Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – What Is Anyone Going to Do? episode on the Ottawa Senators, Evgenii Dadonov, Vegas Golden Knights situation.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “Let’s get to a couple of other issues around the NHL this weekend. The fallout from the Shane Pinto situation with the Ottawa Senators. We do you have some emails, voicemails coming up. We’ll cover a little bit more in detail some of the questions around shame Pinto but what is the latest in Ottawa now, because the Dadonov situation has entered the chat?
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Friedman: “Yeah, so, I have to say this, there is something that’s going to happen here and I don’t know what it is. Apparently, and to be honest, I haven’t seen it, someone told me about it, I haven’t seen it. But someone told me that there was something flying around the Internet that Ottawa was gonna get penalized a first-round pick.
So for people who don’t remember, at the 2022 deadline, the Vegas Golden Knights tried to trade Evgenii Dadonov to Anaheim, and Dadonov and his agent argued that he had Anaheim on his no-trade and they couldn’t trade him there.
And Vegas said there’s no, no-trade. We can do whatever we want. And it turned out that when he was traded from Ottawa to the Golden Knights, Vegas asked. ‘Is there any no-trade list that we have to be aware of?’ And they were told no, there’s no, no-trade list.
And the agent fought it and said ‘Yes, there is.’ And it turned out that the agent, Rick Komarow, he was right. That he had proof that he had sent in his list of teams and that a mistake was made when he was traded from the Senators to the Golden Knights.
Well, so you know, they didn’t ended up trading him to Anaheim, and Dadonov played really well after the deadline for them actually. Before he ended up getting traded later to Montreal.
But the Golden Knights and I blame you for this Marek. This is your fault.
Marek: “Me?”
Friedman: “Yes. I have been told that this is your fault. Because you…”
Marek: “How is this is my fault?”
Friedman: “I’m going to explain just so you know. I’m gonna explain it because you’re the one who always goes on this podcast and calls them ruthless.”
Marek: “And that’s a compliment, by the way. I think, I think of that as a compliment. By
the way.
Friedman: “I don’t know. I’m the one who accuses them of tampering with exercise bikes. You’re the one calls the ruthless.
Anyway, Vegas was, was upset about this and you know at the time I think we got it right. Which is rare, but I think we got it right. Said that it was a mistake on Ottawa’s part and this one was not on the Golden Knights.
But the Golden Knights were, you know, very, they wanted it made very clear that this one was not their fault, because of some of the challenging and difficult decisions that they’ve made, in the past, which teams do have to make, they kind of had this reputation and it bothered them. And they said, you know what, we feel that we make difficult decisions but we also do good things by our players. And you know, there’s a group of them that are pretty happy there. They won the Stanley Cup there.
Whatever the case is, Vegas pushed it, you know, they said we want it made very clear that this one was not on us. And at some point this week, I believe there’s going to come out a ruling on this that is going to exonerate Vegas and have some kind of penalty on the Senators.
aWhy is the Evgenii Dadonov Failed Trade from 2022 Coming Up Now?
And I will say this, I’ve had multiple people tell me that this is all going to happen. And I had some people say to me, they’re surprised it hasn’t happened already. And I personally wondered if, if this was going to happen, it should happen right away at the same time as Pinto because why don’t you just rip off the band-aid. You know, if you’re gonna get whatever, just do it all at the same time. Rip off the band-aid.
But I’ll be honest with you, Jeff, I have no idea what this penalty is going to be. No one will tell me. I don’t know if it’s a draft pick. I don’t know that it’s a fine. I don’t know what it is. But the one thing I am sure of is, there something that is going to be announced and it’s going to be made very clear that Vegas was not responsible for what happened.
Marek: “My gut tells me, and I may be way off and this is what the internet was made for, telling people like me that I was way off. Yeah, my thought on this one is whatever comes out, punishment-wise, will be light. And you know why I say that? Because of Josh Harris and David Blitzer. When they bought the New Jersey Devils there was the Ilya Kovalchuk cap circumvention penalties still in place.”
Friedman: “Yes. I agree with this.”
Marek: “The New Jersey Devils and when they bought the team, the first-round pick did not need to be forfeited. The $3 million fine, I believe was knocked in half. I could be wrong on that. And I think what did remain though, is they had to forfeit a third. So went from a first, a third and $3 million dollars, I think to $1.5 million and the third round.
That’s because there was new ownership much like there is now in Ottawa. That’s why if I’m guessing, and isn’t that fun to do here on a Monday morning podcast, if I’m guessing what type of punishment it’s going to be, my instinct says it’ll be like because of new ownership.”
Friedman: “Well, look, man, first of all, there’s this thing called the internet that you can check these things. And number one, yes, the fine was dropped to a million and a half. And secondly, they were given the 30th pick in the draft and also not eligible for the lottery if they didn’t make the playoffs. They were also told they couldn’t make the trade.
So yes, you are right. And I tend to agree with you. The thing I look at for this is, this is a new owner that the league is very happy to have moving from a minority partner in Montreal, to a majority owner in Ottawa.
I don’t get the idea of giving up a first-round pick. Like to me, that’s, I mean, I…”
Marek: “that’s harsh.”
Friedman: “Could it be true? Yeah, but to me, I wouldn’t be shocked if that happened. Because it didn’t happen to this owner. Like he was not in charge of the team at the time.
And so yeah, like, I look at it as, do you want to make it clear that this is what happened? Yes. Do you want to put guardrails in place that this shouldn’t happen again? Yes. A huge penalty to a new owner of the team. Jeff, I am with you 100%. I don’t agree with that. But you know, I don’t blame Vegas one bit for saying we want to clear that this one was not on us.
Marek: “I get that. I get that.”
