Former Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion has a new job. He’ll be talkin’ hockey with BPMSports.ca this season and be a regular contributor to the “Retour des Sportifs” radio show.
The hosts at BPM, which can be heard in Gatineau on 96.5, officially welcomed him to their team last week and then enjoyed a discussion about how an NHL general manager handles training camps every fall.
Dorion’s eight-year run as general manager of the Senators ended last November when he and owner Michael Andlauer mutually agreed to part ways. This was right after Andlauer found out the league was making the Senators forfeit a first-round draft pick due to their involvement in a voided trade between the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks.
Andlauer was not happy, wondering why something that happened two years before he took over was his problem. Heads would roll. Mutually, of course. Steve Staios, already the Senators’ president of hockey operations, replaced Dorion as interim general manager.
Dorion had held the GM role since 2016 when Bryan Murray announced he’d be stepping down and that Dorion would succeed him.
The Sens went to the 2017 Eastern Conference Final in Dorion’s first season, but within a year and a half, everything turned sour, on and off the ice. So Dorion and owner Eugene Melnyk began a rebuild attempt. It wasn’t the sturdiest construction. Corners were cut everywhere, which was the hallmark of Melnyk’s time as owner.
Still, it brought in some excellent parts.
Fast forward to today; it was good to hear about last week’s new role for Dorion and see him get to stay connected to the game he loves. No matter what you thought of his body of work, it’s hard to imagine any manager could have truly thrived professionally under those kinds of working conditions.
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