Senators land big fish in Alex DeBrincat

The Ottawa Senators have the makings of an impressive forward core after landing perennial 40-goal man Alex DeBrincat in a trade with Chicago.

Video Transcript

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Another team that made a big move, overshadowed now, is the Ottawa Senators who are, you know, they're assembling a pretty decent forward group as well. Before the dock maneuvering and still actually. The biggest move of Thursday's draft day, I'll call it, was Pierre Dorian's move for Alex DeBrincat.

Three draft picks for one of the highest volume scorers since he broke into the league five years ago. A guy that's hit 40 goals twice. Should have hit it three times but, of course, we've had shortened seasons.

And Patrick Kane's been a big part of the success of Alex DeBrincat. But this is a player, I think, that stands in his own right and should find a profitable home, maybe just as profitable, with Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, what is the formation of a really, really impressive top six in Ottawa. A forward core that can compete in a really tough division.

The rebuild still may not be over, despite them declaring it over last year. But it gets a lot closer here with the addition of a pure scorer than we've seen in Ottawa in some time.

Now, there is a small caveat here because the Senators, apparently, almost threw away the opportunity to get DeBrincat, according to reports. Apparently, Ottawa almost packaged the number seven selection they used in the trade with the Chicago Blackhawks to get DeBrincat-- we'll get to the Chicago Blackhawks in a bit here-- to get rid of beleaguered netminder Matt Murray in a trade with the Buffalo Sabers.

They almost packaged that pick, I guess, to move down a couple of slots in the draft with Matt Murray to get out of his $6.25 million salary. They almost gave away the seventh overall pick, which they used as really the key lure or bait in the Alex DeBrincat deal. But what prevented that from happening was Matt Murray nixing the deal to the Buffalo Sabers. So they have Matt Murray to thank, despite his reluctance to leave, for their acquisition of Alex DeBrincat.