The Ottawa Senators acquired defenseman Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a conditional 2023 first-round draft pick, a conditional second-round pick in 2024 (previously acquired by the Washington Capitals) and a 2026 second-round pick, the teams announced. Here’s what you need to know:
- Chychrun has remained out of the lineup since Feb. 10 while the Coyotes worked on a trade.
- Chychrun was the No. 16 pick of the Coyotes during the 2016 NHL Draft. He’s playing in his seventh season with Arizona.
- Through 36 games played this season, Chychrun has seven goals and 21 assists.
Conditions: The ’23 1st-round pick is top-5 protected. If met, pick becomes ’24 1st-round unprotected. Additionally, should #Sens reach ’23 ECF, the 2nd-round pick becomes ’24 1st-round top 10-protected. If that condition is met, the pick becomes ’25 1st-round unprotected. 2/2
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 1, 2023
Scouting report
As a player, Chychrun’s primary asset is a hard heavy shot from the point. Two years ago, he led NHL defensemen in goal-scoring with 18 in the 56-game COVID-19-shortened season. Last year, his numbers fell way off, as ankle and wrist injuries limited him to 21 points in 47 games. He falls into the broad category of “offensive defenseman” because he can rack up the points, though he isn’t necessarily a gifted puck distributor, which may limit his usage and/or effectiveness as the quarterback of a team’s first power-play unit.
On the plus side, in an era where the NHL trend is toward lighter, quicker, more mobile defensemen, Chychrun is simply a big, strong, physical presence. At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, he won’t get pushed off too many pucks or otherwise outmuscled in close quarters on the boards or in front of the net. And while he is considered an above-average skater for a player his size, Chychrun’s decision-making is sometimes questioned. Doubts about his hockey sense were the reason he fell so precipitously in his draft year.
Apart from the acquisition cost, the main reason Chychrun lingered so long on the trade market was concerns about his health. This past offseason, he had two surgeries: one to remove a bone spur from his ankle; a second to correct a lingering wrist problem that caused him to miss the final month of last season. It meant Chychrun missed the first 13 games of the season and didn’t make his season debut until a Nov. 21 date with Nashville. — Duhatschek
Evaluating the trade
Considering how long Chychrun lingered on the trade board — two full NHL trading deadline cycles and more — it is an underwhelming overall return for the Coyotes, who’d turned down overture after overture and offer after offer, hoping to drive the price up to stratospheric heights.
In the end, they had to come down off their ask, presumably concluding that it was time to close the chapter on Chychrun and move on. The Coyotes started sitting him out back on Feb. 10 — that’s a long time for him to be stuck in limbo.
But it’s worth remembering, the original impetus for the trade came from Chychrun himself.
He wanted to go to a playoff contender, and the Coyotes aren’t that — and won’t be, for quite some time. They are in a rebuild that keeps getting pushed further down the road. The hope is the franchise eventually turns a corner when it’s in a new arena, probably no earlier than 2026.
In the meantime, they are treading water and trying to maximize their best today assets for help in the future.
Chychrun was that guy. He’s 24. He can anchor the point of a power play. He is cost-controlled, at a reasonable $4.6 million for this year and two more years down the road, at which point he will become an unrestricted free agent.
For an Ottawa team that has been searching for high-end reinforcements on the blue line, he represents an immediate upgrade. And the reality is, after a disappointing start of the season, the Senators are playing better.
They may not be a playoff team this year, but with Chychrun aboard, they should be closer next year. And far closer than Arizona will be any time soon.
The Coyotes appeared to be close to dealing Chychrun to Edmonton only a few days ago, but those negotiations eventually unraveled, and the Oilers turned their attention to adding Mattias Ekholm from the Nashville Predators.
Edmonton would have represented a far more attractive short-term destination for Chychrun because — well, they do have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, which puts any team into contending status.
But in time, that Ottawa core will gradually mature, and the hierarchy in the Eastern Conference will shift.
The Coyotes, meanwhile, added to their booty of draft choices. GM Bill Armstrong told me last month that more is better on that front, simply because you can’t hit on them all — no NHL team ever does — so the more picks, the more times you should theoretically get a couple right.
All in all, today’s trade represents closure for Chychrun, a good outcome for Ottawa and — on the surface anyway — a less good result for the Coyotes, who had to settle for a ground-rule double when they thought for sure they could hit a home run with this trade. — Duhatschek
Required reading
(Photo: Matt Kartozian / USA Today)
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