<\/p>\n
This morning the Senators rid themselves of one prominent off-ice distraction shipping Mike Hoffman, Cody Donaghey and a 2020 fifth round pick to the San Jose Sharks for Mikkel Boedker, Julius Bergman and a 2020 sixth round pick.<\/p>\n
Sharks general manager Doug Wilson then flipped Hoffman to the Florida Panthers for a second, fourth and fifth round pick in this weekend’s NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
It’s an incredibly underwhelming return for a front-line player.<\/p>\n
Obviously the publicity and coverage generated by the harassment allegations levied against Hoffman’s fiancee by Melinda Karlsson sunk his trade value and gave general manager Pierre Dorion a ready-made excuse for failing to maximize a return for the team’s best goal-scorer.<\/p>\n
In saying that however, the circumstances do not preclude the Senators from criticism.<\/p>\n
Rather than accept a similar package to what the Panthers offered the Sharks for Hoffman, the organization elected to bring in NHL-ready talent than stockpile prospects and draft picks that they could either use and develop themselves or move in a separate transaction.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Senators willingly moved the best player and the higher pick in their trade with San Jose to acquire a third line winger.<\/p>\n
Boedker turns 29 years old next December and his best years are behind him. He was once a promising young winger who put up intriguing points-per-60 rates and relative possession numbers\u00a0in Phoenix around the same time that the Senators acquired Kyle Turris back in 2011, but that was seven years ago.<\/p>\n
Since he’s matured and moved up in the lineup however, the scoring rates and possession numbers dropped as he began to face more difficult competition.<\/p>\n
Boedker has never scored 20 goals and only twice has he registered 40 or more points in a season. With two seasons remaining on the four-year contract that he signed on July 1, 2016 that\u00a0 $3.0 million in real dollars while carrying an average annual value is $4.0 million, Boedker just becomes another name on the laundry list of moderately priced bottom-six forwards that the Senators have brought in over the last few seasons.<\/p>\n
The frustrating element here is that the Senators had less interest in acquiring prospects and draft picks than they did in acquiring players who could play now.<\/p>\n
\nTallon said the #Sens<\/a> wanted players, #SJSharks<\/a> just wanted picks.<\/p>\n
— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) June 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n