As we all await the start of the 2025-26 season and the storylines that will come into focus, I thought this was as good a time as any to go over a long-gestating story that will conclude one way or another by next Spring’s NHL entry draft.
The saga has impacted the Sens organization for the better part of three and a half years, stretched over an ownership change, and cost a GM his job. All because of a trade call that went awry for a player that had an extremely forgettable stint in Ottawa, Evgenii Dadonov.
Despite the length of time that has elapsed since the infraction itself, the story endures because the consequences in the form of league punishment have not yet been fulfilled. Most Sens fans are fairly familiar with the broad strokes of the botched communication but there is still some level of curiosity around the possibility that the league penalty of a lost first-round pick could still be potentially reduced, primarily because owner Michael Andlauer continues to float this to anyone who asks him about it.
Before we explore the possibility of the penalty reduction, we must return to the scene of the crime and more importantly, the timeline of everything that has happened up to now, which would comprise a large part of the justification Andlauer believes is there for the commissioner’s office to reconsider its punishment.
So here’s part one, the timeline in question:
Oct 15th, 2020: We start our story a full five years ago when then-Sens GM Pierre Dorion signed UFA Evgenii Dadonov to a three-year/$15 million contract prior to the Covid-delayed 2020-21 season. That contract contained a modified no-trade clause, which required that Dadonov and his agent submit a list of 10 teams he could not be dealt to without his permission by July 1st of each year of his contract term. If a list was not submitted by that deadline, the clause would be considered null and void as per NHL CBA guidelines.
In an interview given recently, Dorion stated that the 10-team modified no-trade clause was a standard offering in free agent contracts the Sens issued during his tenure, as they would refuse to negotiate terms with greater than 10 teams or full no-trade protection as a matter of organizational policy. In short, this is a clause Dorion and the Senators were extremely familiar with.
Pre-July 1st, 2021: After the 2020-21 NHL season ended, Dadonov’s agent sent his 10-team no-trade list to the Senators by email. We do not know the exact date this was done, but the league later confirmed that the list had been submitted prior to the July 1st deadline and that the Senators had acknowledged receipt of the list back to the agent. What we don’t know is who within the Senators front office was involved in acknowledging receipt of the list. We know that the Anaheim Ducks were one of the teams on this list and the Vegas Golden Knights were not.
July 28th, 2021: After a disappointing season, the Senators decided that Dadonov was not a good fit and were not overly excited about paying him for the remaining two years on his deal. They worked out a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights to receive Nick Holden and a third-round pick in return.
On the official trade call (which we know Dorion, Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon and a league representative were a part of), the pieces of the trade were confirmed by both parties. This is where Dorion was asked about the modified no-trade clause, which was a part of the player contract. We do not know exactly what was said on the call, only that Dorion indicated that the no-trade clause was no longer in effect, meaning that they had not received a list from the agent by the July 1st deadline.
As no trade lists (at the time) were not required to be housed anywhere but with the team (reportedly requested by agents for privacy purposes to not upset other teams about being included as undesirable destinations), the protocol was for the trading team to be ultimately responsible for the communication of the list and for sending it along to the new team if necessary. As Vegas was not on the list submitted by the agent, there was no argument from Dadonov and the trade was considered legitimate and finalized.
It should be noted that if player agents were allowed to participate in these trade calls, this miscommunication would have been identified immediately and the fiasco that followed would never have occurred.
March 21st, 2022 (trade deadline): During a middling year, Vegas was attempting to make a playoff push, and after dealing for an injured Jack Eichel in November, they were looking to make some salary cap moves to accommodate he and others returning to the roster. Dadonov was identified as a contract they needed to move and they finalized a deal with the Anaheim Ducks at the deadline to effectively dump him there.
The trade was then nullified by the league a couple of days later after Dadonov’s agent pointed out that the Ducks were a team that Dadonov needed to provide permission for a deal. This is when the presence of the no-trade list was uncovered, with the league confirming via Dadonov’s agent that the list had indeed been sent to the Senators by the deadline and was therefore in effect.
Interestingly, Vegas did not really end up needing to free up the cap space they thought they would due to additional long-term injuries occurring. They missed the playoffs that season despite the irony that Dadonov ended up being one of their most productive players after the deadline. Vegas would eventually deal Dadonov to the Montreal Canadiens the following November for Shea Weber’s dead money contract.
June 15, 2022: Senators Assistant GM Peter MacTavish unexpectedly resigned from his role and joined Quartexx Management, a player agency group. MacTavish remains with Quartexx in a senior role to this day. The Senators’ front office staff under Dorion was extremely small, and it would stand to reason that if there indeed was internal miscommunication with the no-trade list, MacTavish was likely involved to some degree.
Summer 2022: As a result of the nullified deal, the NHL quietly conducted an internal investigation into the Dadonov affair and eventually determined that neither Vegas nor Ottawa were subject to any further action, and both parties were informed that the league considered the issue closed and they would be making no public comment on it.
December 2022: The result of the league investigation reportedly was not sufficient for McCrimmon, President George McPhee and the Golden Knights, who believed they had suffered reputational damage from the public fallout of the botched trade. So they demanded the NHL reopen the investigation, and the league acquiesced. A number of representatives from both the Sens and Knights front offices were interviewed extensively at this time.
June 13th, 2023: Michael Andlauer is announced by the Senators as the winner of a lengthy bidding process to become their new owner. Andlauer still has to receive official approval from the NHL Board of Governors and complete final due dilligence to determine the final purchase value. Part of the due diligence will be to verify all team assets including player contracts and future draft picks. At some point during this due diligence period, Andlauer later states that team representatives mentioned the ongoing investigation into the Dadonov trade and indicated to him they considered it a “non-issue.”
September 21st, 2023: Andlauer is officially approved as owner by the Board of Governors and the final sale price is announced as just under $1 Billion. Within a week, Andlauer hired Steve Staios as the team’s new President of Hockey Operations with Pierre Dorion remaining in place as GM.
November 1st, 2023: Roughly 10 months after conducting their interviews, the NHL sent Andlauer a 73-page report on their investigation and announced that the Sens would lose a first-round pick in either the 2024, 2025 or 2026 draft (at the team’s own discretion) as a result. Andlauer immediately announced that Dorion had mutually agreed to part ways with the club, though it was clear to all that Dorion had been fired with cause as a direct result of this ruling.
It was also stated that the league actually held off on announcing the results of the investigation due to the fact that they had to inform Andlauer of the punishment for Shane Pinto’s gambling investigation the week prior. The Senators have since deferred on losing the first-round pick the last two drafts, making the upcoming 2026 draft in June the designated option.
Now that we understand the exhaustive timeline, we can look at what options, if any, Andlauer feels that he has with respect to appealing the ruling and having the penalty reduced.
In Part two this week, I’ll dive into the case Andlauer can make to see if the upcoming first-round pick can be salvaged.
By Tyler Ray
The Hockey News Ottawa
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