31 Takes: The Senators have to trade Matt Duchene, then blow it up

The Matt Duchene trade was a desperation move at the time, fueled by the idea that the Senators could be in any way competitive.

Remember, the Senators acquired Duchene in the Kyle Turris trade, essentially because they felt no need to re-sign Turris and that they were upgrading at the position, hence the throw-in of the infamous conditional Ottawa 2018/2019 first-round pick as well as high-end prospect Shane Bowers.

Duchene had an extra year on his deal (that being this 2018-19 season) and an apparent willingness to stick around. So imagine everyone’s complete lack of surprise — outside of Ottawa, of course — that it now seems as though the mutual interest in keeping Duchene in a Senators uniform long-term isn’t all that mutual anymore.

And frankly, why would any even remotely desirable UFA want to waste another contract playing for this dead-end team with a bad owner? Especially because this team also has a history of underbidding on talent, just to say they did any sort of bidding at all.

The team reportedly doesn’t want to set a hard deadline on when it would pull the chute on an effort to re-sign the center, who’s running over a point per game this year, but at the same time it would be malpractice keep him at the trade deadline if there’s even a question he might hit the open market.

Simply put: The Senators cannot afford to have traded a probable top-three pick in this coming draft along with the 28th overall pick from 2017, and a pretty good NHL center, for a year and a half of Matt Duchene’s services. A year and a half in which they got 85 points from 111 regular-season games (a 63-point pace over that span).

The idea behind the trade wasn’t a bad one in theory; the theory being that the Senators, coming off a conference final, weren’t total garbage. That theory was wrong, of course, but you still have to try to get value for free agents you don’t plan to re-sign. So if the Senators even have a question that they can’t retain Duchene’s services, they have to put him on the market, full stop.

And if you’re trading Duchene because you don’t think he’s retainable, why on earth would you make any efforts to retain, say, pending UFA Mark Stone? If you already traded Mike Hoffman and Erik Karlsson (for pretty poor returns, relative to those players’ quality), you have to recognize that the rebuild is already here, and that it’s important to accelerate that and maybe try to get a first-round pick or two back since Colorado’s probably gonna be getting one of Kaapo Kakko or Jack Hughes with your pick.

Put another way, Duchene should be the canary in the coal mine here. Well, I guess the third one, after Karlsson and Hoffman before him. But regardless, the general public already does not believe this team is well-run and the general perception of the owner is that he’s an incompetent boob. People outside the organization see this roster for what it is: pathetic, but possibly trending up.

The Senators don’t have a high-end farm system (and the lack of Hughes/Kakko doesn’t help) but if they can load up on picks selling off Duchene and Stone, develop those players after Logan Brown and Alex Formenton, and keep Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot productive, they might have something to work with in two or three years.

Right now, they have nothing to work with, and hopes are dimming every day. Get out in front of that by doing what Senators execs have long made impossible: accepting that the team sucks and trying to rebuild it from the ground up.

31 Takes

Anaheim Ducks: Ducks prospect Max Comtois was the guy who missed the penalty shot in Canada’s World Junior ouster. But he played the whole tournament with a separated shoulder, so don’t you feel bad about those tweets now?

Arizona Coyotes: It’s so cool that even in 2019, whether the Coyotes will stay in Glendale is still seemingly an annual story.

Boston Bruins: Hey, remember all that stuff about how Tuukka Rask sucks? After Saturday’s win — Boston’s fourth in a row — Rask is tied for 11th in save percentage among all goalies with at least 20 appearances. Pretty interesting how he keeps being a high-end goaltender.

Buffalo Sabres: Yeah so apart from that 10-game winning streak, the Sabres now have just 30 points from the other 32 games they’ve played this season. And remember, seven of those 10-straight wins were in OT or the shootout, so that’s even more luck. Yeesh.

Calgary Flames: “Flames ‘bail out‘ Rittich, who stopped 32 of 34.” Meanwhile if Mike Smith happens to be in net when the Flames score five times and he stops 17 of 20, he’s a Winner.

Carolina Hurricanes: Feels like it’s too late already.

Chicago: Drake Caggiula is ready to…… lose more?

Colorado Avalanche: The Avs drew 10 penalties in a win over the Rangers. TEN! That’s a lot.

Columbus Blue Jackets: It’s really wild how good Cam Atkinson has been for Columbus the last four years, averaging about 34-29-63 per 82 games since 2015-16. He’s one of only 17 players in the entire league to do that over 200-plus games. Deserved All-Star nod.

Dallas Stars: Good for Seguin. You don’t need your boss, your boss needs you.

Detroit Red Wings: A thousand damn games for Thomas Vanek. Time flies.

Edmonton Oilers: Maybe if they trade for three or four more third-pair defensemen…

Florida Panthers: Not sure how the Panthers squeeze Bobrovsky onto their cap but that would be cool. My thing is, why would Columbus trade him? He looks great and they have maybe the best shot of anyone to get to the Conference Final out of that division. Then you gotta win four games with an elite goalie behind you and you’re through to the Cup Final. Doesn’t make sense, if you’re a Hockey Man, even if you know for sure he’s leaving.

Los Angeles Kings: Jonathan Quick is now just 101 wins away from tying Chris Osgood on the all-time list. Still think “winning 400 games” means anything?

Minnesota Wild: Jared Spurgeon kicks ass. Fun player.

Montreal Canadiens: “Playoff push” is a really nice, considerate way to say “they’re maybe the ninth-best team in the East.”

Nashville Predators: Really don’t feel like we’ve talked about how good Ryan Johansen has been while his entire team has been injured all year. Leading the team in scoring with huge underlying numbers.

New Jersey Devils: No goalie in the Devils organization is allowed to stay healthy for more than 10 games. That’s a rule.

New York Islanders: When you score four goals on 14 shots, that’s actually a talent that you can have as a team (as long as you play against Jake Allen).

New York Rangers: Look, I agree.

Ottawa Senators: All that stuff above and I forgot to say the Sens have now lost eight straight.

Philadelphia Flyers: I mean, no it wouldn’t.

Pittsburgh Penguins: The Pens look impossibly good right now. Considering how impossibly bad they looked earlier this year, I guess things kinda even out.

San Jose Sharks: I wonder if any handsome cute smart funny cool geniuses had a take about this in the last week?

St. Louis Blues: “Jake Allen, a long time fan whipping boy for his inconsistent play and being prone to midwinter swoons, needs to be replaced.” Here’s me saying “hmm” until the sun explodes.

Tampa Bay Lightning: I guess if you’re gonna lose to someone to snap a 16-game point streak, losing to the Sharks is at least understandable.

Toronto Maple Leafs: The problem is the Canucks are probably too good this year to get the kind of high-end draft pick that’s made the Leafs as good as they are.

Vancouver Canucks: This is better than bad, I guess, but it’s still not good.

Vegas Golden Knights: They probably dominate the other periods too but okay.

Washington Capitals: Weird how when your power play stops shooting 25 percent or whatever you stop winning a lot of games despite poor underlying numbers. Weird.

Winnipeg Jets: Did Paul Maurice run over a witch’s son?

Gold Star Award

It’s wild to me that Auston Matthews can consistently put up numbers like he does playing 18 minutes a night. Against the Canucks, he had 1-2-3 in just 15:45.

Minus of the Weekend

The play that injured Elias Pettersson was widely viewed as clean, despite the fact that he was jumped on and tackled by a guy 45 feet away from the puck. Wouldn’t that………….. be the opposite of a clean play?

Play of the Weekend

This freakin’ PL Dubois pass. Come on dude.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Week

User “DominikBokkFan” is trying real hard.

Signoff

Come on, boy. This is the spot, right here. That’s a good boy. Good boy. Do your dirty, sinful business.

Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)