Ottawa beat writer Dave King was eager to get an in-depth analysis of the Sens' trade deadline in BEARD Hockey from this past Sunday.
Actually, a double deadline day was split up, which gave GM Mike Bell of the Ottawa Senators ample time to work his trading magic.
Dave King: Well Mr. Bell, thank you once again for giving the readers and fans of Ottawa the chance to understand how you saw the trade deadline and why did you choose to move.
Mike Bell: Well Dave, in all honesty, we did not think we were going to acquire anyone. We had put a few trade baits out there to see if we would be generating interest, but the contenders were not moving and there were lots of sellers this year.
But lo and behold, after seeing the trade block from the Toronto GM, we realized that we might have a chance at landing star player Jacob Voracek, who will be UFA at the end of the year. I contacted Mr. Walsh around the 5pm time and we went on back and forth till close to the deadline. I want to also take this chance at highlighting the professionalism of Mr. Walsh in trade talks.
At around 10:30pm, the deal was sealed, and I contacted Mr. Voracek personally to congratulate and welcome him to our great city and to reiterate our commitment to our fans to be a serious contender - with the only goal of winning the BEARD Stanley Cup.
We had to give up on young players Jack Roslovic and Nils Hoglander, but we also got a player back we see as a pro starter soon enough in Egor Sokolov and we got a 2nd round draft pick in 2022 back. That will save us a penalty of a few million dollars we had from mid-season and should give us compensation in case we cannot re-sign Voracek.
Dave King: Why make such a bold move when Ottawa was on top of the standings and among the best teams in the league?
Mike Bell: We could not pass up on adding another puck-handling scorer to this team. We believe that with the likes of Sean Monahan, Mitch Marner, Patrice Bergeron, and Jamie Benn that it will only solidify our Power Play unit. And it now gives us 3 full complete lines to compete every night. I decided it was time to go ALL IN this year.
Dave King: What about the 3 UFA’s on the team this year?
Mike Bell: We have entered into talks with Bergeron and negotiations have halted at the moment but should resume shortly. We will definitely also try and enter into talks with Voracek. As we are close to the cap, and with re-signing Jordan Bennington to a new multi-year contract, Evgenii Dadonov will not be re-signed as we will need cap space.
Well, there you go folks, the final stretch of the season is here. It is bound to be an exciting end of the year. With this team, the goal is the Cup and nothing else.
As Mr. Bell said, it’s ALL IN!