The Vegas Golden Knights attempted to break the internet on Tuesday, trading the reigning Vezina Trophy winner — and face of the franchise — Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks.
In a move that generated considerably less angst on Wednesday, they traded Nick Holden and a 2022 third-round pick to the Ottawa Senators for scoring winger Evgenii Dadonov.
Which side comes out ahead in this swap? Here are our grades for both general managers:
The Golden Knights were third in the NHL in goals per game in the 2021 regular season, with 3.39. They were seventh in the playoffs, with the average dropping to 2.79. Their lineup has offensive talent, to be sure. But it also needs more finishers. The question is whether Dadonov still is one.
Dadonov had back-to-back seasons of 28 goals from 2017-18 to 2018-19. His goal scoring was good on average (1.3 goals per 60 minutes) in his last season with the Florida Panthers, but it dipped to 0.9 goals per 60 minutes in his first and only season with the Senators. Analytically, he’s been in a four-year free fall, with his even-strength numbers tumbling and his defensive metrics remaining below average. In 55 games last season, he had just 1.6 goals scored above average.
So the hope here is that a change in scenery — and teammates — gets Dadonov back to a place of solid offensive production. The team’s top two lines are spoken for, provided the Knights are still moving out pieces this summer. (Say, for an elite centerman from the Buffalo Sabres.) Dadonov theoretically slides in on a revamped third line that could feature mainstay Alex Tuch and new center Nolan Patrick. As a bottom-six fit, that would be a coup.
But this trade isn’t made in a vacuum. Dadonov makes $5 million against the cap for the next two seasons. That’s a lot of cheddar for a 32-year-old player who’s been in decline. That’s also a chunk of the salary-cap space that the Golden Knights opened up in trading Marc-Andre Fleury to the Blackhawks this week. GM Kelly McCrimmon said he believes in the centers the Knights have in their lineup, while the rest of the hockey world wonders if they’re good enough to win the Stanley Cup. Now, he’s dedicated even more cap capital to his wingers rather than the middle of the ice.
But the Knights needed finishers, and for Dadonov, outside of his season in exile in Ottawa as a free-agent signee, that’s the one thing he does well.
The Senators acquire a veteran defenseman in Holden, a 34-year-old who has one more year left on his deal at $1.7 million. He’s a slight uptick over what was likely available to Ottawa on the open market. Not a bad addition to the blue line, especially one that had a glaring need to add something on the left side.
The third-rounder is the Canucks’ pick that they traded to Vegas in that Nate Schmidt salary dump last offseason. Given the state of that team, it could be a high-third-round pick.
We’re not applying this grade to the initial signing of Dadonov by GM Pierre Dorion. In full disclosure, we liked it at the time. But it didn’t work, and that was clear to all involved. So they dangled him in the expansion draft and the Kraken didn’t bite. And now they turned a $3.5 million salary in Year 1 into a veteran defenseman and a third-round pick. Not a bad redo.