Quoting: F50marco
My goodness, don't mistake drafting well with being a good GM. He's made more booboo's than woohoo's.
Ever since the teams last conference final appearance, its been an absolute dumpster fire. This team has lots of promise now because of good drafting and being a terrible team 4 years straight but by no means should Dorion be hailed a genius either.
Idk if you look at his trade history, most of his major screw ups all had some outside circumstances that probably prevented him from making the best deal possible.
Zibanejad deal was bad, and probably his worst trade to date. That said, Melnyk made that deal worse by axing a deal on the draft floor, insisting that Brassard's bonus money be paid by New York. Plus they got some value back, but definitely not enough considering the player ZBad became.
Next you have a few minor deals, acquiring Wingels, Condon, Stalberg and Burrows who were all important parts of that 2017 run, and you didn't give up anything meaningful. Also getting a 2nd for Lazar which was good.
The Duchene trade was not very good, but they did a pretty good job of returning some value back in the end, and ultimately that deal was sparked about cost certainty and not wanting to pay Turris. Again money.
Getting out from Phaneuf's deal was lowkey amazing. Gave up nothing, and got out from a terrible deal that he had nothing to do with bringing in.
The Hoffman deal was brutal, but they were always going to do terribly in that situation.
Karlsson deal is straight up fantastic.
Nilsson deal is a win, Duchene trade was good, Dzingel trade was great.
The Stone deal I don't think they got enough back for, but they got Erik Brannstrom which is still a huge piece and will be for the next decade it looks like.
I didn't love the Zaitsev deal, but getting Connor Brown makes it a win for me.
Arty for Smith was a big W for Ottawa.
Then there's the Namestnikov trades which were basically a wash, then he more or less killed it at the Deadline. Would have preferred to keep DeMelo, but it's not really a big deal.