Senators GM Pierre Dorion hasn't been perfect (no one is), but he did manage to build an exciting young core and did so in less-than-ideal circumstances.
With several relatively new NHL GM candidates floating around out there, Kyle Dubas being among them, it's left some Senators fans wondering if one of them might upgrade the GM position in Ottawa. With Pierre Dorion riding a six-year playoff drought and new ownership about to arrive in Ottawa, there are no guarantees yet that Dorion will be back next season.
Here are three reasons why he should be.
The easy one is money. Dorion has three years left on his contract with a club option for the third year.
Secondly, Dorion represents the path of least resistance. The new owner will have a ton on his plate over the next few months, finalizing big-picture issues and transitioning into his new role. He'll want to jog alongside the apple cart for a while before upsetting it.
And finally, Dorion probably deserves it.
That's because Dorion has not only put together an exciting young core, he did so while working under less-than-ideal circumstances. And now this group looks playoff-ready. As a harbinger, if you only measured the second half of the regular season, from January 1st onward, the Sens were a wild card team.
Up front, Dorion has put together an outstanding top six in Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson and Alex DeBrincat. On the back end, the Sens have Jake Sanderson, Jakob Chychrun, Thomas Chabot and an emerging Erik Brannstrom.
There are still issues, of course. Coaching and goaltending are both in question. And this isn't a finished product either. The kids still need more experience, growth and defensive commitment. The bottom half of the roster could also use some rough, mean-spirited, secondary skill – the kind of players who suddenly thrive when the NHL rolls out a completely different brand of hockey every spring.
But a very good, exciting core is there, still growing and improving, and Dorion managed to put it together with Eugene Melnyk as his boss. We don't need to regurgitate well-known ancient history, but for Dorion to get the Sens to this point, with a volatile owner in his ear, looking over his shoulder or running interference, that's pretty impressive.
So now, here in 2022-23, when Dorion finally enjoyed the standard autonomy most professionally-run teams afford their GMs, it looked good on him. He was kind of a big deal maker. He signed free agent Claude Giroux and acquired Alex DeBrincat, Cam Talbot and Jakob Chychrun.
Even with the Talbot deal going sideways, the other three make the Sens a considerably better team than they were this time last year. And it's hard to believe the previous regime would have signed off on four deals that added about $25 million to payroll with almost no money going out.
For those three reasons, a new owner will likely let Dorion put the finishing touches on his vision. And after slogging through the Melnyk years and all the stress that went with that, Dorion deserves that opportunity.
And on the flip side of the coin, where's the evidence that Dubas or Brad Treliving or Steve Staios or any candidate you want to come up with would be an upgrade on Dorion anyway?