Why was the punishment for the Ottawa Senators so steep?

TSN: Darren Dreger on why the Ottawa Senators’ punishment for the Evgenii Dadonov trade situation was so steep with a first-round pick.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Gino Reda: “For more on the day’s big news. Here’s insider Darren Dreger. Darren, Michael Andlauer didn’t hold back at all. He used words like embarrassed and negligent, but he didn’t call the loss of the first-round pick a very strong price to pay.

Why was it so important to make this punishment so severe from the leagues’ standpoint?”

Dreger: “Well, because of how mismanaged it was from Ottawa’s standpoint. This is a tough one for the new owner of the Ottawa Senators. I think we can all appreciate that.

But I think Gino, you have to look at it from Vegas’ perspective as well, right? It was like they hand dirty hands in this transaction. That wasn’t the case at all.

When you make that trade call, in this case between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks, and the Ottawa Senators ultimately involved, you’re working on good faith. The information that was supplied by the Ottawa Senators was incorrect. They said that they didn’t have the appropriate trade information. And the agent for Dadonov supplied that information, that proof that Ottawa in fact did have that.

So the National Hockey League initially approves the trade between Vegas to Anaheim, and then has to avoid it. This was a bad look for the NHL but more importantly, a worse look for the Ottawa Senators because it was mismanaged and because of that, there has to be severe penalty.

Reda: “It’s important to point out while he accepted the punishment, he did have some questions surrounding the timing and the process though.”

Dreger: “He did, again Micheal Andlaur, the owner of the Ottawa Senators takes responsibility but he did that in your right, you know, kind of asking the question that was asked of him by a media member. You’ve got to ask the National Hockey League why it took so long to reach a conclusion to the sanction.

What I would submit to this, look, we know that the Commissioner’s Office is inundated with all sorts of things that aren’t often reported.  In this case, we followed it pretty closely. So I’m not suggesting that this wasn’t a priority for the NHL. What I am reporting is that Michael Andlauer would have known the severity of this situation and what the likely end result was, in terms of the punitive decision made by the NHL prior to him taking full ownership or ownership with the Ottawa Senators.”

Reda: “Andlauer also said Pierre Dorion’s actions embarrassed the league and pissed off two other NHL clubs. Was Dorian already on his way out or did this ultimately seal his fate?”

Dreger: “Well, it seems like it was inevitable, again, you know, Dorian was at the end of his contract. So, it felt like there was likely going to be a change but I think you also have to be mindful here of new ownership coming in. Steve Staios introduced after new ownership. So Staois was brought in to kind of oversee hockey operations.

Well, he needs time to get to know everybody and get to know what works. Get to know what doesn’t work. And I don’t think that enough time has passed for them to make a conclusion that Pierre Dorian is not the right man for the job.

They’ve announced that it was a mutual decision that effectively Pierre Dorion has resigned. But you got to believe that, everything that’s gone on over the last several weeks, this being the end of that encouraged the decision.

But I will say this somewhat in support of Pierre Dorian, he went through some pretty difficult dark times. under the watch of Eugene Melnyk, the previous owner of the Ottawa Senators. He did some good things. He made his mistakes. But again, it feels like this may have been the final straw.