As the one-year anniversary of the blockbuster trade that brought Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators approaches, general manager Pierre Dorion remains pleased with his investment.
"(I'm) very happy with how it turned out. Obviously, from a team (perspective), we would have liked to have more success, but the player is exactly as advertised," Dorion told reporters Monday. "He's a No. 1 center, he can carry the load, he can play against the other team's best lines.
"I think his production has been there. I think he's been a big part of why our power play is so successful this year. I think he brings tremendous leadership qualities. He's someone that can do a lot offensively. We've also seen him play some penalty kill."
The Senators parted with forward Kyle Turris, goaltender Andrew Hammond, prospect Shane Bowers, a conditional first-round pick in 2018, and a 2019 third-rounder to bring Duchene to Ottawa in a three-team trade Nov. 5, 2017.
But as Dorion indicates, while Duchene owns an impressive stat line since joining the Senators - he posted 49 points in the 68 games that followed the deal, and has 11 points across 10 games this season - it hasn't always translated to the win column. At the time of the trade, Ottawa owned a 6-3-5 record and went 22-40-6 the rest of the way.
Most troubling to pundits was the inclusion of the Senators' first-round pick. Ottawa retained the option to defer the pick to 2019 if the team had a top 10 selection, and the Senators decided to do so in order to draft agitating forward Brady Tkachuk fourth overall. The risk is that some draft-lottery misfortune and another poor finish - the Senators wound up 30th overall last year - could cause the franchise to lose out on budding superstar Jack Hughes come June.
But in the here and now, with the Senators at .500 this season, Dorion seems satisfied with last year's megadeal.
"We're really finding out that Matt Duchene is really a complete player, and as a human being, I can't say enough great things about him," Dorion added.
Duchene, 27, can become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
