The Ottawa Senators have been utterly terrible the past two seasons following an Eastern Conference Final appearance and Game 7 loss in 2017. The 2017-18 was an utter disaster after the trade for Matt Duchene, after which they finished 30th of 31 teams in the league. In 2018-19, the Sens were expected to be even worse after star defenseman Erik Karlsson was dealt to San Jose during the 2018 offseason, and they finished last in the league. While some moves they've made to start their rebuild have been promising, others make little sense for the future.

Knowing they did not have their 2019 1st Round Pick (which the Avalanche acquired in the Duchene trade), the Senators traded franchise face Mark Stone to the Vegas Golden Knights as Stone was set to be an unrestricted free agent in the 2019 offseason and was rumored to not want to re-sign with the franchise. The Sens made the right move by trading him but could have received more in return than just a top prospect, 2nd round pick, and mediocre roster player had they traded Stone earlier in the season or during the 2017-18 season.

Ottawa made smart moves to trade Duchene and Ryan Dzingel to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the 2019 Trade Deadline, both who were set to become UFAs in the offseason, and received fair value in each deal. But the moves that Dorion has made this summer have been puzzling. The Sens traded Cody Ceci (who was set to become an RFA), along with Ben Harpur, a lowly regarded prospect, and a 2020 3rd Round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown, and a lowly regarded prospect. The Sens traded a poor defenseman in Ceci on an expiring deal who they could have let walk and a 3rd round pick for a poor defenseman in Zaitsev who is signed until 2024 and a mediocre forward in Brown. Trading for a bad player with more term and GIVING UP A DRAFT PICK during a rebuild is asinine.

In addition, the Senators traded their franchise's third goaltender Mike Condon and a 6th round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Ryan Callahan's expiring deal (who is on long term injured reserve and won't play again) and a 5th round pick. They essentially traded Condon's $3 million in salary to take on a bad contract that Tampa wanted to get rid of only to not get any top three round draft picks from the Lightning. Ottawa won't have to pay Callahan his remaining salary because the contract is covered by insurance, but if I were Dorion, I would have not included Condon and just traded for Callahan's contract in order to get a premium draft pick from Tampa.

With many believing owner Eugene Melnyk to be the one influencing all of Dorion's GM decisions, much of the fault could be put on Melnyk as well. Ottawa could have traded for a bad contract or two such as Patrick Marleau's to acquire a future 1st round pick, which is exactly what the Carolina Hurricanes did. And as mentioned before, you cannot trade higher draft picks during a rebuild if you're not getting higher returns than Zaitsev and Brown.

With the Sens gutting the roster over the past few seasons, and prospects and future draft picks years away from being on the roster, it is going to be one painful rebuild as a result of the moves made by Ottawa's management.