Senators Fire General Manager Pierre Dorion
The Ottawa Senators have fired general manager Pierre Dorion after the club was penalized over its role in the 2021 trade of Evgenii Dadonov to the Vegas Golden Knights and the subsequent invalidated trade between the Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks.
The Senators must forfeit a first-round draft pick in one of the 2024, 2025 or 2026 drafts.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: When the Golden Knights acquired Dadonov from the Senators, they were under the impression that his 10-team no-trade list was no longer active. That turned out not to be the case, which led to the league overruling their attempt to trade him to the Ducks at the 2022 trade deadline.
Former Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion (NHL.com).
Initially, the Senators were reportedly cleared of wrongdoing regarding the Dadonov situation. Something else must have come to light since then to prompt the league to take this action, though they’ve offered up no detailed explanation as to why they’re doing so nearly 18 months after the fact.
Since becoming general manager of the Senators in 2016, Dorion has been attempting to rebuild the Senators roster. He laid the foundation of the current roster by drafting Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Jake Sanderson, Shane Pinto and Ridly Grieg. He also acquired Josh Norris and Jakob Chychrun and signed Claude Giroux and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Dorion also made a series of questionable moves. In recent years, he gave up three draft picks (including the No. 7 pick overall in the 2022 draft) to the Chicago Blackhawks for Alex DeBrincat when the winger only had a year left on his contract, then traded him to the Detroit Red Wings when he couldn’t get him signed to an extension.
He also sent goaltender Filip Gustavsson to the Minnesota Wild for an aging and banged-up Cam Talbot in 2022. Gustavsson is now the heir apparent to Marc-Andre Fleury in Minnesota while Talbot now plies his trade with the Los Angeles Kings.
Dorion also prioritized other free agents over Pinto this summer, leaving the Senators with insufficient cap space to sign the 22-year-old restricted free agent. That led to a contract stalemate resulting in Pinto missing the start of the season before he received a 41-game suspension for violating the league’s wagering rules.
Following the sale of the Senators to new owner Michael Andlauer this summer, the club announced Steve Staios had been hired as their new president of hockey operations. That move prompted some observers to suggest he would be a replacement for Dorion if the Senators failed to improve this season. Staios will now take over the GM duties on an interim basis.
It will be interesting to see if Staios remains as general manager or if a permanent replacement is hired. Either way, this move signals a change in direction for the Senators.
Good summation of Dorion’s highs … and lows – Lyle.
As I posted in another thread – fair sums him up well over his entire tenure, most of which was spend outside looking in when it came to playoff hockey.
What’s your opinion on one name supposedly at the top of a list, according to Garrioch – that of TB assistant Darch?
Darche would be a solid choice. He was the guy I was thinking of for the Habs a couple of years ago. But I’m happy with Hughes.
Can’t understand why Vegas is blameless in all this. Surely they would have had the opportunity to review Dadanov’s contract.
Ya Howard, I don’t understand how the whole Dadonov thing could have happened. Would like to see the process mapped.
So the NHL first says no punishment and now a big one with the draft pick. So makes me think Vegas was misled or info was withheld and the NHL had no evidence of that when it first happened. I highly doubt Dorion would intentionally do that, or that Vegas wouldn’t ask. And ya, surely they saw the contract. Both teams have counsel that would have to review this stuff. This is exactly why they have them.
So WTF happened? Email go into junk? Quarantined? No follow-up after the deadline was missed with his agent to inform them they missed the deadline? Bizarre.
Agreed about the summation. Dorion was always on one side of pendulum with his moves. Either savvy and surprising or totally baffling. This last few gaffes though… I knew he would be on the way out soon with a new ownership making that decision.
Staios has some GM friends I believe… but maybe he will give it a go himself?
I still think coaching will be changing soon too.
To follow the old adage that things happen in threes, now the question becomes, who are next two to get the axe?
The old chestnut is that the new GM wants his own coach. I recall George not being a fan of Smith, but he inherited the bad decisions as well as the good from Dorian.
On another note, unusual for an owner, let alone a new one, with subtle criticism of the league. Lack of clarity for decisions that include penalties to teams by the weasel also known as Bettman do the league’s credibility no good.
Darche would be a good fit if they can pry him away from the Lightning.
Looks like the official party line is “mutually agreed to part ways” but yeah.
Part of me wishes Dorion could be retained in the scouting department because THAT is his forte.
Oh well… I predict we will see Patrick Roy hired as coach before Christmas.
No way they Hire Patrick Roy…!!!
There is a reasion he is not coaching in the NHL…
and he must be very close to 60 Now…❗️
Steve Staios will get a good coach and hire a good GM when the time is right..
before the NHL draft for the GM…
I’ll throw out Jay McKee as part of the next coaching staff. He lead Hamilton to a championship when Andlauer owned the team.
I saw Chiarelli’s name out there as a potential GM replacement , personally I am not keen on that. I would prefer to see Staios try and do double duty and search for a full time GM in the off season.
Perhaps Bowness and Alfresson support Staios until they are ready to name a full time GM.
Time for the Sens to give Gary Bettman and Coach Q together, so Q can save the Sens!
The issue isn’t that Vegas didn’t know about the list. It’s that the list could be changed yearly and re-submitted with the team. Capfriendly knew for crying out loud that he had a 10 team list. When he was traded to Vegas, Anaheim was not on the list. But the new list, which Dadanov had filed was withheld or not updated with Vegas by Dorion when the trade was made. Negligent, yes.
What I can’t fathom or believe…is that Dorion somehow had the clairvoyant insight to know that Vegas would want to move him to Anaheim in gthe future–check the old 10 team list and the new and then make the trade to deliberately screw with Vegas. That’s some Marvel multiverse crap right there.
Worth a 1st round pick for the “embarrassment”. Hardly. “Pound of flesh”. I loved Andlauer’s comments. He was pizzed off. Big time.
For the Sen’s Next GM…
I have heard Peter Chiarelli name out there a few times he has been looking for a GM job since Edmonton got Rid of Him…❗️
He Put Edmonton back years & years with his Very Bad Trades Chiarelli made, fans voted the worst GM in Oilers history
Tampa Bays Assistant GM Darche , He would be a good pick for GM, then at some point they hire a New Head Coach..
One thing confuses me… who gets the draft pick that Ottawa forfeits? is it just… everyone moves up one?
Why is no one talking about Ottawa’s play the last few seasons? They have made the playoffs twice in the last 10 years. 0 in the last 6!
Oh well, the leafs can’t make it outta the 1st round..err, 2nd.
I DID talk about it yesterday in assessing Dorion’s overall performance as GM when I stated that they’ve been on the outside looking in for the past 6 seasons when it comes to playoff hockey.
But who am I to object to a Habs fan’s preoccupation with Ottawa’s performance.