess.
Sean Maloughney
Not nearly good enough. The Senators are an absolute mess, that should be clear to all. The Sens communication group is doing their best to parade around the "six assets" they received from Karlsson but once again the Sens traded an elite player and have very little to show for it.
Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo are NHL players but there is little evidence to suggest either will be anything more than top 9/3rd pairing players. Once again Doug Wilson found a way to unanimously win a trade against Dorion. He acquired an elite defenseman and traded peanuts and magic beans to do it.
To make things worse for the Sens, this proves their management is not committed to winning any time in the near or distant future which almost certainly means Duchene, Stone, and others will be searching for the nearest exit.
James Tanner
The Ottawa Senators just traded the best player in their franchise history, and one of the NHL’s all-time best defenseman in exchange for a fourth liner, a sixth defenseman (who I am pretty sure was available for free earlier this summer) a B prospect, a D prospect and some low picks.
In comparison to the package they received, the Senators could have at least kept their dignity if they said “we’ll hold out all season for a better deal.” In the end, if everyone called their bluff and EK walked for nothing, the perception of their front office reputation as “competent” would have been a better return than what they got.
Because they rushed it, put in an arbitrary, self-imposed deadline, refused to entertain offers from their own conference and let a GM who is clearly not very good at his job (or dressing himself, for that matter) do the trade, they completely botched it.
This is Doug Gilmour to Toronto bad. In fact, had they received Rick Wamsley, it would have improved their return.
This trade is so bad that nothing short of the immediate firing of Pierre Dorian and the removal of Eugene Melnyk from day to day operations will make up for it. It is, quite possibly, the worst trade in the history of the NHL.
This is an absolute travesty for the Senators, and it’s unbelievable to me that they couldn’t have eaten a salary or two and gotten someone to match. Like the Oilers couldn’t top Chris Tierney and their 5th best prospect? It’s unbelievable.
A smart owner/GM would have seen the upside in eating the Lucic contract and getting some actual assets. This trade is a joke. It’s a disgrace, a travesty and a betrayal of every season ticket holder they have.
Peter Tessier
So this was a doozy. I’m not sure the Sens did poorly on the return as much as I don’t know if the Sharks paid too much either. When GMs make quality for quantity deals it’s always difficult to figure out if the haul coming back has the same value as the immediate reward.
The Sens did okay here given that this must be the sign of a complete and utter rebuild. They are going to need picks and assets, the question is did the get the right ones? This takes time to determine but if they do the right moves in their rebuild they might have laid a decent foundation. It’s not spectacular but it’s a start. Getting lucky with a draft pick or two would sure help.
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