Management Just another ranking! GM Pierre Dorion WORST moves #1

[Xspyrit]

Let's rank Dorion moves for fun. From worst to best! Since this season has gone sideways already, let's try to see which moves have hurt the team the most

Of course all of this is with the benefit of hindsight, we are starting to look at the end results of these moves

We can also do from best to worst at the same time or after if people want

There's plenty of moves I haven't fit yet but let's start with this

Some personal notes and options to add later


- Zack Smith (29 y/o) extension : 4 years x 3.25 (it didn't look bad right away but that was a risky age to sign that kind of player to a 4 years deal)
- Johnny Oduya (35 y/o) contract : 1 year x 2.25 (played way too much for where he was at, it was his last year in the NHL)
- Craig Anderson (37 y/o) extension : 2 years x 4.75 (that seemed very high for a goalie who was aging/declining)
- Anders Nilsson (29 y/o) extension : 2 years x 2.6 (uh too much too fast once again)
- Ron Hainsey (38 y/o) : 1 year x 3.5 (3rd in TOI/GP for D-men, best he could get I suppose)
- Evgeni Dadonov (27 y/o) contract : 3 years x 5.0 (vast majority liked that signing but he didn't fit in Ottawa. Dorion made a nice trade to get out of the contract thought, getting 1 year of Holden and a 3rd round pick)
- Michael Del Zotto (31 y/o) contract : 2 years x 2.0 (doesn't seem like it was a good idea, hindsight or not)
- Alex Chiasson for Patrick Sieloff

Click to read more...

 

[Loach]

I love polls!

 

[Icelevel]

Oh man they’re so bad, hard to choose. Will have to think about this one.

 

[Cosmix]

The Zibby trade was horrendous with the Stone trade close behind. Dorion's record is so bad, Melnyk must be getting senile to allow Dorion to continue as the GM.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

Hands down the Turris --> Duchene "upgrade". This is what caused a rift within the team and led to the eventual loss of Karlsson, Stone, Pageau (and Hoffman but that's another can of worms). The issue with the move was it was not meant to tear the team apart, if that was the goal- you trade Turris for futures, then trade away others through bidding wars. We were a goal away from the Finals and Dorion's kneejerk reaction to a bad start spiraled the team to 4(maybe more) years of disaray.

 

[Matsens15]

Negativity negativity negativity… do a pools with his good moves too

 

[Bileur]

Hands down the Turris --> Duchene "upgrade". This is what caused a rift within the team and led to the eventual loss of Karlsson, Stone, Pageau (and Hoffman but that's another can of worms). The issue with the move was it was not meant to tear the team apart, if that was the goal- you trade Turris for futures, then trade away others through bidding wars. We were a goal away from the Finals and Dorion's kneejerk reaction to a bad start spiraled the team to 4(maybe more) years of disaray.

Good arguments. The Zibanejad trade is still worse IMO, while I disliked the Turris trade and panned it at the time, at least I understood what he was trying to do with that move even if he overpaid.

The Zibanejad trade on the other hand was obviously brutal from the start and didn’t even seem to respond to a need. You trade away a young, huge, physically dominant, centre who is just about to enter into his “prime” years for a guy who is older, has less special skillset, is less versatile, and arguably isn’t even an upgrade over him even discounting potential development. Then you ADD IN a valuable 2nd round pick? Wtf. Brutal.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Zibanejad is the obvious choice. Traded a future star #1 center for a older downgrade, who was later traded for futures in Gustavsson, JBD and Tychonick.

The Hoffman trade might be the worst in terms of optics. For some reason Dorion refused to trade him in the division and dealt him to SJ for a cap dump, then Wilson immediately dealt him back into the division to Florida for a 2nd. Just embarrassing.

It's truly unbelievable how this numbskull is still employed after all the terrible moves he's made.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The Zib trade came right on the heels of Dorion getting the job. He wanted to show off to his boss and .. he would have been just itching to make a trade. Be interesting if his 1st move or trade was also his worst one. Started off with a bang,

I think its close between this one and trading for Duchene and giving up a 1st or perhaps 2.. Turris may have got one at the TDL.
Now lets talk rebuild.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

Good arguments. The Zibanejad trade is still worse IMO, while I disliked the Turris trade and panned it at the time, at least I understood what he was trying to do with that move even if he overpaid.

The Zibanejad trade on the other hand was obviously brutal from the start and didn’t even seem to respond to a need. You trade away a young, huge, physically dominant, centre who is just about to enter into his “prime” years for a guy who is older, has less special skillset, is less versatile, and arguably isn’t even an upgrade over him. Then you ADD IN a valuable 2nd round pick? Wtf. Brutal.

Zibanejad is the obvious choice. Traded a future star #1 center for a older downgrade, who was later traded for futures in Gustavsson, JBD and Tychonick.

The Hoffman trade might be the worst in terms of optics. For some reason Dorion refused to trade him in the division and dealt him to SJ for a cap dump, then Wilson immediately dealt him back into the division to Florida for a 2nd. Just embarrassing.

It's truly unbelievable how this numbskull is still employed after all the terrible moves he's made.

Too much revisionary history going on here. Credit to Zibanejad for finally putting it together and becoming a solid top-6 center, but he was barely that with the Senators. Sure he was still young but he was moving up and down the lineup because he couldn't stabilize his place. I remember very clearly being frustrated by his play on many occasions and never thought he would amount to what he is currently.

Never adored the trade, but Brassard was very beneficial to the team progressing through the Playoffs and even eliminating the Rangers. Had we won the Cup, this trade would not be brought up as much as it is now.

 

[Adele Dazeem]

Negativity negativity negativity… do a pools with his good moves too

There aren't many. Probably the Karlsson trade but he got lucky with San Jose falling off a cliff. He has already gotten rid of almost everything he acquired.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Tough to answer and some moving parts involved. Something like Stepan for a 2nd would be up there as one of the worst since it was a total waste of a pick on an over the hill player, but at the same time the asset lost pales in comparison to something like Zibanejad where you trade a #1 center heading in to their prime and overpay to do it, but then also slightly recover with a subsequent sell off of Brassard.

 

[DrEasy]

Negativity negativity negativity… do a pools with his good moves too

That's a much shorter list though. From the top of my head:

- sold Karlsson for Norris + pick that turned into Stutzle + other picks + Balcers + Demelo + Tierney etc.

- somehow found a Zub in the Siberian tundra

- Dzingel sold for picks + Duclair

- Pageau sold for decent picks

- Brassard sold for Gus + pick

- maaaybe getting rid of one year of Ceci but at the cost of many years of Zaitsev; at least we got Connor Brown for it

 

[Agent Zub]

Too much revisionary history going on here. Credit to Zibanejad for finally putting it together and becoming a solid top-6 center, but he was barely that with the Senators. Sure he was still young but he was moving up and down the lineup because he couldn't stabilize his place. I remember very clearly being frustrated by his play on many occasions and never thought he would amount to what he is currently.

Never adored the trade, but Brassard was very beneficial to the team progressing through the Playoffs and even eliminating the Rangers. Had we won the Cup, this trade would not be brought up as much as it is now.

Zibanejad ended up already being better at the time the trade was made, let alone going forward. Perhaps we actually win with Zibanejad in the playoffs. He was NYR best player that playoffs. While Brassard vanished after being carried by Karlsson and Ryan in the first round.

We traded a 22 year old 2nd line c with huge potential for a 28 year old 3rd line center. The 2nd is almost meaningless compared to what we gave up in Zibby. But crazy that it was us to give the extra pick.

 

[supsens]

Seriously how many years are you guys going to cry about Zbad?
How about how many people cried about needing to keep Turris
Or how many people thought they should keep Douch
Or how many people thought the EK trade was bad...
None of you have a better “record” then Dorion

 

[PlayOn]

Zib pretty easily for me. Duchene was better than Turris at that point so at least there’s that to justify it. It was always a matter of time for Zibanejad, still have no idea why Dorion thought that was a good idea. Stone we would’ve lost for nothing so I’ll take Brann and Sokolov although he should’ve done better.

Lots of other bad moves but no impact players lost really so those ones aren’t as major.

 

[Matsens15]

That's a much shorter list though. From the top of my head:

- sold Karlsson for Norris + pick that turned into Stutzle + other picks + Balcers + Demelo + Tierney etc.

- somehow found a Zub in the Siberian tundra

- Dzingel sold for picks + Duclair

- Pageau sold for decent picks

- Brassard sold for Gus + pick

- maaaybe getting rid of one year of Ceci but at the cost of many years of Zaitsev; at least we got Connor Brown for it

- Brassard trade (JBD+Gustavsson+Tychonick+3rd rd pick from Ian cole)

- Dzingel trade (Duclair+2 2nds)

-Karlsson trade (Stützle, Norris, Balcers, Tierney, Sogaard, 2021 2nd, 2020 3rd)

- Namestnikov vs ebert and a 2021 4th

- Condon trade vs a 5th pick

-pyatt vs Nilsson

- Smith vs Anisimov

-Curtis Lazar vs 2nd pick(Alex Formenton)

-Mike Rielly vs a 5th and then flip for a 3rd

-Ceci and Harpur vs C.Brown and Zaitsev

-Artem Zub

-Dadonov va Holden+3rd

-Austin Watson for a 4th

-Mete on waiver

-Chabot 8x8

-Batherson 6x4.975

-Tkachuk 7x8.2

-Zub 2x2.5

-I can also add all the NHL players that he drafted

 

[Liver King]

Hot damn what a pathetic GM

 

[Bileur]

Too much revisionary history going on here. Credit to Zibanejad for finally putting it together and becoming a solid top-6 center, but he was barely that with the Senators. Sure he was still young but he was moving up and down the lineup because he couldn't stabilize his place. I remember very clearly being frustrated by his play on many occasions and never thought he would amount to what he is currently.

Never adored the trade, but Brassard was very beneficial to the team progressing through the Playoffs and even eliminating the Rangers. Had we won the Cup, this trade would not be brought up as much as it is now.

You don’t seem to accurately remember Zibanejad’s last season as a senator or how he was trending.

His last season in Ottawa he had 21 goals and 51 points to lead the Sens centres in scoring. That is easily top 6 production anywhere in the league. He was second among Sens centres in PPTOI/GP, SHTOI/GP, TOI/GP, clearly top 6 deployment on the Sens. He also had over 100 hits, and was over 50% on draws.

He played the vast majority of the season with Hoffman and Ryan, it was the line that was together most often on the team, hardly moving up and down the lineup.

Brassard meanwhile led the rangers centres in TOI/GP and PPTOI/GP, in a 1a/1B with Stepan and didn’t kill penalties. He led their centres in scoring with 27 goals and 58 points in 80 games while playing with Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello.

0 revision required to suggest that if there arguably wasn’t an upgrade there.

Zibanejad outproduced Brassard in the first year post trade in the regular season (14 goals, 37 points in 56 games vs 14 goals, 39 points in 81 games) in the playoffs (2 goals, 9 points 12 games to lead the rangers in points vs 4 goals 11 points in 19 games tied for third on the Sens in playoff scoring) and in the Sens-rangers series specifically (1 goal, 5 points in 6 games to tie for rangers scoring lead vs 1 goal in 6 games tied with Cody Ceci for worst production among players who played all 6 games).

Of course in a fantasy where the Sens won the cup it might be argued it was worth it. Unfortunately in the real world they didn’t and Brassard was moved the following season because he wasn’t working out.

 

[Laphroaig]

The Zibanejad and Duchene trades were inexcusable but they happened early in his tenure as GM. I think he's gotten better. I'm not as upset as some people about the signings of mediocre veterans. In a rebuild you want to finish in a position to draft as early as possible. You don't want your placeholders destroying your draft standing.

It does suck though to waste a pick on Tyler Boucher with Cole Sillinger still on the board. I'll blame Trent Mann for that one as I doubt that Dorion has ever seen Boucher play.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

You don’t seem to accurately remember Zibanejad’s last season as a senator or how he was trending.

His last season in Ottawa he had 21 goals and 51 points to lead the Sens centres in scoring. That is easily top 6 production anywhere in the league. He was second among Sens centres in PPTOI/GP, SHTOI/GP, TOI/GP, clearly top 6 deployment on the Sens. He also had over 100 hits, and was over 50% on draws.

He played the vast majority of the season with Hoffman and Ryan, it was the line that was together most often on the team, hardly moving up and down the lineup. 0 revision required.

Brassard meanwhile led the rangers centres in TOI/GP and PPTOI/GP, in a 1a/1B with Stepan and didn’t kill penalties. He led their centres in scoring with 27 goals and 58 points in 80 games while playing with Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello.

Zibanejad outproduced Brassard in the first year post trade in the regular season (14 goals, 37 points in 56 games vs 14 goals, 39 points in 81 games) in the playoffs (2 goals, 9 points 12 games to lead the rangers in points vs 4 goals 11 points in 19 games tied for third on the Sens in playoff scoring) and in the Sens-rangers series specifically (1 goal, 5 points in 6 games to tie for rangers scoring lead vs 1 goal in 6 games tied with Cody Ceci for worst production among players who played all 6 games).

Of course in a fantasy where the Sens won the cup it might be argued it was worth it. Unfortunately in the real world they didn’t and Brassard was moved the following season because he wasn’t working out.

Not to mention that Dorion was gushing over him on 1200 calling him their #1 center of the future literally weeks before he was dealt. Dorion knew what he was giving up just as well as anyone.

 

[Bileur]

Not to mention that Dorion was gushing over him on 1200 calling him their #1 center of the future literally weeks before he was dealt. Dorion knew what he was giving up just as well as anyone.

And going on about Zib being in the best shape of his life.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

And going on about Zib being in the best shape of his life.

That too. Confused me a lot when he was dealt considering Dorion was singling him out like that just prior. It was not the typical rah rah prospect info either, it was a question of who he was most excited about from the hosts.

 

[Senovision]

Wow, that is quite a list of bad moves, it is crazy, just crazy that he has not been fired. Although, Eugene is probably paying him $7.00 an hour.... so that is why.

 

[Ursamajor25]

Seems like a pointlessly negative thread/poll when all of these moves have been discussed ad nauseum in the Trade/Around the NHL threads.