Report card grades for all 31 NHL teams at the trade deadline

Ottawa Senators: D

The Ottawa Senators were the talk of the hockey world for the last few months. As time went on, more and more players from Ottawa started to become available. It looked like Ottawa could have really set itself up to do well and grab as many future assets as possible. The Senators were able to offload Dion Phaneuf’s contract and move on from Derick Brassard, so it wasn’t all bad, but it would appear there was a lot left on the table.

The Dion Phaneuf trade was great for Ottawa, as it got his contract off of their books. Derick Brassard was another good trade that got the Senators a goalie prospect Filip Gustavsson, a 2018 first- and fourth-round pick, as well as defenseman Ian Cole, who was quickly traded to Columbus for a prospect and a 2020 third-round pick.

The Senators will have to wait to move on from Karlsson now until the offseason. They will still get a lot of pieces back for him, but it will not be as much as they would have gotten now. There were plenty of rumors about Bobby Ryan or Mike Hoffman getting traded. Both will be on the market as well this summer as Ottawa continues to dump as much salary as possible. Trading pieces like Karlsson and Hoffman is not an easy decision to make. It is important to get the return right so it matches what you are losing. It may hurt the team right now to move the pieces but in the long run, it would be worth it. Pierre Dorion failing to capture the maximum value on Karlsson and Hoffman earns Ottawa a D grade this year.