A crushing defeat for Tyler Ennis’ departure to Edmonton at the hands of Ryan Dzingel’s move to Columbus sends us into the next matchup of the second round in the Pierre Dorion’s Best Trade Tournament. It’s another contest between two memorable trades with recognizable names involved.
There’s a parallel theme with these moves. The key outgoing piece in each case was brought in as a proven, established offensive threat to push the Senators towards contention. Neither was able to deliver over the long-term as intended. While Dorion overpaid to land them originally, he did his best cashing in when it became clear that it was time to ship them out. It’s a clash of Ottawa’s misfit titans.
Trade: Brassard --> PIT
Out: Derick Brassard, Vincent Dunn, 2018 3rd Round Pick
In: 2018 1st Round Pick, 2019 3rd Round Pick, Ian Cole, Filip Gustavsson
It’s probably fair to say that the trade that brought Derick Brassard to Ottawa won’t be considered a favorite in this tournament. Nevertheless, the one that sent him to Pittsburgh worked out a lot better. The Senators got full value from this deal, acquiring a first-round pick and a promising young goaltender as the main pieces involved. While it wasn’t actually this Pittsburgh pick that the Senators used to snag Jacob Bernard-Docker in the 2018 draft, a pick swap with the Pittsburgh pick made that happen. It’s hard to complain with the return, given how vital JBD is considered to be for the future of the franchise.
Trade: Duchene --> CBJ
Out: Matt Duchene, Julius Bergman
In: Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson, 2019 Conditional 1st Round Pick, 2020 Conditional 1st Round Pick
Pierre Dorion went all-in with the acquisition of Matt Duchene, but it didn’t take long for the General Manager to realize that he needed to sell. In shipping Duchene to Columbus, he was able to get some value back. Abramov is a promising prospect who has shown well in Belleville and in limited NHL action, Jonathan Davidsson still has professional potential, and the 2019 first-round pick turned into Lassi Thomson. While the 2020 pick didn’t make its way to Ottawa on account of Duchene not re-signing in Columbus, you can’t fault Dorion for trying.
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