Andreas Dackell against an eighth-round pick. Aaron Luchuk and a seventh-round pick over Matthew Peca. Andrew Sturtz and a fifth-round pick over Mike Reilly.
Updated yesterday at 9:51 p.m.
Since the return of the NHL to Ottawa in 1992, transactions have been rare between the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens. Before the exchange of Dackell, in 2001, we must go back to 1933 and 1934. The rights of Albert Leduc had first been sold to the Sens by the Habs, then bought a few months later.
Both say that no coup has taken place to date between the two teams. What if history was about to change?
Various media, including The Pressthrough his journalist Mathias Brunet, wrote that the Canadian was actively trying to get ahead of his second first-round pick, currently drawn at 26e rank, in order to get closer to the top 15maybe even top 10.
Could he even try to climb up to 7e rank, currently held by the Senators?
You will not read here that it is done. The general manager of the Canadian, Kent Hughes, said Wednesday that he was talking to “everyone”, but that he could not say anything “for the moment”.
His counterpart in the Senators, Pierre Dorion, was otherwise talkative. He’s not trying to hide that he’s ready to use his first-round pick to improve his team.
Bruce Garrioch, who covers activities for theOttawa Sun, wrote in the past few days that the club is looking for a right winger to support Tim Stützle. The usually well-informed reporter added Wednesday evening that the name of Josh Anderson would have been at the center of discussions between the two rivals in the Atlantic division.
Dorion did not specifically comment on these assumptions. And he served the chorus of circumstance in the event that he would indeed speak at the microphone, this Thursday evening at the Bell Center.
“If we keep the choice, we know we’ll get a very good player,” he told the dozen media representatives gathered around him on Wednesday morning. Not a guy who will play next season, but definitely a level defender top 4 or an attacker top 6 which will have an impact in the next two, three or four years. »
That’s it for that. Besides, the message is crystal clear: “Everyone knows we want to win. »
” The next step ”
It’s not just Dorion saying that. His two biggest stars, defenseman Thomas Chabot and forward Brady Tkachuk, who is also his captain, told him at the end of last season that they expected their team to go next step “.
Read here: start winning, and winning for real. After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017, the Senators have missed the playoffs by a sizable margin the past five seasons.
The club has, in the meantime, been full of hopes of talent. The time has now come to surround young gifted veterans so that this long reconstruction finally bears fruit.
“Since we arrived here [à Montréal], we had a lot of discussions, confirmed Dorion, Wednesday. Not just for the first-round pick, for other picks, too. »
It’s no secret that we try to improve, to bring players who have a certain profile, experience.
Pierre Dorion, general manager of the Ottawa Senators
How many teams have already tagged him? “Several,” smiled the DG, who is not willing to let go of the draft picks on Thursday. Players selected in recent years could also be sacrificed.
Dorion has no illusions: Ottawa is not the most popular destination for star players on the circuit who are reaching their full autonomy and who, therefore, can get along with the team of their choice. His many young assets therefore take on even greater importance.
“Last year, we tried to have free agents to fill positions in certain positions, but players aged 27, 28 or 29, they want to win, said Dorion, lucid. If we want to attract free agents, we have to make a whole pitch. I don’t know many players who dream of retiring to Ottawa…”
A journalist asked him jokingly if he thought Claude Giroux was still too young to retire. The question was not trivial, as the name of the 34-year-old Franco-Ontarian, who finished last season with the Florida Panthers, is linked to the Senators by multiple rumors.
Smiling, Dorion recalled that Giroux was “still the property of another team” and added that he would refrain from making further comments.
And the Canadian, in all this? Negotiating with a team in his division is not taboo, insisted the manager, adding that he had “always had a good relationship with Kent [Hughes] and Jeff Gorton. With Hughes when he was an agent, he negotiated several contracts, he said.
“I have a lot of respect for what both men are doing. If a trade can help our two teams, we will definitely consider it seriously. »
This may be the last time we talk about Andreas Dackell and Aaron Luchuk, after all.