Will Pierre Dorion Produce a Remake of “The Summer of Pierre?”

With the Draft Lottery providing the Senators with no help at all Monday night (shocker), all signs now point to GM Pierre Dorion being wide open for business between now and the Draft.

For the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that just won the right to draft WHL phenom Connor Bedard, the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery and next month’s actual draft in Nashville will both be nights to remember. But barring a trade, the Ottawa Senators will be remembered as wallflowers at both events.

The Sens had a 5% chance of winning the draft lottery Monday night, which would have allowed them to keep their first rounder and see it move up as many at 10 places to the 2nd overall pick. 

But to no one’s surprise Monday night, Bill Daly sluggishly unveiled the Sens logo exactly on schedule at number 12. So that pick will not move up, but it will move out, leaving for Arizona as part of the Jakob Chychrun deal the Sens made at this year's deadline. In a smart, timely bit of social media, the Senators reminded the fan base that the 12th overall selection probably won’t be as good as what they have in Chychrun.

Soon, Sens fans will turn their attention to the NHL Draft and, for them, things aren’t looking much more exciting than the lottery. That's because Ottawa's 2023 draft cupboard is basically empty. The cupboard contains a fourth rounder, a fifth, and hiding behind an old jar of mustard, three sevenths.

In their 30 year history, the Sens have never had a draft where they don’t have a first, second, or even a third-round pick. As it stands, their first pick next month will probably be about 109th overall. That’s around the time in the draft when teams begin holding hands, lighting candles, and asking ouija boards for advice.

But things could still change and, honestly, it’s hard to imagine that Senators’ GM Pierre Dorion won't try and spice things up a little. There’s nothing uncommon about deals on the draft floor to try and move up in the batting order or improve your team with a trade. In any given summer, there are plenty of reasons for Dorion to do something leading up to the draft.

But this summer, it feels like there’s extra motivation. A lot of it. 

For one, the Sens still need another goalie with NHL pedigree. Last year, they had Anton Forsberg and Cam Talbot. Both were plagued by injury and neither was particularly effective. Thinking you can get to the playoffs next season with Forsberg and rookie Mads Sogaard, who was also injury prone this year, is a reach. Neither has proven over any sustained amount of time they can be NHL regulars, let alone NHL starters.

Something may need to be done on the Alex DeBrincat front too. DeBrincat is an RFA this summer, and if he announces he only wants a one year contract to slide gently into the open auction of UFA next summer, the Sens may have to try and get what they can for him as soon as possible. And there are UFAs who’ll need replacing as well.

Those are the biggest reasons that Dorion would make moves, but given his own unique situation, he’s probably feeling even more motivated.

With the sale of the franchise probably only a month or two away, Dorion has not been assured of a job for this fall. Whether he’d admit it or not, he probably wants a chance to show the next owner what he can do. He won’t want to be standing pat now for the next month and a half, and then on draft day, sitting on the sidelines, completely out of the spotlight, watching three rounds worth of draft picks come and go. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, but it doesn’t exactly showcase what you can do either.

That obviously won’t be the sole reason the Sens do something, but it does add even further motivation to get something helpful and impressive done before or at the draft.