4 Young Players The Senators Gave Up Too Soon – Hockey Writers – Senators History

The Ottawa Senators have made a name for themselves as a team that will give struggling players a second chance. Some of that was out of necessity. As a rebuilding team, the Senators have struggled to attract top free agent talent, and even if they could, their former owner had a controversial reputation, to put it mildly. That led to a huge turnover, and as the rebuild continued, Ottawa had to take what it could get, which often comes with underperforming players looking for a second chance. Thankfully, it worked more than a few times. Anthony Duclair was again a 20-goal scorer, Mike Reilly emerged as a reliable defenseman with 20 points, and Craig Anderson proved he could be one of the best scorers in the NHL.

The Senators continued that trend in the 2023-24 offseason, shipping Egor Sokolov to the Utah Hockey Club and Roby Jarventie to the Edmonton Oilers for Jan Jenik and Xavier Bourgault, respectively. Both of these moves seemed promising, but came with doubts – are the Senators too quick to dump these players? Here are four players that the Senators may want to hold on to.

Mika Zibanejad

Arguably the most infamous trade in recent memory, on July 18, 2016, the Senators sent 22-year-old Mika Zibanejad and a 2018 second-round pick to the New York Rangers for 28-year-old Derick Brassard and a 2018 pick. 2018 seventh round. The deal was criticized from day one and seemed incredibly unbalanced. Zibanejad was younger and had already scored two goals 20 times, while Brassard had just one 20-plus goal season under his belt in his 10-year career, which came in 2015-16. The draft picks made it seem even more unbalanced. But there was at least a rhyme of reason. “We felt like Mika had a lot of potential,” said general manager Pierre Dorion. “We felt with Derick we were getting a very proven person, a better hockey player at this time. Our main goal is to get back into the playoffs and we think Derick will help us get into the playoffs.”

Unfortunately, Senators fans know exactly how that turned out. While the Senators made the playoffs in 2016-17 and nearly sent home the Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference finals, not much was attributed to Brassard. The experienced player has scored just 14 goals and 39 points in 81 games, which ranks him fifth in scoring on the team. The following season, he dropped to 38 points and although his goals increased to 18, he played in only 58 games before being traded to the Penguins for the Vegas Golden Knights in a three-way deal that earned Ottawa a third-round pick.

Zibanejad struggled somewhat in his first season in the Big Apple, scoring 37 points in 57 games, but since then, he has never dipped below 24 goals in a season and in 2022-23, he scored 91 points. While the Senators may not have the money to sign their sixth-round pick for a long time, it's hard to wonder if Ottawa would be a perennial playoff contender with him still on their roster.

Pavol Demitra

In 1993-94, the Senators brought in a 19-year-old Slovakian forward named Pavol Demitra, who they had selected in the ninth round of the 1993 Draft. He had solid numbers in the Czech top flight last season, and in his North American debut, scored a goal in a 7-5 loss to St. Louis Blues. However, despite a good showing, the Senators didn't think he was ready for the NHL, so they sent him down to the American Hockey League (AHL) in mid-October.

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He played 11 more NHL games that season, and 47 more over the next two seasons, and by 1995-96, he was starting to show some decent potential. In 31 NHL games, he had seven goals and 17 points. In the AHL, however, he was a monster, scoring 72 goals and 196 points in just 150 games. But, on November 27, 1996, the Senators traded him to the Blues for Swedish defenseman Christer Olsson. While Olsson played just 25 games with the Senators before returning to Sweden, Demitra became one of the Blues' best players, leading the team with 37 goals and 89 points in 1998-99 and a career-high 93 points in 2002-03. . . Only Alexei Yashin scored more than 80 points in a single season during that time. With Demitra, maybe Ottawa could have finally beaten the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs.

Demitra died tragically in the Yaroslavl Locomotiv plane crash in 2011, but was still admitted to St. Louis Blues Hall of Fame in 2023.

Martin Straka

The Senators of the early 1990s were a mess. They won a combined 24 games in their first two seasons in the NHL largely due to the efforts of a group of scrappy veterans. That helped them accumulate a few top prospects in Yashin, Alexandre Daigle, and Radek Bonk, but what were they going to do with their current team? One option – trade for many young players. So, on April 7, 1995, the Senators traded former leading scorer Norm Maciver and aging Troy Murray to the Penguins for 21-year-old Martin Straka. He had scored 30 goals and 64 points the previous season, but after 31 games in 1994-95, he had only 16 points and it looked like that one good season might have been a flash in the pan. Still, the Senators were willing to take that risk at the cost of two dwindling veterans.

Straka had a promising season in Ottawa, but also had a long drought, which opened the door for the 22-year-old. That ended up coming sooner than expected; The Senators were struggling with their 1995 first round pick Bryan Berard, who had requested a trade following a frustrating training camp and was looking for solutions.

That solution ended up being the New York Islanders, who in 1995 gave Wade Redden, goaltender Damian Rhodes, Berard, goaltender Don Beaupre, and Straka. It's been a nice adjustment for Ottawa, who got a big upgrade in net and a top-two defenseman on their blue line. Straka bounced around before returning to Pittsburgh in 1997-98, and in his second stint with the team, he was consistent, scoring 83 points in 1998-99 and 95 in 2000-01. While the Senators shouldn't regret trading for a second, it's interesting to wonder how Straka would have felt if given more time.

Nick Paul

At 26 years old, many players have become NHL prospects. For Nick Paul, that looked like a reliable but limited middle six. The wing, who was acquired as part of the Jason Spezza trade in 2014, was a slow fit through the Senators' program and emerged as a solid 20-point player. He was a solid forechecker and puck retriever, and at 6-foot-4, he had NHL size, but it didn't look like he was going to be much more than that. So, when it came time to negotiate his contract extension, his camp was not impressed with what Ottawa was offering, leading to a conflict.

With no end in sight, the Senators decided to return the same player, sending Paul and a 2024 fourth-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Mathieu Joseph, with Ottawa keeping 50% of his salary. Joseph was struggling to negotiate a contract in Tampa Bay, and with more speed, there was an opportunity to give him a look on the Senators' top line. Both players were very happy in their new places and signed similar contract extensions; Joseph signed a four-year, $11.8 million contract worth $2.95 million per season, while Paul signed a seven-year, $22.05 million contract, which works out to $3.15 million per season.

However, after a strong start that saw Joseph collect 11 points in 12 games, he struggled in 2022-23, scoring just 18 points in 56 games. The following season he was better with 35 points, but at nearly $3 million per season, it would be hard to justify his spot on the cap list and being traded in the 2023-24 offseason for future considerations. Paul, on the other hand, got off to a similarly blistering start, scoring 14 points in 21 games, but followed that up with a 32-point season in 2022-23 and 24 goals and 46 points in 2023-24. If the Senators had just bitten the bullet in 2022, they could have prevented a trade for a late bloomer that could have strengthened their weak thumb.

Who Will Join This List Next?

It's always tricky to know how a young player will develop, and it's even harder to figure out how long he'll have to wait to become the player he was meant to be. Could Jarventie and Sokolov be the next players to join this list? No one had much of a chance with Ottawa but they could succeed with better opportunities on their current teams. The only comfort will be if Jenik and Bourgault will make other teams wonder if they gave up their young players too soon.