21 months ago, the Ottawa Senators were one overtime goal away from advancing to their second Stanley Cup Final in franchise history.
Ever since Chris Kunitz scored to eliminate the Sens, the team has undergone drastic changes to their roster with only nine players left in the organization. Factor in a brutal start to the 2017-18 season, the current roster is a shell of its former self amidst a rebuild.
Notable players to exit the Nation's Capital from the fall of 2017 through the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline include Marc Methot, Kyle Turris, Dion Phaneuf, Derick Brassard, Mike Hoffman, Erik Karlsson, Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel and Mark Stone.
To illustrate all the wheeling and dealing down by GM Pierre Dorion, Senators fan Matt Cox updated the 2016-17 team picture by adding the new jerseys of each subtraction.
That is an amazing photoshop, but awfully tough to look at if you're a Senators fan.
The combined returns of Karlsson, Duchene, Dzingel and Stone netted the club two first-round picks, two conditional first-round picks, three second-round picks, four NHLers and five prospects.
While Erik Brannstrom and some of the other prospects in the pipeline are definitely promising, the final hurdle and perhaps the toughest pill to swallow could be if the Avs manage to select Jack Hughes with the team's first-round pick they acquired in the Matt Duchene deal.
