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Penalty for the Dadonov saga: Ottawa may try to take advantage of a loophole

Originally posted on Dose.ca | Last updated May 15, 2025 5:13 PM ET

The Senators had their fingers rapped in 2023 after the long and bizarre Evgenii Dadonov saga.

In 2021, Ottawa traded the Russian to Vegas without providing its list of teams to which he would refuse to be traded. Then, in 2022, the Golden Knights tried to shipper him to the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline… But the NHL revoked the transaction, for this reason. A year later, the League ruled that Pierre Dorion and the Sens were to blame for the lack of communication.

In a nutshell. Do you follow?

As punishment, Ottawa had to forfeit one of its next three first-round picks. In 2024, they kept him – rightly so – as they selected Carter Yakemchuk at No. 7…

Except that the Sens seem to have decided to keep their 2025 draft pick, which will be 21st overall. According to PuckPedia, they were supposed to notify the league offices within 24 hours of the draft lottery, which doesn’t appear to have been done.

It does not appear #GoSensGo elected to forfeit the ’25 1st round pick. Per the NHL punishment, they had 24 hours following the draft lottery to decide to forfeit the ’25 1st.

Since ’25 1st not forfeited, they’ll either forfeit ’26 1st or punishment could possibly be reduced

– PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) May 14, 2025

This is peculiar, as the 2025 vintage has the reputation of not being very “deep”, while we hear that the 2026 vintage will be very interesting.

However, there’s a popular theory that Ottawa is hoping for an “Ilya Kovalchuk”-style conclusion, in the days when the Devils received identical punishment for attempting to offer the Russian a 17-year contract that the NHL called a “salary bypass”.

Lou Lamoriello waited until the final year, then the League gave in. Rather than lose a first-round pick, the Devils received the 30th overall.

Was a precedent set? Maybe so… And Ottawa would be right to try… It’s more than a precedent, when such a penalty is so infrequent – it’s downright a loophole.

Overtime

– Sven… Andrighetto…

Andrighetto scores four goals in Switzerland’s win over Germany https://t.co/ODrrNpkkzW

– TSN 690 Montreal (@TSN690) May 15, 2025

– Sam Gagner takes the plunge.

NEWS RELEASE: Ottawa Senators are pleased to announce the hiring of Matt Turek as general manager of the Belleville Senators, Sam Gagner will take on the role of director of player development with the Senatorshttps://t.co/3oSKYxaWIl pic.twitter.com/DIRCy49n7G

– Sens Communications (@Media_Sens) May 15, 2025

– The definition of “learning to lose”.