The Ottawa Senators announced that Pierre Dorion has been relieved of his duties as the club’s general manager (GM).
The new owner of the team, Michael Andlauer, already brought “his guy” in with Steve Staios being announced as the President of Hockey Operations. Staios has a history with Andlauer in the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Hamilton Bulldogs. Now that Dorion has been relieved of his duties, during the team press conference Staios has been named interim GM.
Dorion has spent seven years as the Senators GM and has only made the playoffs once, in his first season. Before that, he had another 10 years in a Director of Scouting role, followed by an assistant GM job.
It has been an eventful two weeks for the Senators. Starting with two chaotic losses to divisional rivals, the Shane Pinto suspension, punishment for the Evgenii Dadonov fiasco and now Dorion being replaced by Staios.
Staios, as mentioned, has a history with Andlauer in the OHL. After winning a championship there, he went on to join the Edmonton Oilers as a special advisor to the GM in Edmonton last season.
The Bright Spots
Dorion has done some great things with the Senators, with drafting being the headliner. He picked Brady Tkachuk when the consensus was Filip Zadina. He picked Tim Stutzle, who was the clear pick at third, but followed it up with Jake Sanderson who everybody criticized. Other great picks include Pinto, Drake Batherson, Ridly Greig, Alex Formenton, and plenty more.
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He has done a great job getting the core of this team locked up, too. Stutzle, Tkachuk, Batherson, and Sanderson have great value deals, and even Josh Norris has a good contract but could be risky with his injury history. On top of that, landing Claude Giroux on a three-year deal at $6 million per season is excellent.
Related: Pierre Dorion’s Top 5 Trades as Senators General Manager
He has plenty of great trades, too. Shipping Erik Karlsson to the San Jose Sharks was the biggest part of the entire rebuild the Senators endured, but other great value deals like Ryan Dzingel to the Columbus Blue Jackets and J.G. Pageau being dealt to the New York Islanders are part of the impressive side of his resume.
The Deep Dark
There are plenty of positive things for Dorion to highlight when interviewing for his next job. He did a lot of great things. Unfortunately, overshadowing that is a lot of negative things.
His trade history has some major, costly misses. Trading Mark Stone for Erik Brannstrom and the pick used on Egor Sokolov may be his worst, followed by the eventual fourth-overall pick in 2018 used to select Bowen Byram, Kyle Turris, and more being sent to the Colorado Avalanche for Matt Duchene, who didn’t last long in Ottawa. Even some smaller deals like acquiring Derek Stepan for a second-round pick was very questionable the moment it was announced.
There are plenty of contract signings that are quite questionable, too. Matt Murray was signed to a four-year deal worth $6.25 million per season, which the Senators are eating 25 percent of. Colin White and Michael Del Zotto are two contracts Dorion signed that were bought out, costing money against the salary cap when the Senators need it the most, as well as the Bobby Ryan buyout. Money mismanagement has cost this team already by only allowing a bare minimum 20-man roster to start the season.
Senators Forfeit 1st-Round Pick for Dadonov Fiasco
Andlauer says that the final straw for Dorion was the whole debacle in which the Senators sent Dadonov to the Vegas Golden Knights for Nick Holden and a third-round pick. The issue here is that Dorion did not inform Vegas’ GM Kelly McCrimmon of the 10-team, no-trade clause that Dadonov and his agent had submitted.
This was not an issue until the Golden Knights tried to trade Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks, but was vetoed by the NHL at the last minute, and the Golden Knights were unable to make another deal. This frustrated both the Golden Knights and the Ducks, as confirmed by Andlauer. They would not let this go, and they pressed the NHL for a resolution.
Shawn Simpson confirmed on the Senators Roundtable podcast that through his sources on the Vegas side of things that Dorion took the phone call alone, which is unusual to not have a bystander on your side of things. Simpson would extend that statement by saying it is odd that assistant GM Peter McTavish was not present for this as he is the one who would have finalized the contract.
The NHL established this as a major fault to Dorion and the Senators, and has penalized them by forcing them to give up a first-round pick. Ottawa will have a choice as to which pick it will be, and have the choice between their own 2024, 2025, and 2026 pick, and must decide within 24 hours after the draft lottery is conducted.
Moving Forward for the Senators
The hunt for the playoffs is still on. Things can’t get much worse than the past week, but it seems to be a never-ending battle for the Senators. DJ Smith will remain in his position but certainly must be feeling the pressure. The team has plenty of bright spots, and with the chaotic week or two it has been, the team will be looking forward to just playing some hockey.
Andlauer said during the press conference that he is looking forward to not hearing from the NHL for a while after today.