First reported by @LalimesMartian on Twitter, and further confirmed by Elliotte Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada, it appears as if the Ottawa Senators could be in hot water with the NHL once again because of the Evgenii Dadonov trade situation.
The Streets have dropped another horrible turd in my lap today. Remember that Dadonov NTC issue from a couple trade deadlines ago?… That might not be going away.
— Martian (@LalimesMartian) October 26, 2023
Back in 2020, the Ottawa Senators signed Evgenii Dadonov to a three-year contract with a 10-team no-trade clause. After one season, it was determined that Dadonov and the Sens were not a match long-term. The team traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Nick Holden and a third-round pick in the 2022 draft.
The 2021-22 season was underwhelming for the Golden Knights. By the trade deadline, they were not in a playoff spot. Hoping to recoup some cap space and a draft, they attempted to trade Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks. Unfortunately for the Golden Knights, the trade was canceled by the NHL because the Ducks were on Dadonov’s no-trade list. Vegas argued that they did not know that he had a no-trade clause when they acquired him. The trade was annulled and he was later traded to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Shea Weber‘s contract.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhy does this Dadonov situation affect the Ottawa Senators now?
Over a year later, Martian tweeted that he heard that this debacle may not be over for the Sens. Elliotte Friedman mentioned it last night on Hockey Night in Canada. He said that the NHL could extend an official punishment to the Ottawa Senators over the next few days. It’s not officially clear yet why the Senators could be facing punishment, it appears as if this will be cleared up with the NHL’s announcement.
Speaking on speculation, it may be possible that when Dorion traded the Russian forward to the Golden Knights, he told Kelly McCrimmon that Dadonov had not submitted his no-trade list in time for it to come into play. This led the Golden Knights to believe his no-trade clause had been voided. This resulted in the trade to the Anaheim Ducks. Dadonov was upset because he had submitted his no-trade clause in time.
I’m not exactly sure why this is coming back to light now. Especially after it was determined at the time that the Sens would face no punishment for this. I can say that this might have to do with the NHL Players Association. Especially considering it is now being led by a new executive group headed by Marty Walsh. It could be that the union did not like that Dadonov was mistreated by the Senators organization by not providing his no-trade list to the Golden Knights and are taking action.
What Kind of Punishment could the Senators face?
I’ll start by saying it’s not clear when this situation will come to an end, and it’s also not clear what will come of it. It’s been speculated that the Sens may lose a draft pick as punishment. This would be similar to how the Arizona Coyotes lost two draft picks for tampering with draft-eligible prospects ahead of the 2020 NHL draft. According to Martian, it very well may be that the Sens lose a first-round pick because of this.
It sounds like we’ll get clarity sometime this week, but that remains to be seen.
If you’d like to read about the Ottawa Senators injury pileup, feel free to click here. You can follow me on Twitter @Jake_Larivire for more of my hockey content.
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