How do the Senators prevent this from being a complete calamity?

In the 16 months, or so, since they wound up a single goal shy of reaching the Stanley Cup Final, the Ottawa Senators will enter the NHL season as a small business-operating, hockey-playing punchline.

And they deserve that distinction.

Months of shortsighted ineptitude recently reached its crescendo when the club botched a skit, er, interview, between loathed owner Eugene Melnyk and a momentarily-held-hostage Mark Borowiecki, which it used to set the table for the trade that sent the best player in franchise history packing for six assets — none of which really carry the promise of making a major difference for the organization down the line.

A few months before the Chris Kunitz goal that sent the franchise on an epic downward spiral, Pierre Dorion told us in an interview that Karlsson was the most important player to his team in the entire NHL.

Within 10 months of having that conversation, it was decided internally that Karlsson needed to be dealt. And after waiting and wasting much of his value in the months after that, Karlsson was finally moved on the eve of training camp, signalling the point of no return for the Senators as a franchise.

Time to rebuild.

Of course, the Senators were right to arrive at this determination. Their biggest mistake is they didn’t reach it soon enough.

Due to a distorted look within at the start of last season, the Senators are preparing to enter a full scorched-earth retooling with one more trivial season of Matt Duchene instead of the first-round pick that would have at minimum soothed the pain of a lost season.

While those on Hockey Twitter won’t soon let the Senators live down the fact that they won’t have a first-round pick in a season in which they’re choosing to be terrible, what’s done is done.

And while the season promises to be a miserable trudge through the mud, it doesn’t have to be a failure like the Karlsson trade was, or like Melnyk’s sitdown with Borowiecki was, or like the decision to trade for Matt Duchene was.

There is a way out of this wreckage, however laborious.

When entering the fetal position as a franchise there are two elements of utmost importance. Rebuilding teams must be completely committed to the cause, meaning, “let’s try and sell a few playoff tickets while we’re at it” is never part of the equation. You must draft well, too.

Working backwards, for the most part — and for a moment disregarding the fact that they could be handing over a prospect like Jack Hughes, the type that could completely change the outlook of a franchise — the Senators have accomplished the latter reasonably well. With Brady Tkachuk, Logan Brown, Filip Chlapik, Alex Formenton and Drake Batherson on the come-up, and Thomas Chabot and Colin White already at the NHL level, the Senators have a pretty solid foundation to build upon.

Still, that group will only take the Senators so far. So the process of resetting the roster needs to include the acquisition of more futures.

For that, they should look no further than Matt Duchene and Mark Stone.

The two unrestricted free agents represent Dorion’s last chances to accomplish what he hadn’t with the Karlsson deal: trade back into the first round this summer.

Duchene and Stone still should have plenty of quality years ahead of them, and for that reason could see the other side of a rebuild. But it’s hard to envision either resisting the lure of the open market — especially Stone, who the Senators can’t even table terms to until Jan. 1.

Stone seems like the most likely candidate to fetch the first-round pick Dorion must secure this season, despite all Duchene has accomplished at just one year older.

There’s also the case of Bobby Ryan, who might catch some indirect blame for the lousy return on Karlsson, as it’s believed that the Senators were trying to jettison his contract in a deal involving the captain. With four years and $29 million remaining on his contract, scrubbing Ryan from the payroll could be a useful bit of business, though not imperative. If nothing else, he will wind up contributing to the Senators by helping them reach the salary floor at a time where few players will be earning to their potential.

Lastly, there’s still an incentive for the Senators to win. Avoiding a last-place finish, and therefore contesting the Colorado Avalanche’s lay-up to a lottery pick, would certainly help from a public relations perspective and with a fan base teetering on the edge of explosion.

But also from a development perspective and for the sake of a coaching staff with its work absolutely cut out for it, it would mean that the likes of Chabot, White, Tkachuk, Cody Ceci, Ryan Dzingel and so on will have taken strides individually.

Internal growth couldn’t possibly offset the losses the Senators have endured and will continue to endure over the course of the season as they continue to strip away the excess.

But for the coaching staff, management and ownership, it’s the first step in reestablishing order with the Senators franchise.

That and getting back into the first round of the draft.

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