Before the clock struck three: Part 2

Screen times spike annually on trade deadline day for fans and general managers alike, as fans refresh their feeds desperately hoping their team has swung a deal that could change the course of their franchise, while general managers fire trade proposals back and forth as they race against the clock.

For years, the day has stood as one of the most exciting days on the hockey calendar. Whether your team is looking for a depth add to push their playoff hopes over the top, taking a big swing that could help bring home a Stanley Cup, or is looking to cut bait on some unrestricted free agents and pick up some futures in return, the deadline offers hope for everyone.

The Senators have made 40 deals on deadline day in franchise history and have stood pat just five times. Here’s a look back at the most notable of those days, from the 2014 deadline up until the 2025 deadline. Part 1, revisiting deadlines from 2001 to 2013, was released Wednesday.

March 5, 2014: Senators acquire Ales Hemsky, 12 hours too late

The morning after Ales Hemsky scored twice for Edmonton in a 3-2 win over Ottawa, the Senators decided their birds-eye view of what Hemsky could provide down the stretch for their team was worth more than a couple of draft picks, recency bias or not.

The Senators couldn’t afford to take a big swing at 2014’s deadline — they had only 65 points after 62 games. But for the small price of a third-round pick in 2015 and a fifth rounder in 2014, the Senators pulled the trigger on what they hoped would be an impactful move, picking up winger Ales Hemsky from Edmonton. 

“Jason Spezza has finally found his long lost scoring right winger,” wrote the Ottawa Citizen’s Ken Warren. “Or at least the Ottawa Senators hope so.”

Hemsky was actually quite good on Spezza’s wing and held up to his end of the bargain in the final 20 games for the Sens. He scored four goals and racked up 17 points in total, including back-to-back three-assist games in his second and third games with Ottawa.

But the Senators would miss the playoffs by five points, in large part due to a six-game losing streak immediately following those games. Hemsky’s 17 points post-deadline still stands as the 12th most in the remainder of a season by players traded on deadline day in league history

February 29, 2016: Senators send Shane Prince to Islanders

A second-round draft pick by the Senators in 2011, Shane Prince was a frequent healthy scratch in 2015–16 and never reached the potential with Ottawa that he flashed in the AHL in the three seasons prior. 

Prince was traded to his home state New York Islanders at the age of 23 alongside a seventh-rounder in exchange for a third-round draft pick that became Brandon Gignac. He ended up having a productive playoffs on Long Island that year, scoring three goals in 11 games, but only played 64 more NHL games after the bowed out in the second round to Tampa Bay.

The Prince trade was a minor, but tidy piece of asset management by general manager Bryan Murray, who had made his bigger swing earlier in the month when he collaborated on a nine-player blockbuster with Toronto that sent Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf to Ottawa and Milan Michalek, Jared Cowen, and Colin Greening to Toronto.

“Phaneuf has instantly stabilized the Senators defence corps to the point that the only regret to this point is that it wasn’t done earlier,” wrote the Citizen’s Wayne Scanlan on deadline day.

While the Senators fell 11 points shy of the playoffs in 2016, the Phaneuf deal would prove helpful stage for their playoff run in 2016–17. Named an alternate captain before the season began, he scored nine goals in the regular season and an overtime winner in Game 2 of their first-round series win over Boston.

March 1, 2017: Senators send Lazar and Kostka to Calgary

In the same week the Senators sent prospect Jonathan Dahlen to Vancouver in exchange for Alex Burrows and a third-rounder to Carolina in exchange for Viktor Stalberg, they also moved Curtis Lazar and Mike Kostka to Calgary for Jyrki Jokipakka and a second-round pick.

Jokkipakka would play just three games that year — and none in the playoffs — but Burrows would become an integral part of their run to the conference finals. He scored six goals and five assists in the regular season and added five assists in the playoffs. Stalberg would record four points in the regular season and two in the playoffs.

“We had to do something like this," said Senators general manager Pierre Dorion after the Burrows trade. "We just felt it was time to add another piece, and in Alex Burrows, I can tell you, we're ecstatic to have added that piece."

Burrows, who had to agree to waive his no-trade clause to come to Ottawa, signed a two-year, five-million dollar extension with the Sens, but would be bought out before the second year of his extension kicked in.

February 26, 2018: Senators send Ian Cole to Columbus for third-rounder

Three days after shipping hometown centre Derick Brassard to Pittsbugh as part of a complex three-team trade, the Senators completed their business at the deadline by sending newly-acquired defenceman Ian Cole to Columbus.

In return for Brassard, AHLer Vincent Dunn, and a third-rounder, the Senators acquired a first-round pick in 2018, a third-round pick in 2019, goaltending prospect Filip Gustavsson, and Cole. Cole was flipped to the Blue Jackets in exchange for a third-rounder in 2020 and AHLer Nick Moutrey.

The first-rounder, who later became K’Andre Miller, was traded that summer in exchange for the right to draft Jacob Bernard-Docker in the first round and Jonny Tychonick in the second. Gustavsson played 27 games for the Senators before being traded to Minnesota in exchange for Cam Talbot.

The deals followed a busy February for Dorion, who traded Phaneuf and Nate Thompson to Los Angeles on the 13th in exchange for Marian Gaborik and Nick Shore (who was then sold to Calgary at the deadline for a seventh-rounder).

February 25, 2019: Senators say goodbye to Mark Stone

It’s tough to trade your 26-year-old two-way superstar who has racked up five straight 20-goal seasons. That was the situation that Dorion found himself in at the 2019 trade deadline, as the team had failed to sign Stone, a pending unrestricted free agent, to a contract extension.

Stone was reunited with his general manager from the Brandon Wheat Kings, Kelly McCrimmon, as the Senators packaged him with Tobias Lindberg and sent him to Vegas in return for Oscar Lindberg, defence prospect Erik Brannstrom, and a second-round pick in 2020 that became Egor Sokolov.

Brannstrom played 266 games over parts of six seasons in Ottawa, scoring seven goals and adding 62 assists. He signed with Colorado as a free agent in the summer of 2024 and was later traded to Vancouver. Sokolov played 15 NHL games before being traded to Utah for Jan Jenik.

February 24, 2020: Pageau to New York, Namestnikov to Colorado, Ennis to Edmonton

Holding a bleak 15-45-4 record after 64 games in 2019–20, there wasn’t room for much deliberation on the Senators’ course at the deadline. They began their sale on Feb. 18, sending dependable defenceman Dylan DeMelo to Winnipeg for a third-round pick that became Leevi Merilainen.

On deadline day, they sent Tyler Ennis to Edmonton for a 2021 fifth-round pick that was flipped in the fall for Erik Gudbranson; sent Vladislav Namestnikov to Colorado for a 2021 fourth-rounder that was flipped in the fall for Austin Watson; and acquired a first, second, and conditional third-rounder in exchange for fan favourite centre Jean Gabriel-Pageau.

The first-round pick became Ridly Greig, while the second-rounder became Roni Hirvonen, who was sent to Edmonton in the summer of 2024 for Xavier Bourgault. 

“Things have been bleak in Canada's national capital for some time, but things are looking up,” wrote Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press after the deadline. 

“Getting a conditional first-round pick from the Islanders — it transfers as long as it's not in the top three — gives Ottawa nine in the first three rounds of the draft. The Senators are stockpiling picks and young talent now.”

March 7, 2025: Senators acquire Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund

Some steady work on the phones by Steve Staios at last year’s deadline led to the acquisition of two players that would help break a nine-year playoff drought.

First, the Senators sent Josh Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker to Buffalo in exchange for Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert, and a 2026 second-rounder. “We're really excited about the upside,” said Staios of Cozens at the time. “And also within our environment there is potential growth as well.”

Cozens racked up five goals and 16 points with Ottawa after the deadline, and another two points in the playoffs. He is signed through 2030. 

At the last minute — quite literally — the Senators also acquired Fabian Zetterlund, Tristen Robins, and a fourth-rounder from the Sharks in exchange for Noah Gregor, Zach Ostapchuk, and a second-rounder.

"He's hard on pucks. He can really shoot it as well,” said Staios about Zetterlund. “He's got a good motor on him, extremely fit, high-character, low-maintenance player. And at a really good age to come into our group. We could use another shooter up front.”

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