Ottawa Senators Add Coburn, Paquette, 2022 2nd From Tampa Bay Lightning

Deal sends Marian Gaborik and Anders Nilsson the other way.

Continuing a busy 24 hours, after acquiring Derek Stepan and signing Tim Stuetzle, Pierre Dorion completed another major trade, seemingly out of nowhere.

The Ottawa Senators announced, tonight, that they have acquired defenceman Braydon Coburn, forward Cedric Paquette, and a second-round pick in 2022 from the Tampa Bay Lightning, in exchange for Marian Gaborik, and Anders Nilsson.

A veteran of 964 NHL games, and a newly-minted Stanley Cup champion, the 35 year-old Coburn is a big, physical defenceman, who will add some depth to the Senators’ blue line. He has 49 goals and 183 assists to his name, to go with 706 penalty minutes.

Paquette, 27, is a bottom six, penalty kill specialist that can play both centre and the wing. Through 377 career appearances, he has logged 47 goals and 38 assists for 85 points.

Both players will see their contracts expire at the end of this season.

The Senators also receive a 2022 second-round pick in the deal, recouping an asset that they shipped to the Arizona Coyotes for Stepan, less than 24 hours ago.

Both Gaborik and Nilsson are players who will find themselves on long-term injured reserve, so this is essentially the Stanley Cup champs dumping salary, and adding more players to their LTIR, in order to become cap compliant. The Lighting will go from $20M over the cap, to being cap compliant when this takes effect.

Where Coburn and Paquette will slot in the Ottawa lineup seems likely to be in rotational roles. As has previously been stated here, and elsewhere, there will almost certainly be an increased amount of man games lost this year, due to a compacted season and the circulation of COVID-19. The two Stanley Cup champs add depth to a lineup that will likely see a steady rotation of players.

By the looks of things, currently, it seems that the Senators will look to use veteran players for their taxi squad, and allow the younger prospects to continue to develop in Belleville.

Training camp is set to get underway on December 31st, with the season beginning January 15th, at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs.


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