Why the Senators Are Always One Trade Away from Regret

Watching Mark Stone dominate last night for the Vegas Golden Knights against the Toronto Maple Leafs doesn’t just sting if you are an Ottawa Senators fan; it shows the team’s folly over the seasons. The Senators don’t just lose games. They lose endgames.

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The Senators Keep Making Bad Trade Decisions

Every few years, Ottawa reaches a crossroads and makes a choice. And more often than not, the choice is to step back rather than lean in. The result is a franchise that constantly feels like it’s resetting the board just as the pieces start to matter.

The team’s moves over the history of their franchise fit that pattern. Sometimes they’re not bad trades in isolation, but they still remain signal that this team almost always drifts closer to a rebuild than a push. And once you admit that, everything else comes into focus.

Over the Senators History, They’ve Moved Some Great Talent

History matters here. Ottawa has consistently struggled to keep elite players in-house. Zdeno Chara walked. Mika Zibanejad was traded. Stone moves on. Erik Karlsson left. Goaltenders blossom somewhere else. It’s not just asset management—it’s reputation. Players don’t see Ottawa as a place where contention stabilizes. They see it as a stopover.

That has real trade implications.

If you’re Boston, Toronto, or any contender poking around Ottawa’s roster, you’re not just asking “Is this player good?” You’re asking, “Is Ottawa ready to hold the line—or will they fold early again?”

The Senators’ leverage is always shaped by that perception. Teams know Ottawa doesn’t like noise. They know patience gets thin. And they know there’s often a breaking point at which futures start to look safer than current risk.

The Risk Is That the Senators Move Players Before the Future Is Defined

That’s the danger now. The danger isn’t that Ottawa trades players—it’s that they do it before the window is clearly defined. The rebuild that supposedly started in 2017 still feels unfinished. The result is a franchise stuck between timelines, never fully committing either way.

Until Ottawa proves it can keep stars instead of exporting them, trade talk will never stop. And every time Mark Stone (or another former Senators player) performs well, fans will feel less like these moves are less than coincidences and more like warnings.

Related: Nazem Kadri Isn’t the Problem, But He’s On the Clock