Senators fire Pierre Dorion as GM

The Ottawa Senators relieved general manager Pierre Dorion of his duties. The announcement was made on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after it was announced that the team lost a first-round pick for its mishandling of Evgenii Dadonov’s trade away from the club.

This was the last straw for Ottawa, says Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, as the club has faced a string of bad news and scandals to start the season. Only last week it was announced that Shane Pinto would face a 41-game suspension for going against the NHL’s betting policy. This comes after a laborious contract negotiation with the restricted free agent that carried into the regular season.

Ottawa is off to a fine enough start to the season despite the off-ice theatrics with a 4-4-0 record through the first eight games and the seventh-most goals in the NHL. The Sens are being championed, once again, by the powerful duo of Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk — the former leading the team in assists (8) and the latter leading in goals (6). The two have spent 123 minutes of ice time together and have been on the ice for 12 of Ottawa’s 32 goals so far this season. Their even-strength line is rounded out by Claude Giroux, who has nine points of his own through the team’s eight games.

Dorion was also the man to bring in free agent Vladimir Tarasenko, whose brought a defiant punch to the team’s second line, with three goals and nine points. With Dorion now out of the picture, all attention turns toward whom the Senators may entertain as his replacement.