OTTAWA — Michael Andlauer’s first month on the job as majority owner of the Ottawa Senators has been no picnic, despite an auspicious start.
Initially, he says, he basked in the warmth of fan support and an early winning streak.
The last 10 days, however, “brought me back to earth,” the Sens owner told us at the news conference to announce he was firing general manager Pierre Dorion.
Andlauer continued to warm up to that announcement, speaking about a challenging stretch for his team that included a three-game losing streak, a few injuries, and then “two disturbing phone calls from the NHL.”
One of those calls was to announce last week a 41-game suspension to unsigned restricted free agent Shane Pinto for gambling violations.
The other landed on Wednesday, a true bombshell: the NHL ruling that Ottawa will forfeit a first round draft choice (in 2024, 2025 or 2026) for not informing the Vegas Golden Knights about the no-trade list of Evgenii Dadonov.
“With respect to today’s serious ruling by the NHL, the 73-page report that was shared with me last week stems from actions originated by our hockey club, unfortunately, that we were negligent in nature and our duty and care was ignored, which set off events that embarrassed the league and pissed off two other clubs.
“We have to be accountable for our actions,” Andlauer added. “And while this was not done on my watch, I must respect the league’s decision.”
With that, the new owner announced that Dorion has “resigned and been relieved of his duties.”
Asked later to clarify if Dorion was fired or quit under duress, Andlauer said the decision was “mutual.”
And so ends Dorion’s 16-year run in the organization, the past seven as GM.
Andlauer said that moving on from Dorion was not an initial plan as the new owner. He liked the idea of the “two-headed monster” atop the hockey side, with Dorion and new president of hockey operations Steve Staios.
But with Dorion’s egregious mistake on the Dadonov file, whether he deliberately deceived the Golden Knights or not, combined with his handling of the salary cap this summer, Andlauer felt a move was necessary.
“I sat down here (with Staios and Dorion) and discussed the situation and couldn’t come up with a lesser penalty (than firing Dorion),” Andlauer said. “It was decided over dinner that it would be best to part ways. Pierre is a very proud man. I wasn’t going to do it from afar, I wanted to do it in person and explain the situation. He has a lot of great qualities and cares for this organization.”
In a recent interview, Andlauer referred to the Sens’ cap situation as a “pickle,” with the club not having room to sign Pinto, and then having to stop all negotiations, on Andlauer’s order, because Pinto was being investigated for a gambling violation.
Andlauer says he has enormous sympathy for Pinto, who apparently crossed a line when a third party had access to his betting account.
He also questions why the NHL’s investigation into the Dadonov affair took so long, and why the penalty is so steep. The Senators owner says he thought of appealing the penalty of a first-round draft choice penalty but decided it would be “futile.”
To review, Dadonov was traded by Ottawa to Vegas in 2021, evidently with the comment that the player did not have a no-trade list. Dadonov was subsequently moved to Anaheim at the 2022 trade deadline – a deal approved by the league, but later rescinded because Dadonov not only had a no-trade list after all, but Anaheim was on that list. Somehow, the Knights had the player on their own roster for several months without learning of the no-trade list?
Regardless, the Senators passed off the player without coming clean on his contract.
Wednesday’s harsh penalty does have fans in Ottawa questioning the league’s priorities. The NHL got embarrassed because a team got tricked on a no-trade clause and brings down the hammer of a first-round pick forfeit.
Yet the Chicago Blackhawks were merely fined $2 million over a sexual abuse scandal. The Senators would take a fine any day over losing a first-round pick.
Staios says the club will take some time to decide which of the three draft years to forfeit a top-round selection.
Similarly, he will take as much time as is necessary to scope out GM candidates for the hockey club.
For now, the jobs of head coach D.J. Smith and his staff are safe. But clearly everyone is going to be held accountable in this new organization.
“The players respect D.J.,” Staios said. “They play hard. They’ve never cheated us on effort. They look organized going into games. I think if you would ask D.J. – are their areas for improvement? For sure. D.J. would tell you the same thing. So, I have confidence that this group is going to continue to move in the right direction.”
Wednesday’s move ends an extremely long run by the 51-year-old Dorion in the Senators organization. He was first hired in July of 2007, just after the Senators reached the Stanley Cup Final. Initially a chief amateur scout for Ottawa, he quickly moved up the ranks to become an assistant GM to Bryan Murray and then replaced the ailing Murray as GM on April 10, 2016.
In Dorion’s first season, the Sens reached the 2017 Eastern Conference Final and he was named a finalist for the GM of the year award.
Since then, he has presided over a rebuild that has seen the Senators miss the playoffs for six straight seasons while recouping some key building blocks via the draft, including Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle and Jake Sanderson, all of whom have been signed to long-term deals.
