Senators’ Pierre Dorion Resigns After 8 Seasons; Steve Staios Named Interim GM

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The Ottawa Senators haven’t made the playoffs since the 2016-17 season and will be starting a new era after general manager Pierre Dorion resigned Wednesday after eight seasons, per hockey reporter Elliotte Friedman.

Steve Staios for Dorion will take over in an interim role.

Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff initially reported Ottawa was “making [a] change” and would announce the move in a press conference on Wednesday.

This comes after the NHL announced the Senators would lose either their 2024, 2025 or 2026 first-round draft pick as a result of the fallout from the Evgenii Dadonov saga.

Ottawa traded the right-winger to the Vegas Golden Knights in July 2021 but did not inform the Western Conference team of his 10-team no-trade clause list. The Golden Knights then attempted to trade him to the Anaheim Ducks in March 2022 only for the deal to be invalidated because Anaheim was one of the teams on Dadonov’s no-trade list.

The Golden Knights released a statement saying they “appreciate the league’s diligence on this matter and respect the decision. The club will have no further comment.”

As for Dorion, he was with the Senators since he joined the team as a scout in 2007. He was previously with the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers for a combined 13 years.

Before becoming general manager in 2016, Dorion moved up to director of player personnel and then assistant general manager. Yet Sportsnet noted new owner Michael Andlauer named Staios as president of hockey operations just eight days after he took over the club in September and now gets to hire a general manager of his choosing following the resignation.

Ottawa didn’t find much success during Dorion’s tenure and made the playoffs just one time.

It was a far cry from when the team reached the postseason 11 years in a row from 1996-97 through 2007-08 during a stretch that included two appearances in the Eastern Conference Final and one appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Senators are off to a 4-4 start this season and are in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with eight points in the early standings.