TORONTO — The Ottawa Senators could be looking to trade for a defenseman, according to general manager Pierre Dorion.
“Very active,” Dorion said following the general managers meeting Tuesday. “Very active to see what’s out there, what’s going on. I wouldn’t tell you that our team is struggling. Obviously our record (5-9-1) doesn’t reflect how I feel we are playing.”
The Senators have used nine defensemen this season. Thomas Chabot, their No. 1 defenseman, sustained a concussion during a 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday and was placed on injured reserve. He is expected to be out at least one week. Artem Zub is also on injured reserve and has missed the past seven games with an upper-body injury.
Dorion said he’s been pleased with the play of the rookie defenseman Jake Sandersonwho has seven assists and is averaging 20:13 of ice time in 15 games. Jacob Bernard-Dockeranother rookie, has averaged 19:11 of ice time in four games since being called up from Belleville of the American Hockey League.
“I think we’re just going to keep looking,” Dorion said. “If we can add externally, we’ll look at that. But internally, players that we’ve called up have performed well.”
He wants to wait and see if the internal options will hold for an extended period of time, but said if he decides to make a trade there will be no shortage of potential partners. He joked that he was among the most popular people at the GM meeting.
“I had 29 friends here that were really trying to help me out,” he said. “These meetings are a bit different than the ones in March, because at the March meetings you can’t make any more trades. Here you see a lot of guys huddling together and trying to figure out things and guys talking to each other. You can figure out what’s going on and if anyone is on the market.”
The Senators haven’t qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2017. Hopes were raised during the offseason when they traded for a forward. Alex DeBrincat and goalie Cam Talbot and signed forward Claude Giroux to a three-year contract.
But the Senators are last in the Atlantic Division and have one win in their past nine games (1-7-1) following a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday. They have allowed at least four goals in seven of the nine games.
Dorion, though, remains confident in coach DJ Smith, saying, “Coaching is not the problem.”
So Dorion refuses to panic or be forced into a desperation move.
“At this time of the year, I think we’re all gauging to see where we’re going to be, where everyone will be… by Christmas time,” he said. “We have to be somewhat patient, but we can’t let this continue on for too long.”
The Senators will have a chance to get on track when they host the Buffalo Sabers on Wednesday (7 pm ET; SN, TVAS, MSG-B, ESPN+).
Dorion said he believes the Senators are close to consistent success, pointing out how many one-goal games they have played and bemoaning what he believes to be a run of bad breaks; Ottawa is 0-4-1 in games decided by one goal.
“Hopefully we can start getting a bit of puck luck, but at the end of the day we’ve got to start winning games,” he said.
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