Senators Make the Trent Mann Firing Official

Plus other news and notes...

One week after Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch announced that the Senators were parting ways with their assistant general manager Trent Mann, the team finally corroborated that report by officially announcing the termination in a press release yesterday.

OTTAWA - Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion announced today that the team has parted ways with Trent Mann.

A native of Sackville, N.B., Mann, 50, had served in a full-time capacity with the Senators since the fall of 2016.

Dorion provided the following statement:

"We're thankful for Trent's contributions to the Senators and wish him the best going forward."

Mann joined the Senators as a part-time scout in 2014, before ascending to a full-time role in 2016. One year later, he was promoted and became their director of amateur scouting.

His ascension through the organization’s ranks has been attributed to his keen eye for amateur talent. General manager Pierre Dorion often waxed poetic about Mann’s ability to find talent in his radio interviews and once humblebraggingly compared it to his own. One of the best stories about Mann involved a prospective trade between the Maple Leafs and Senators falling through on the draft floor in 2020.

Jack Han, a former Leafs hockey ops assistant, relayed an anecdote on a podcast about the team’s attempts to move up in the draft to select Arthur Kaliyev in the second round.

It didn’t end up happening because the draft pick that we wanted wasn’t available. The team… really… we were going to trade with the Senators for the first pick of the second round. The Senators’ head scout said to Pierre Dorion, the GM, ‘If you trade this pick, I will resign.’ Because he felt that strongly about the player they were going to pick and it wasn’t Kaliyev. It was Shane Pinto.

Long credited with helping the Senators build a young core of players to build around, Mann’s work was eventually rewarded with a promotion to an assistant general manager’s role - in which he would still be responsible for the amateur scouting process and player development. After moving and becoming a full-time resident in Ottawa, one year later, Mann is out.

Mann’s firing was announced with a 60-word press release that Jake Sanderson’s skating ability described as “effortless.” Its brevity speaks volumes and marks a bizarre turn in a relationship that goes back almost a decade and survived the prevailing madness of the Melnyk ownership era. Like Pierre Dorion, Mann’s presence within the organization just felt like a constant.

Maybe that changed after his brother Troy was dismissed as Belleville’s head coach in February, but anyone who works within the hockey industry understands that time within an organization is finite. Changes occur and when they do, they can impact family and friends.

When you ask people about the events that led to Mann’s dismissal, a recurring answer is that the situation was “classic Sens”.

Supporting a team and seeing dysfunction at the higher levels of an organization play out publicly is never encouraging, but fans here have grown accustomed to it. The number of executives who have come and gone in the last 15 years is staggering. All fans want is stability at the top of an organization that trickles down and creates an entertaining and winning product on the ice. In Ottawa, we have not had that in years.

The hope is that we are not sitting here a year from now having a conversation about how the 2023 offseason wasted another year of this young core’s prime because of the complacency created through a dragged-out sale process. But, the good news here is that if this is all playing out publicly, there is less opportunity for an incumbent like Dorion to survive this process once the sale goes through.

Claude Giroux Sheds Light on DeBrincat

Speaking at the Commissionaires Ottawa Open, a PGA Tour Canada event, Senators forward Claude Giroux opened up about Alex DeBrincat’s decision to leave.

“We kind of saw it coming. It was his decision and we all enjoyed playing with Alex. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t see himself here for the next eight years. So that’s the business side of hockey that’s not really fun. But it is what it is. Now we’re going to move on.”

Having returned to his home in Ottawa last summer to play for the Senators, Giroux understands as much as anyone how enticing it is to pursue that opportunity. It is not like DeBrincat had any say in coming to Ottawa, so no one should blame him for making a decision that aligns with the best interests of his family.

It is interesting to hear Giroux’s perspective that the players saw his decision coming, however. I would be intrigued to hear how early on DeBrincat’s stay the players were aware of his motivations.

Pierre Dorion acknowledged in a recent interview that DeBrincat’s body language during his exit interview was what tipped him off, but I wonder if he would have explored his trade market down the stretch to the trade deadline had he known sooner.

Top 50 Prospects

Over at The Athletic, Scott Wheeler posted his updated lists of the top 50 drafted NHL prospects and the top 10 drafted goaltending prospects.

No Senators players were named to either list, but Ridly Greig was one of 77 honourable mentions who fell short of a ranked skater placement. Mads Sogaard and Leevi Merilainen were honourable mentions on the goaltender side.

It is not too surprising to see the Senators so lightly represented. Many of the team’s best prospects have graduated to the NHL in recent years and the surplus of draft picks that the team stockpiled during the rebuild has failed to yield many high-end players. To the organization’s credit, it has created prospect depth in a number of positions. Unfortunately, almost all of this depth lacks the safely projectable high-end upside that winds up being featured in lists like Wheeler’s.

Obviously, the omission of some Senators prospects isn’t a death knell. Ridly Greig, I believe, will develop into an agitating two-way prospect that has some offensive upside. Alongside sophomore Shane Pinto, he should endear himself to fans with his style of play and secondary scoring ability.

What the list speaks to is some missed opportunities. The team’s Tyler Boucher pick will inevitably stand out because of its perception as being a reach at the time. It has not helped that injuries have impacted Boucher’s development since, but there still is lots of time to fulfill some of the promise that this staff saw in him as a prospect. Unfortunately, when you are taken as high as Boucher was, it makes it incredibly easy to weigh his development against prospects who were more highly rated in the public sphere. Matt Coronato will draw attention because he was taken three picks after Boucher and plays the same position. He is expected to be a regular who will play in Calgary’s middle-six this season.

The presence of Filip Gustavsson, and the aforementioned Merilainen and Sogaard allowed the Senators to believe they could bypass the goaltending position at the 2021 NHL Draft, but Jesper Wallstedt (18th overall) is considered the sport’s number-one goaltending prospect. Sebastian Cossa, who was taken five picks after Boucher, is considered by Wheeler to be the fifth-best.

As much as the NHL Draft has been described as a crap shoot, a lot of scouting and analytical work has afforded organizations better vetting processes to mitigate the potential for mistakes. Smart organizations are simply doing better jobs of unearthing value in later rounds.

For the Senators, adding quality depth to bolster the talent they have drafted and developed is paramount. This lack of depth really hurt the team’s postseason aspirations last season, but even with the graduation of the team’s best prospects to the parent roster, the Senators should never be in a position to stop caring about draft picks. It is the best mechanism for cultivating young and inexpensive talent that offers many years of team control.

Josh Norris’ Shoulder Recovery

Josh Norris admitted to journalists covering the Commissionaires Ottawa Open that his recovery from shoulder surgery is progressing.

This news is not ideal considering how important it is for players coming off injury to get accustomed to the pace and timing of the game again.

From a long-term perspective, the hope is that Norris will be 100-percent and can return to his pre-injury levels of performance. If the Senators have to stomach some short-term pain to allow him to return to that level of health, so be it. Unfortunately, with so much of Ottawa’s playoff aspirations hinging on the performance and health of their second-line centre, they can ill afford to have him struggle or miss more time.

Hopefully, Norris’ estimated return is conservative and he is able to participate in training camp and get into some exhibition games. If his recovery takes longer or a rust factor contributes to him not playing effectively early in the year, it would be the worst-case scenario. Poor starts to the season have plagued the Senators for years and they simply cannot afford to fall behind the eight ball again in 2023-24.

Other News and Notes:

• The Toronto Maple Leafs announced the hiring of Guy Boucher and Mike Van Ryn as their new assistant coaches. I wonder whether Nate Thompson regrets his decision to announce his retirement yesterday or if this means a Tom Pyatt signing is imminent.

• It is silly to invest too much time or thought into a standings model when the offseason is not over and players remain to be signed (ie. Vladimir Tarasenko, Pius Suter, Tomas Tatar), but JFreshHockey’s model currently projects the Senators to finish sixth in the Atlantic Division with 93 points.