Sounds Like the Ottawa Senators Think Their Contenders

The Ottawa Senators management team was busy this offseason making a ton of moves. The team is entering their third-year of their ownership approved rebuild and even though they still have one of the youngest teams in the league, general manager, Pierre Dorion is betting on his team winning games next season.

As an organization we’re climbing the charts. A lot of the hard work has been done. For us, now, it’s time to perform. We’re at a place where everyone’s on the same page for our immediate success and our future success. We want to have a team, when they drop the puck on the first day of the year, that we know we’re going to be in the playoffs and we know can progress to win Cups. These things don’t get done overnight. It was always part of the plan, and how we structured the plan, with the way the game has evolved, that we continued this evolution. We’re following the right path to have a Cup-contending team year-after-year-after-year as we move along in the rebuild.

While they certainly improved their team, the Senators are still years away. The additions of Matt Murray, Evgenii Dadanov, and Alex Galchenyuk were their best moves and a lot of their success will ride on Murray's ability to be the last line of defense his team's going to need. Thomas Chabot will anchor their defense and Colin White and Brady Tkachuk will have to carry a lot of the load up front.

Keep an eye on the Senators. They will be improved next season, but that's easy to do when you've finished 31st, 30th and 31st the last three seasons.

Photo credit:  Steven Kingsman/Icon Sportswire