NHL slaps Senators with forfeiture of future first-round pick for botched Dadonov trade

More than 19 months after the NHL invalidated a trade involving the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks at the 2022 trade deadline, the league punished the real culprit on Wednesday: the Ottawa Senators.

The NHL announced that the Senators must forfeit a future first-round pick over the next three years for their role in the botched deal because they did not originally supply Evgenii Dadonov’s “no-trade” list to the Golden Knights upon his arrival in 2021. The Senators will be allowed to select which year the first-round pick is forfeited – one of 2024, 2025 or 2026 – and the decision must be made within 24 hours of the culmination of the Draft Lottery.

The NHL declined to comment further than the league’s brief statement. For this story, the devil is in the details, and the Golden Knights were exonerated on Wednesday.

Back in 2022, the Golden Knights appeared to have egg on their face when the March 21 deadline day trade was nixed. Vegas agreed to send Dadonov and a conditional second-round pick to the Ducks in exchange for the contracts of John Moore and injured forward Ryan Kesler, who was essentially retired. The deal was for salary cap purposes.

The deal was completed pending trade call, when sources say, Dadonov’s agent balked and mentioned that Anaheim was one of the teams on Dadonov’s negotiated 10-team “no-trade” list. One issue: the Golden Knights were unaware the clause existed and had no record of receiving a list. Dadonov stood his ground as is his right, the trade was invalidated, and since it was past the 3 o’clock deadline, the Golden Knights were stuck with an unenviable cap situation and some embarrassment to wear.

Turns out, as the NHL confirmed with Wednesday’s punishment, the Senators were to blame. The root issue goes back to Dadonov’s arrival in 2021. Upon completing the trade call, as sources say is customary on the call, there is record of the Golden Knights’ representative asking if the team needed to be aware of any “no-trade” clauses. They were told no, and no list was passed along. Dadonov’s agent provided proof that he had indeed submitted a previous “no-trade” list to Ottawa.

The Golden Knights continued to pursue justice over the last 591 days and the league finally slapped the Sens on Wednesday. In 2020, the NHL forced the Arizona Coyotes to forfeit a 2021 first-round pick and 2020 second-round pick for improperly testing draft-eligible prospects.

There have been other instances of the league imposing forfeiture, including the Devils’ first-round pick in 2014 for an illegal contract with Ilya Kovalchuk (a penalty which was later rescinded), the Maple Leafs forfeiting a 2009 fourth-round pick for an illegal contract with Jonas Frogren, and famously in 1983 when the Blues traded away their first two picks and forfeited the last 10 rounds because they didn’t show up to the Draft.

For the Golden Knights, all is well that ends well. Dadonov returned to the lineup a couple nights later and finished the season on a tear with 16 points in his final 16 games. Dadonov was traded that next summer to Montreal, who was not on his “no-trade” list. Last spring, the Golden Knights went on to win their first Stanley Cup, and have begun to shred their reputation as a franchise that has casted off players as used parts – with Wednesday’s ruling further supporting that.

As for the Senators, this is a stiff penalty, and the second in as many weeks after forward Shane Pinto’s 41-game suspension for sports betting activity. The Senators are only a few weeks under the stewardship of new owner Michael Andlauer, and since both violations date back to before his arrival, the temperature seems to only be ratcheting up on Pierre Dorion’s regime with the Sens off to a middling 4-4-0 start.