Ottawa Senators Part Ways with GM Pierre Dorion

The Ottawa Senators have relieved Pierre Dorion of his duties after eight seasons as GM, the team announced.

Troy Mann joined the Kingston Frontenacs as their new coach last week but was suspended following a player leaving the bench to join a skirmish.

The Ottawa Senators have fired GM Pierre Dorion, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch and Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.

The news comes hours after the NHL ruled that the Senators must forfeit their first-round pick in one of the three upcoming drafts due to failing to disclose forward Evgenii Dadonov's no-trade clause to the Vegas Golden Knights upon trading him.

Steve Staios will serve as interim GM until a successor is found.

Dorion spent parts of eight seasons in the GM role in Ottawa, amassing a record of 221-257-59 and leading the team to an appearance in the 2016 Eastern Conference final, where they came within one game of a spot in the Stanley Cup final.

Following that 2016 run, however, the Senators began to fall apart, beginning with Dorion pulling the trigger on a trade to acquire Matt Duchene early in 2017-18. In the years since, the Senators have been stuck in a rebuild, struggling to turn the corner into contention while failing to make it back to the playoffs despite acquiring the likes of Jakob Chychrun, Vladimir Tarasenko, Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat over the years while drafting blue-chip prospects in Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson and Ridly Greig.

With new owner Michael Andlauer installing Steve Staios, with whom he spent many years during their time with the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs, as Senators president of hockey operations earlier this season, the writing seemed to be on the wall for Dorion's dismissal. And after the Senators began the season one player short due to cap constraints, stumbled to a 4-4-0 start despite heavy expectations, and became embroiled in an NHL disciplinary ruling, Andlauer clearly saw all he needed to see to install a fresh face. That appears to be what happened, as Andlauer detailed in his press conference on Wednesday that the Dadonov sanction was Dorion's final straw as GM, therein prompting the move.

What began as a season of hope in the Nation's Capital has quickly turned into chaos.

Stay tuned to THN.com/Ottawa for further details.