Staios maintains Chychrun is a great player, but the move earlier this month was part of the plan to balance the team out and give them the best chance to win every night.
In March of 2023, there was no shortage of excitement when the Senators acquired defenceman Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a conditional first-round draft pick in 2023, a conditional second-round selection in 2024 (from the Washington Capitals), and a second-round pick in 2026.
It was an expensive acquisition, but not only did he seem to solve the Sens' ongoing crisis of not having enough true top-four defencemen, but Chychrun already had a love affair going with the city of Ottawa, spending many of his summers with family here. At the time, everyone believed that Chychrun was the perfect fit with the Ottawa Senators.
But by his own admission, Chychrun didn't play his best hockey here. And the Senators already had more than enough left-shot offensive defencemen. So it wasn't a perfect fit, after all.
GM Steve Staios said as much this week on the Coming in Hot Podcast.
"Jakob's a great player," Staios said. "He's a year away from free agency. I think the way we've been constructed – and these things take years to kind of come together – but I didn't see a proper fit for the player. As good as he is, I'm trying to balance the team out and give us the best chance to win every night."
Staios said he respects fans' opinions about what they gave up for Chychrun versus what they got a year or so later. Of course, Staios was not the author of the original deal. That was Pierre Dorion, his predecessor.
"At the end of the day, I felt like I was making our team better with adding some experience," Staios said. "The experience, the right shot. It was a player that I've been watching for a long time. So we're very pleased to have him on our team."
On July 1st, on the day of the trade, Staios described Jensen as a "hard-nosed player with some experience and a right shot. And he brings it and gives it everything he's got.”
While that description is exactly what the doctor ordered for Ottawa's blue line, Jensen's 10 minutes in penalties last season does give one pause for thought. Jensen's career penalty minute total (136) is almost exactly what Brady Tkachuk had last season (134). Hard-nosed defensive players tend to get more than five minor penalties in a season. Perhaps Jensen is the outlier.