29th Ranked GM – Pierre Dorion (Ottawa Senators)
Pierre Dorion worked his way up the Ottawa Senators franchise to become their current general manager. His appointment gave Sens fans hope that they had the right person in charge to turn around the team’s fortunes. Unfortunately, that’s not how things have gone in Ottawa.
The Good – Dorion’s best moves have come via trade. His biggest would be moving star defenseman Erik Karlsson in September of 2018 to the San Jose Sharks. After Karlsson declined re-signing in Ottawa, Dorion made the right decision to bring back as many assets as possible for the two-time Norris Trophy winner.
Sending Karlsson along with Francis Perron to San Jose brought Dorion’s Sens a massive package in return. Dorion received forwards Chris Tierney, Rudolfs Balcers, and Joshua Norris, defenseman Dylan DeMelo, and three draft picks. One of those picks was used to draft Tim Stuetzle with the third overall selection in the 2020 draft. Dorion traded the 2019 second-round pick to draft Mads Sogaard earlier in that round. The Karlsson trade will be completed this summer when the Senators use the Sharks second-round pick to select 39th overall in this year’s draft.
The Bad – In February of 2019, Dorion moved his best player Matt Duchene along with defenseman Julius Bergman to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a package of Vitaly Abramov, Jonathan Davidsson, a 2019 first-round draft pick, and a 2020 conditional first-round pick.
It turns out that the Senators and Dorion didn’t get as much as they thought in the deal. Abramov has so far played a total of five games in the NHL. Davidsson has played six. The team used the 2019 first-round draft pick to select Lassi Thomson who spent this past season splitting time between professional play in Findland and for the Belleville Senators in the AHL and has yet to get a call up to the NHL. Finally, the condition of receiving the 2020 pick was if Duchene re-signed in Columbus. The Blue Jackets weren’t able to retain him, so the Senators missed out on this pick.
The Ugly – Dorion gave up on Mika Zibanejad at the absolute wrong time. On July 18, 2016, Dorion traded the Swedish center who eventually eclipsed the 30 and 40 goal marks in back-to-back seasons. In return for Zibanejad and a 2018 second-round pick, the Sens received Derick Brassard and a seventh-round draft pick in 2018. Zubanejad immediately outplayed Brassard and became the players the Sens really needed.
The Very Ugly – In Dorion’s time as the general manager in Ottawa, a span that has lasted over five years, his team has made the playoffs just once. They were eliminated from the 2017 Conference Finals by the Pittsburgh Penguins.