The Ottawa Senators parted ways with GM Pierre Dorion 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. Within hours, club majority owner Michael Andlauer confirmed Dorion’s departure at a press conference in Ottawa, saying he had “resigned and been relieved of his duties.”
“My first 30 days as owner of the Ottawa Senators has exceeded all expectations,” Andlauer said. “Unfortunately our last 10 days have not been as much fun for me.”
In that, Andlauer was referring to the team’s 4-4-0 start, a bevy of injuries that have beset the team, a 41-game suspension to forward Shane Pinto for violating the NHL’s gambling policy, and then Wednesday’s discipline by the league with respect to the Dadonov trade.
Andlauer said the league shared a 73-page report with him last week detailing its investigation into the invalidated Dadonov trade. When asked why it took so long for the league to issue a ruling with regards to something that occurred in 2022, Andlauer said that was something to ask the NHL.
Andlauer, who was only installed as owner on Sept. 21, said the club’s failure to pass on Dadonov’s no-trade list to the Vegas Golden Knights when he was traded there in 2021, ultimately “embarrassed the league and pissed off two hockey clubs.”
That error, which Andlauer called “downright negligent” and “not that complicated” latter caused issues when the Knights tried to send the Russian to Anaheim, who were on Dadonov’s list of destinations he’d excluded. The league later had to invalidate that Vegas-Anaheim trade because of this.
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 Andlauer to make his own choice for the position. Andlauer hired Steve Staios as president of hockey operations — a position above Dorion — just eight days after taking control of the club.
During Dorion’s seven seasons as GM, the club posted a record of 225-261-59, making the playoffs only once. That was back in 2017, 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 assuming the role 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.
