Senators part with GM Dorion after 8 seasons

The Ottawa Senators parted ways with general manager Pierre Dorion after eight seasons on the job, owner Michael Andlauer announced Wednesday.

Andlauer said Dorian resigned and was relieved of his duties.

Steve Staios, who had been serving as the team's president of hockey operations, will take over as GM on an interim basis.

The Senators were stripped of a first-round pick earlier Wednesday for their role in the voided 2022 Evgenii Dadonov trade between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks. The Senators failed to properly inform the Golden Knights about Dadonov's 10-team, no-trade list when they dealt him to Vegas in the 2021 offseason.

"Why I inherited this is beyond me," said Andlauer, who completed his purchase of the club in September. "There is no reason for it to last that long."

Andlauer said he wasn't informed of a potential penalty for the voided Dadonov trade nor the investigation into Shane Pinto (who was suspended 41 games for sports gambling) when he bought the team.

"Maybe because the club was for sale and they didn't want to disrupt (the sale) to make sure the seller got the biggest price possible," said Andlauer, who paid $950 million for the franchise.

Staios, who played 16 seasons in the NHL, previously worked under Andlauer as president and GM of the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.

Ottawa made the Eastern Conference Final in Dorion's first season on the job in 2016-17, but the club has failed to make the playoffs since. The Senators went 225-261-65 in Dorion's eight seasons, ranking 28th in the NHL in points. The team is 4-4-0 to begin 2023-24.

Dorion had the Senators in win-now mode upon taking over as GM. He traded away Mika Zibanejad in a deal for Derick Brassard in 2016, which helped the Senators reach the 2017 conference finals but proved to hurt in the long run. Dorion aimed to keep Ottawa's contention window open by landing Matt Duchene in a three-team deal in 2017 that gave the Colorado Avalanche the No. 4 pick in 2019 used to select Bowen Byram after Ottawa tumbled down the standings.

But after it was clear Ottawa's contention window closed, Dorion shifted into rebuild mode. It started with the 2018 Erik Karlsson blockbuster, which netted the Senators a package including the 2020 No. 3 pick used to select new franchise cornerstone Tim Stutzle.

After four years as sellers, Dorion looked to expedite the rebuild in a busy 2022 offseason that saw the team land Claude Giroux in free agency and Alex DeBrincat in a trade. It didn't work as planned, as the Senators finished eight points out of a playoff spot. Aside from flipping DeBrincat after he informed the team he wouldn't re-sign, Dorion kept the team mostly the same entering 2023-24, outside of signing Joonas Korpisalo to solve the team's goaltending issues.