Ottawa Senators Sterling Predictions Revisited, Part 2: Trades

Yesterday we revisited part one of our “Sterling Predictions” that were made back in October, which focused on who was going to lead the Ottawa Senators in scoring. Today we have part two, which asked about trades in the 2021-22 season. Predicting trades is always difficult to do, but the Silver Seven staff tried their best to see into the future:

Who will be the first player traded? Are the Sens buyers or sellers at the deadline?

In reality, the first answer was Nick Paul, as there were other deals that brought in Dylan Gambrell and Travis Hamonic, but neither of those included an NHLer being shipped out of town. Paul was of course dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Mathieu Joseph and a 4th round pick in a deal that seems to be working out for both teams. As for the second part of the question, they were more sellers than buyers, although not by much. They sent out Paul, Josh Brown, and Zach Sanford, but they also got Joseph who was NHL-ready, plus they sent a 3rd round pick to Vancouver for Travis Hamonic. So it was a mix of both, with a clear focus on being competitive for next season.

As for what our nine writers said, none of us predicted Paul to get traded, although Shaan and Ross were correct in saying that Sanford and Brown, respectively, would be gone. By far the most correct answer comes from Ary as he said both Sanford and Brown would get traded and that they do a bit of buying and selling. He didn’t include Paul leaving Ottawa, but he did predict that they would trade for a veteran—he just had the position wrong (centre). Considering how many potential moves they could have made, that’s quite the impressive prediction.

Everyone else had similar sentiments about a mix of buying and selling, so I guess there’s that to feel smart about. Other players mentioned include Chris Tierney, Anton Forsberg, Nick Holden, Tyler Ennis, Erik Brännström, and a bonus Nikita Zaitsev trade prediction for the off-season from nkb. Funnily enough, none of those players were traded, although Tierney won’t be coming back, Ennis is most likely gone, and Zaitsev could be traded or bought out as well. So the predictions for those players weren’t correct at all, but they definitely made sense at the time.

If you think you commented on the article back in the fall, I encourage you to check out your prediction as well because it’s always fun to see how close or far you were to reality. Stay tuned for part three of this series!