Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion was fired on Wednesday after the team was docked a first-round draft pick for its role in an invalidated trade involving Evgenii Dadonov, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
The league announced the discipline against the Senators on Wednesday.
Dorion had been with the Senators since 2007, joining the club as chief amateur scout after 11 years with the Montreal Canadiens and two with the New York Rangers. Within two years, he was named director of player personnel before attaining the position of assistant general manager in 2014.
In 2016, when then-GM Bryan Murray stepped down (largely due to a cancer diagnosis that would claim his life in 2017), Dorion was named as his replacement.
His departure allows newly installed owner Michael Andlauer to make his own choice for the position. Andlauer, who took over as majority owner with his partners on Sept. 21, hired Steve Staios as president of hockey operations — a position above Dorion — just eight days later.
During Dorion’s seven seasons as GM, the club posted a record of 221-257-59, making the playoffs only once. That was back in 2016, when the team lost in Game 7 of the conference finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Dorion (under previous owner Eugene Melnyk) fired two head coaches, with D.J. Smith in place since 2019. After narrowly missing the playoffs last spring, the team entered the season with lofty expectations, but is currently off to a 4-4-0 start and is sitting one spot out of last place in the Atlantic Division.
