The Ottawa Senators
Keeping things Canadien, er Canadian, a team that doesn’t get brought up very much at all in trade conversations for Pierre-Luc Debois – not as much as, say, the Los Angeles Kings at least – is the Ottawa Senators.
While many assumed this would be a rebuilding year for Ottawa, they clearly didn’t know what Pierre Dorion had up his sleeve, as the Senators’ general manager has been wheeling and dealing at an alarming rate, with picks and players coming and going like a darn Karma Chameleon.
The Senators shipped a second-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for veteran center Derek Stepan – who has been playing pretty well in a black, red, and gold jersey thus far – and followed it up by acquiring Braydon Coburn, Cedric Paquette, and a second-round pick in 2022 from the Tampa Bay Lightning for forward Marian Gaborik and goaltender Anders Nilsson – both of whom went on long-term IR.
Surely the Senators are a team looking to get good in the not too distant future and build a team that can thrive around franchise winger Brady Tkachuk.
What better way to optimize Tkachuk’s scoring prowess than to pair him up with a franchise center like Debois?
Though the Senators may ever so slightly cringe at the idea of trading away another massive package for any player no matter how great, Ottawa has the picks, prospects, and veteran players needed to put together a fairly competitive package and could parlay some of their future potential for a chance to compete right now in the North, and eventually Atlantic Division moving forward.
Will it happen? Probably not, but I sure would like to see it become a reality.