Chabot may have his share of critics, but he leads all skaters in wins above replacement this season. When the Ottawa Senators acquired Matt Duchene in 2017, they thought they'd acquired the missing piece. A year and a half later, with Duchene about to become a UFA, and both sides uninspired by the idea of an extension, the Sens traded him at the deadline to the Columbus Blue Jackets. A few months later, Duchene got a massive seven-year, $56 million contract in free agency with the Nashville Predators. The Preds are often described as one of the model franchises in the league, but Duchene probably wouldn't agree with that assessment. After the fourth year of his contract, Duchene says the Predators came to him in the summer of 2023 and asked him to buy into their new direction. While Duchene's point totals had dipped, he still had 56 that season, so he assumed the new direction included him. "I said, yeah. Hell, yeah, I'm in. Whatever we need to do," Duchene told the Spittin' Chiclets Podcast this week. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U40qrjKmZ_M] "And so I was blindsided. Like 35 minutes later, I'm on waivers for buyout and I'm like, 'What is happening?' "It killed me. I called them. I begged them not to do it, literally in tears. And they said, 'Okay, we've heard you. We'll talk about it till 5 pm.' And then they said they'd let me know." The Preds did eventually call to tell Duchene to tell him he was being bought out. But the news was already out there. "I read it on Twitter before I got the call, which sucked. So (at that point) I'm an absolute mess. I cried more than I have in my whole life. I'm not a cryer, and I cried my eyes out. My son heard me say out loud I'm not a Predator anymore. And he started crying, so I start crying. It was just a freaking mess." With the final three years of his contract being bought out, Duchene was suddenly going to be a 2023 UFA on July 1st and quickly found himself on the phone with the owner of an NHL team interested in his services. Still emotional, the waterworks started again. "I literally just started crying on the phone with him. And I'm like, 'I'm so sorry. Like, I am a mess right now.' And it was so tough." Duchene eventually decided to sign with the Dallas Stars and the match has been a good one. Duchene had 25 goals and 65 points last season, and the Stars made it to the Western Conference Final. This season, Duchene has on pace for one of his best seasons ever. He leads the Stars in scoring with 30 points in 31 games, and whether he'll admit it or not, he's probably delighted to glance at the NHL stats page. The team that literally paid Matt Duchene to go away is now dead last in the NHL and doesn't have a single player within seven points of him. Related articles at The Hockey News [http://thn.com/ottawa]:
