The Ottawa Senators have had a rocky start to the season and will have to find a way to get back on track because even if they finish at the bottom of the standings, they can't rely on drafting Gavin McKenna.
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That's because the Sens don't have a first-round pick in the next draft, 2026, and not because they traded him.
Instead, the organization was forced to waive him due to an incident that occurred during the 2021-22 season.
Documentation error
On March 21, 2022, the Vegas Golden Knights traded Evgeniy Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks for John Moore, the contract of forward Ryan Kesler, who was placed on the long-term injured list, and a conditional second-round draft pick.
However, the NHL refused the deal.
This is where the Senators come into play, as they are the ones who traded Dadonov to the Golden Knights in the summer of 2021. However, then-Sens general manager Pierre Dorion did not include in the documents the fact that Dadonov's contract, signed with Ottawa in October 2020, had a no-trade clause.
So legally he couldn't be traded to the Ducks.
Costly fine
After this imbroglio, which cost Dorion his job, the NHL imposed a more than severe sanction on the Senators, namely revoking their first-round pick.
However, the league gave the Sens three years to decide which option they would give up, namely 2024, 2025 or 2026.
They opted to keep the seventh overall draft pick in guard Carter Yakemchuk in 2024 and did the same last year by targeting another guard, 21-year-old Logan Hensler.e rang.
If Ottawa still made its draft decision last year, even if their pick came late in the first round, it's because team owner Michael Andlauer is still hoping to convince the NHL to ease sanctions imposed when he was not yet in charge of the team.
The latter, upon arrival, did not hesitate to mention in the media that he considered this punishment too severe and had already made representations to the NHL on this matter.
The Senators have won just one of their four games so far this season, which puts them in 30th place.e place in the NHL.
