Time to dust off those Burakovsky jerseys, Sens fans.
Just over three months after Jorian Donovan suited up for the Senators and became one half of the franchise's first father-son duo to play for the team, the organization set the table for another such milestone.
On Friday afternoon, president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios made his fourth trade of draft week, sending a sixth-round draft pick in 2027 to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for André Burakovsky.
The Swedish winger’s father, Robert, played over 20 seasons of professional hockey in Europe, but came overseas to North America for the 1993–94 season. Robert made his NHL debut with the Ottawa Senators on October 6, 1993, becoming the first Swedish player to play for the team.
He split that season — the franchise’s second — between the parent club and their farm team, the Prince Edward Island Senators. Burakovsky led the AHL club with 67 points and added two goals and three assists in 23 games in the NHL.
The very next year, Burakovsky returned to Europe, specifically, Austria, the third of eight countries that his hockey journey sent him to — which was still kicking, in the fifth-division in Sweden as recently as 2022.
The season he spent with Klagenfurter AC in Austria was another meaningful year in Burakovsky’s life, though. There, he and wife Pernilla welcomed Andre to the family. Andre grew up back home in Malmö, and came to North America after being drafted 23rd overall in the 2013 Entry Draft by Washington.
Burakovsky played one season with the OHL’s Erie Otters alongside a stacked team that included Connor McDavid, OHL MVP and former Senators forward Connor Brown, Adam Pelech, Dylan Strome, and Darren Raddysh.
That season in Erie also saw current Senators forwards Hayden Hodgson traded to Sarnia, and Kurtis MacDermid acquired from Owen Sound within a span of a few days in the middle of the year.
Burakovsky broke in with the Capitals the next season, and by 2018, he had won a Stanley Cup. In 2019, he was sent to Colorado, with whom he’d win a second in 2022. That season also saw him set a career-high in goals (22) and points (61).
That July, he signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Seattle Kraken in free agency. After spending three seasons with the Kraken, he was then traded to Chicago ahead of last year’s draft, and to Ottawa just hours before this year’s.
