As thoroughly detailed in Part 1 of this piece, we have taken many twists and turns to get where we are today in the Evgenii Dadonov case, with the Ottawa Senators on the verge of surrendering their 2026 first-round pick. The question Sens fans are eager to pose is, can there still be an exit off this highway and a reasonable justification to have the penalty reduced?
While some may believe the team has been simply delaying the inevitable by deferring the punishment as long as they are able to, owner Michael Andlauer does not appear to have shifted his stance since the time of the initial ruling in November 2023. That stance is: the penalty is too harsh, no one involved is a part of the organization anymore, and there is precedent for the NHL reducing a first round pick penalty to a team.
Let’s look at each of these elements individually:
A first-round pick is too harsh a penalty for this particular offence
While the NHL is within its rights to levy any kind of penalty it wishes in disciplinary matters, this particular ruling does appear to be fairly arbitrary. Docking a team a first-round pick is not something the NHL does lightly and in fact, we have to go back 15 years to find the last time they did it (we’ll be revisiting that case shortly). Especially considering the league did conduct an initial investigation which determined zero punishment was warranted, it seems they went from 0 to 100 in the subsequent re-opening of the case.
Andlauer would be certain to point out that in previous cases with a first round pick penalty, the league determined that there was active malicious intent in attempting to skirt league rules (ie for cap circumvention purposes etc).
What would have had to be determined as part of this investigation is whether the Senators (represented by Dorion) knew of the presence of this list and outright misled Vegas as to its existence, or whether their messaging was a result of internal miscommunication.
In other words, was this a result of malicious intent or simple incompetence?
While we don’t know the answer publicly, we do know that the full trade details had been worked out at the time of the trade call. Vegas was aware the 10-team clause was in the original contract and only wanted clarification on if they were on it or not and a confirmation they would be getting it.
At that point, there was zero benefit in Dorion misleading them; if he had truly known the list had been submitted, the trade had already been worked out. Vegas almost certainly was not anticipating at that time that they would be trading Dadonov later that same season. That is not an easily movable contract, so the presence of a fairly pedestrian 10-team no-trade clause would not have been disqualifying for them.
So, it would be fairly safe to assume that this was all caused by the Senators' front office being incompetent in their internal record keeping and communication, not them actively misleading another team as part of a transaction. We can all agree both are bad but the latter is certainly worse.
Furthermore, in the time since this ruling, the league has reportedly re-evaluated their policy on how no-trade lists are stored and there is now a lever where the league is involved in the receipt of these annual lists. This would appear to be a tacit acknowledgment that this was perhaps not the best system and could lead to these types of problems.
No one involved in the incident is with the Senators’ organization anymore
The Sens owner at the time of the trade is deceased. The assistant GM left the organization during the investigation and the GM is no longer here with the new owner stating this incident was the primary reason why. The man directly accountable for the entire debacle (Pierre Dorion) has already received the most severe consequences for his part in it. As Andlauer would surely note, the previous case where a first-round pick was involved (I swear we’re getting to this momentarily) was re-evaluated in part because new ownership had taken over the team being punished.
Andlauer has an especially strong case here because of the due diligence period of his purchase period mentioned in the Part 1 timeline where Senators representatives indicated that they considered the investigation a “non-issue”. As he stated afterwards, “I don’t know if a first-rounder is a non-issue to you guys, but it is (an issue) to me”.
The timing of when the ruling was rendered was suspicious to Andlauer. The interviews with both front offices were conducted nearly 10 months prior. He could certainly speculate that the league held off on a public issuance of their decision so as not to muddy the waters during the team sale period and then only dropped it on his lap after the deal was done. If Andlauer was serious about pursuing it, this could open up legal avenues to the Senators sale representatives and even the league which is something the NHL would obviously wish to avoid.
There is precedent for the NHL reducing a first-round pick penalty
Now we will talk about Ilya Kovalchuk, but only briefly as this is only to provide the example of the similarities involved that Andlauer could look to leverage. In short, in 2010 the New Jersey Devils signed Kovalchuk to a wild 17-year contract (back before there were contract term limits) that would take him into his mid-40’s.
The league correctly identified this as cap circumvention, voided the contract and punished the Devils with a $3 million fine, loss of a third-round pick, and a future first-round pick which (like the Senators) they could choose to have applied in any of the next four seasons. The Devils (like the Senators) deferred the first-round pick to the final option year, but then in March 2014, prior to the draft, officially asked for an appeal. Their case for appeal was that the Devils were under new ownership, but more importantly, Kovalchuk had retired from the NHL and left for the KHL which changed the circumstances materially of the punishment. The NHL agreed and reduced the punishment by cutting the fine in half and issuing the Devils the last pick in the first round (as opposed to their own).
While there are similarities in both cases, there are differences as well. The Devils leaned on the fact that Kovalchuk’s retirement did impact their cap and financial situation in a way that was unforeseen and this was a case primarily about cap circumvention as opposed to a team misleading other teams as part of a player transaction. But what it does indicate is a willingness for the league to reconsider their initial penalty if they feel something has changed in the interim since their ruling.
It should be said that the last time commissioner Gary Bettman was asked about this case roughly a year ago, he did not seem especially inclined to change his mind. “I haven’t had that discussion in a way I think would be appropriate for me to comment publicly, but my inclination would be no,” was what he said at the time.
The question would be this: how would the NHL feel if Andlauer and the Senators officially asked for an appeal and a chance to make their case the way the Devils did with Kovalchuk? That has not happened to this point and it may never happen, but if we use the Kovalchuk case as a guideline, at any point during this season, this is certainly a request the Senators could make leading up the draft.
In deferring the punishment for as long as they’ve been able, it also makes the wound less fresh for Vegas, who most likely got what they wanted out of the ruling (public exoneration of their role in the incident). It does seem like a compromise could at least be proposed. For example, I'm sure a reduction to the loss of a second-round pick would be acceptable for the Sens.
Time will tell whether this gets pursued any further or if the Senators are resigned to their fate, but until Andlauer says otherwise, there’s still potential for this to be re-evaluated. I’ll be certain to update the article if and when anything develops. In the meantime, the Sens have a Cup to win this season, so we’ll be certain to shift our focus there as the season gets underway.
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