Senators to keep 7th overall pick, will forfeit first-rounder in 2025 or 2026
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The Ottawa Senators will keep the seventh overall pick in this year's draft, leaving the team to forfeit their first-round pick in either 2025 or 2026 as a result of league punishment.
Senators president and general manager Steve Staios confirmed the choice Wednesday with a decision required within 24 hours of Tuesday night's draft lottery. Ottawa's draft position was not moved in the lottery, with TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button projecting the team will select London Knights defenceman Sam Dickinson with their first-round pick.
The NHL announced in November that Ottawa would forfeit a first-round pick as a result of punishment stemming from their 2021 trade that sent Evgenii Dadonov to the Vegas Golden Knights and the subsequent invalidated trade that would have sent the forward from Vegas to the Anaheim Ducks in March 2022.
"Ottawa will forfeit its first-round draft pick in one of the 2024, 2025 or 2026 Drafts," the league said in a release at the time. "The determination as to which pick will be forfeited will be made by Ottawa within 24 hours of the conclusion of the Draft Lottery for that year. The league will have no further comment on the matter."
The Senators fired former general manager Pierre Dorion on the same day the punishment for the Dadonov trade was handed out by the league. Staios, who was president at the time, took over general manager duties in the interim before being named the full-time replacement in late December.
Parting ways with Dorion was one part of a tumultuous first season as an NHL owner for Michael Andlauer, with the Senators also firing head coach D.J. Smith in-season and losing centre Shane Pinto to a 41-game suspension for actions related to sports betting.
Ottawa missed the playoffs this season for the seventh straight year. The team hired head coach Travis Green on Tuesday with a four-year contract after playing out last season under interim head coach Jacques Martin, who stepped in once Smith was let go.
Recapping the Dadonov fallout
The Senators traded Dadonov to Vegas for defenceman Nick Holden and a third-round pick in July 2021. Ottawa failed to inform Vegas that Dadonov had a 10-team no-trade clause, which caused trouble at the 2022 trade deadline.
The Golden Knights traded Dadonov and a second-round pick to the Ducks in exchange for defenceman John Moore and Ryan Kesler's contract ahead of the deadline. The deal, however, was cancelled by the league two days later because the Ducks were one of the teams on Dadonov's no-trade list.
"The trade could not be concluded because Dadonov’s contract includes a limited no-trade clause, which has not been complied with," the league said in a release at the time.
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger reported at the time that neither the Ducks nor Golden Knights were aware that Anaheim was on Dadonov's list.
"We appreciate the league’s diligence on this matter and respect the decision," the Golden Knights said after the punishment was announced. "The club will have no further comment."
Dadonov, who currently plays with the Dallas Stars, first joined the Senators as a free agent in 2020, inking a three-year, $15 million deal. He was traded to Vegas after just one season and, after the failed trade to the Ducks, was moved again in the 2022 off-season to the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens flipped Dadonov to the Stars at the trade deadline last February.