Quoting: F50marco
I meant that ever since the Duchene trade in which the Sens gave up a lot of assets for a player that believe wasn't worth that return and only a small upgrade over Turris, things started to go down hill. I feel the Sens players semi checked out after that. But that's just a observation.
From a Sens standpoint, the deal could still be worth it.
Turris is almost 29 y/o and was an UFA-to-be. The Sens didn't want to commit big money and term to him (and rightfully so IMO, while he is a good player. It might have taken more than 6x6 in Ottawa since the taxes are much heavier than in Nashville). So they used him to get a significant upgrade over him. On top of that, they gave some assets but not necessarily as much as it is made out to be.
- Shane Bowers : 28th OA pick in 2017, could be an excellent 3rd line center and with Duchene, Brown, Pageau, White, Chlapik and Batherson, the Sens could easily afford to use him as a trade asset. He was maybe the 8th-9th best Sens prospect at that time. Now he would be around 11th-12th I'd say.
- Andrew Hammond : 30 y/o goalie who was going to become UFA but had the remainder of the season left at a yearly $1,500,000 salary. The Sens didn't want to use him in the NHL anymore and we know that saving money is always important for them. He was a pure cap dump for Ottawa, they have tried to get rid of him for a while.
- 2018 3rd round pick : it was partly (or entirely, impossible to say) to compensate Colorado for taking Hammond, which unfortunately happened in many other trades as well (give a pick to save money)
- 2018 1st round pick : which became the 2019 1st round pick since it was top-10 protected and the Sens surprisingly had a really bad season after coming so close to reach the Stanley Cup finals. Now it remains to be seen where that pick will end up but Dorion just reiterated that they want to be competitive this upcoming season, and it's logical since they don't have their own 1st round pick. If it wasn't the case, they might have just gone with a quick rebuild.
So, the price paid pretty much depends on where that 1st pick will be next draft. If it ends outside of the top-10, then I can easily live with that and be glad that Duchene is part of the core going forward. Believe me, he is not a small upgrade on Turris who is and should be a 2nd line center. Duchene is also 2 years younger. He just have higher end skill and much better strength, quickness and skating.
Now it's true that the team struggled after the Duchene trade. They actually won their first 2 games with Duchene and had a good season start (after 16 games they were on a 107 pts pace over a full season) but when they came back from Sweden, everything fell apart but you can't say it was because of Duchene. Goaltending and coaching were awful for the rest of the year, injuries hurt and the locker room was apparently broken (which is partly due to the war between the Karlssons and the Hoffmans). I have heard from some credible sources too that many players didn't like to play for Boucher too.