Pierre Dorion has been General Manager of the Ottawa Senators since taking over from Bryan Murray on April 10, 2016. Since then, he’s made 40 trades according to NHLTradeTracker.com. This next blog series will allow us to definitively declare which of those deals was best. To simplify things, I’ve arbitrarily cut eight inconsequential or too-soon-to-judge-with-any-degree-of-certainty deals from the bracket to give us an even 32. The seeding was completely random, which unfortunately resulted in some high-profile first round matchups.
The first two trades we’re looking at today define Dorion’s tenure in very different ways.
Dorion’s number-one goal in 2019-20 was to trade pending free agents for picks, and he did exactly that by sending Pageau to the Islanders. Pageau was having a wonderfully hot season before the deal, which allowed the GM to derive extreme value from the exchange.
Trade 32: Bowers, 1st --> COL
Out: Kyle Turris, Shane Bowers, Andrew Hammond, 2018 1st Round Pick, 2019 3rd Round Pick
In: Matt Duchene
Matt Duchene’s name had been floating around in rumors for the better part of a year before the Senators and Predators teamed up to complete a three-team deal with the Avalanche. The Senators gave up a ton, thinking that they were getting a gamebreaker who would lead them into an era of sustained competitiveness. Reality took a different turn, with the Senators spending their time since this deal trying to recoup the futures they gave up.
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