There was one recurring theme following last Wednesday’s news that Pierre Dorion had formally resigned from his position as the general manager of the Ottawa Senators. He had his fingerprints all over the construction of this roster.
Do you mean the guy who joined the organization as the director of amateur scouting in 2007 and moved through the ranks to become the general manager in 2016? The same guy who spent parts of the last eight seasons exclusively having a hand in adding every piece of this roster? That guy?
No kidding.
One thing synonymous with Pierre Dorion has been his eye for amateur talent. And, to his credit, he and his staff have added some exceptional amateur talent into the ranks: Erik Karlsson (2008), Mark Stone (2010), Mika Zibanejad (2011), Thomas Chabot (2015), Brady Tkachuk (2018), Tim Stützle (2020) and Jake Sanderson (2020).
Even if some of the staff responsible, like Anders Forsberg or Bob Lowes, for advocating for the selection of some of these players are no longer part of the organization, no one can take away the fact that these players were brought into the fold under Dorion’s watch. By extension, he was the general manager when this team’s young core signed long-term extensions of their own.
Regardless of how you feel about the Dorion era, this is just something that you have to give him credit for. It would have been effortless for Brady Tkachuk to insist on only signing a bridge deal and only playing out the remaining years of team control that he had left. Instead, Brady signed a team-friendly extension that set the bar for the rest of Ottawa’s young core. A bar that should set this team up well down the road when the salary cap ceiling continues to increase and will afford the organization more cap flexibility to build around its young stars.
No one can take any of this away from Dorion, but this is where the flattery should end. His supporters will point to the fact ownership never had the money to surround him with enough quality hockey minds. Rather than reallocate money to build up a relatively inexpensive analytics department that could have augmented the organization’s decision-making process, Dorion preferred to keep a close circle.
Dorion’s close circle:
Insecurity plagued the general manager and it impacted his relationships with staffers and the media. Anyone perceived to be a threat to his job left the organization. Assistant general managers and advisors left their positions regularly. Peter MacTavish left his role in 2022 to become an agent for Montreal’s Quartexx Hockey. Daniel Alfredsson’s departure after the Senators reached the 2017 Eastern Conference Final was a red flag. Senior advisor and vice president of player development Pierre McGuire was let go shortly after Eugene Melnyk’s passing. Trent Mann was dismissed from his assistant general manager role months after his brother was relieved of his duties as the head coach in Belleville.
It has been ugly.
Dorion’s strained relationship with the media can be best explained by his sensitivity to criticism. I’m sure a lot of it can be attributed to the pressures of a mercurial owner who loathed any perceived slights. And, let’s be honest here, Ottawa is not Toronto or a New York. The media here are fair and rarely, if ever, cross any lines.
Rather than build rapport with the entire community, the organization blatantly preferred to trade information with particular individuals in exchange for favourable coverage.
One of my favourite anecdotes occurred during the 2020 season when it another year was swirling down the drain. With his team going through its morning skate, Dorion allegedly strode into the section where the media were sitting taking in the practice and openly said loud enough for everyone to hear, “You all wonder why I only talk to (one particular reporter). He’s the only one who wrote about (Filip Gustavsson) winning AHL honours for ‘AHL Player of the Week’.”
Despite being an erroneous assertion, it characterized the Dorion era. He was an insecure person who lacked the confidence, professionalism and communication skills to effectively lead and inspire those around him.
There sure as hell was a lack of accountability. It was never his fault. Coaches and his front-office colleagues paid the price for poor results. Consider it one of the only perks of working as a general manager under Eugene Melnyk. If you could stomach his tirades and impulsive nature, your job was as secure as any in hockey.
Even in the aftermath of Melnyk’s passing, there was hope that the removal of his influence would manifest in improved relationships and a better on-ice product, the results spoke for themselves. Sportsnet’s Wayne Scanlan hit the nail on the head when he wrote about Dorion following his dismissal.
“Dorion would sometimes disappear for weeks on end during a rough patch, apologizing when he emerged to deliver a state of the union scrum.
He didn’t have Murray’s innate sense of knowing when a crisis, real or imagined, required a leader’s visible message of calm, honest discourse. Things would get better, we always felt, because Murray said they would. He believed it, or at least sold us on the idea.”
Dorion’s legacy can best be explained as the simple fact that the production and performance of this team’s top-five picks — Tkachuk, Stützle, and Sanderson — have overshadowed his entire body of work and the organization’s missteps under his watch.
The overreliance on the advice of coaches to acquire players they had relationships with has plagued the organization since the Guy Boucher days and it hasn’t been remedied under D.J. Smith’s tenure.
Dorion was also guilty of being a name-chaser. Rather than look for efficient players who could be better fits and cost less money, he chased bigger names while struggling to identify his club’s true talent level. It began with the Matt Duchene trade and continued through the 2023 offseason. Drafting less talented or skilled players in the draft because the organization wanted to target players it knew could eventually help them win? It makes for a good soundbite, but the organization left a lot of value on the draft room floor considering the volume of picks it had.
The losses were downplayed because it was a rebuild. We just needed to be a bit more patient.
The truth is that this process should be a lot further along than it currently is. Although the Evgenii Dadonov trade may be described as the straw that got Dorion canned, a comprehensive analysis of his body of work should highlight the glaring missteps along the way.
Dorion’s Best Moves
In no particular order:
Trading Derick Brassard to Pittsburgh for Ian Cole, a first-round pick and Filip Gustavsson
Signing Claude Giroux as an unrestricted free agent
Signing Artem Zub as an unrestricted free agent
Claiming Anton Forsberg off of waivers
The Erik Karlsson trade with San Jose for Josh Norris, a first-round pick that became Tim Stützle, Dylan DeMelo, Chris Tierney and draft picks that turned into Mads Sogaard and Zack Opstapchuk
Trading Ryan Dzingel to Columbus for Anthony Duclair and two second-round draft picks
Acquiring Mike Reilly for a fifth-round pick
Trading Curtis Lazar for a second-round pick
In time, I’m hoping that we can put Jake Chychrun in this category
In the case of the Giroux signing, it’s worth mentioning that Giroux signed in Ottawa to live in Ottawa and be close to his family. The city and his family deserve more credit than anything. In the Erik Karlsson trade, the package was salvaged by the fact that Martin Jones cratered and San Jose endured several significant injuries. Without those two factors and a ton of luck, the Senators never wind up with Stützle - which would certainly affect the perception of how Ottawa’s rebuild went.
On the flip side, here are Dorion’s worst moves in no particular order:
Dorion’s Worst Moves
Mark Stone for Erik Brannstrom and a second-round pick
Mika Zibanejad and a second-round pick for Derick Brassard
Targeting and acquiring Matt Duchene in the fall of 2017
Mike Hoffman for Mikkel Boedker — after which, San Jose quickly flipped Hoffman to a division rival for more valuable draft capital
The first Alex DeBrincat trade
Acquiring Matt Murray from Pittsburgh in exchange for a second-round pick
Trading another second-round pick for Derek Stepan
Inexcusably omitting Evgenii Dadonov’s no-trade list to Vegas in the Dadonov for Nick Holden and a third-round pick deal
Contrasting the scale of the good and bad, it is heavily tilted toward the bad with more significant names being involved.
Boos and Brady Tkachuk’s Reaction
It is an incredibly frustrating time for the Senators and their fans. During the second period of Saturday night’s game against the Lightning, there was a chorus of chants from the fans calling for D.J. Smith to be fired.
It certainly opens up the debate as to whether it is in good taste for fans to call for the dismissal of a coach. I probably would not participate, but ultimately, paying customers are allowed to express themselves as they see fit.
After the game, captain Brady Tkachuk stepped forward and discussed those chants.
"The negativity from the outside, the constant booing and the bullshit, kind of, from the crowd too tonight was... I understand that they're a passionate fan base. I understand, I love it. But I mean, when you face adversity, you don't turn your back on the guys out there. We're playing hard. I know it's frustrating right now, but it's not like we're giving up out there. We're fighting to the very end. So, to be honest with you, I was very frustrated today.
"In here, there's no quit and there never has been. I don't think we've ever showed a time where we've quit on the people that paid money to support us. I think it's non-negotiable in our group that we finish hard no matter what. We leave it all out there. And sometimes it's frustrating and I understand.
Just as the fans are allowed to boo, Brady is allowed to stand up for his coach. In doing so, he takes the attention away from the job Smith is doing and puts the focus on him and his comments. Deflecting blame in this situation is admirable because until Smith is let go, there is no alternative.
What is Tkachuk supposed to do? Give a vote of non-confidence?
In a lot of cases, D.J. Smith is the only NHL head coach these players have had. By most accounts, he’s a player-friendly coach who the players enjoy having around. They want to experience success with him and that’s normal.
Where the debate opens, however, is whether Smith is getting the most out of this group. No one should accuse the players of dogging it or not working hard. And, certainly, I’m empathetic with the fact that this team is currently missing three of its top-five defencemen and is reportedly having to deal with the flu impacting their performance.
The team is going through adversity, but all teams go through adversity at some point during an NHL season. Ottawa’s coincidentally just seems to occur every fall.
No on should accuse the Senators of dogging it on the ice, but I believe it’s fair to wonder whether their lack of consistency is a function of a team working hard, but not working smart.
The Senators are unquestionably getting crushed at five-on-five via HockeyViz:
All of the shot and goal metrics point to a picture where this team is routinely getting outplayed and outpossessed at even strength. The Senators rank in the bottom third in most shot and goal data.
47.99 percent of the total shots (CF%, 22nd)
49.52 percent of the total shots on goal (SF%, 18th)
45.59 percent of the expected goals (xGF%, 27th)
91.24 save percentage (Sv%, 18th)
What has propped up the Senators through the early going is the strength of their shooting percentage. Only four teams have a higher five-on-five shooting percentage than Ottawa’s 10.85.
If this data continues, it will eventually lead to a coaching dismissal.
Rumour of Jiri Smejkal Returning to Europe
An EliteProspects tweet from the site’s transfer account got fans stirring this morning.
Nothing has been confirmed to this end, but it would be a shame if this situation plays out without Smejkal getting an opportunity to play at the NHL level.
During the preseason, Smejkal was a pleasant surprise.
According to NaturalStatTrick’s preseason data, Smejkal was one of the team’s better offensive players in terms of creation.
He ranked in the team’s top five in terms of individual expected goals per 60 (ixGF/60) and individual scoring chances per 60 (iSCF/60) while playing at five-on-five.
I do believe his situation and the lack of opportunity was a byproduct of the team’s cap crunch early in the season. He is coming off his first multi-point game in the AHL, however, and if he can continue to produce, he will hopefully be afforded an opportunity that he deserved based on the strength of his preseason.
Senators Nuggets on The ‘32 Thoughts Podcast’
With everything happening of late in Sens Land, it is understandable to hear Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman discussing the Senators on their podcast.
The duo certainly delivered some interesting news. According to Friedman, one of the prospective buyers of the Senators would have immediately brought in Patrick Roy as the team’s head coach.
Another name that Friedman discussed as a prospective head coach was John Gruden. There is a historical connection to the Senators. Gruden appeared in 22 games for the franchise across the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons. He also has history with Michael Andlauer and Steve Staios. Gruden was the head coach who helped the Hamilton Bulldogs capture the OHL championship in the 2017-18 season.
There is a question of whether the Maple Leafs would allow Gruden to pursue the Senators’ head position during the season. He is currently the head coach of the Marlies, their AHL franchise.
Friedman acknowledged that he does not expect the Senators or Staios to make a coaching change anytime soon. He believes Staios will afford D.J. Smith as much time as possible to turn this around. I am paraphrasing here, but he believes that Staios will only make the move if he has no other choice.
I can certainly understand why the Senators would want to be patient. Without a general manager in place, it could potentially be awkward if the organization unilaterally hired a head coach without the input of whoever assumes the general manager role. In saying that, this team cannot let another year go by the wayside.
I’m not going to chicken little it and decry that the sky is falling because the team is off to another poor start 10 games into the season, but there comes a point in time when the prime years of this team’s young core simply cannot be wasted. Perhaps this desperation is magnified somewhat because it feels like the Atlantic Division is ripe for some upheaval, but another year without reaching the postseason would be unsettling — especially if this team’s struggles on the defensive side of the puck continue. At some point, there needs to be significant growth in this team’s commitment to defending. Running and gunning playing this high-event hockey is entertaining, but for this team to take the next step, its play in its own end needs to improve.
If there are any concerns that D.J. Smith is unable to unlock that development, the organization simply cannot afford to wait too long.
Other News and Notes:
Josh Norris reached 100 career points becoming the 47th player in franchise history to reach that milestone.
Shoutout to Shawn Simpson and Justin Murray on launch day for their inaugural episode of the ‘Simmer Down Podcast’ on The Sick Podcast network. You can give the first episode a listen here. Smash on that subscribe button.
Can't disagree with anything here. I get that Staios is in a tough spot with the coach so soon after firing the GM, but they really just don't have the luxury of waiting.